During my week at The One Institute I made a new friend, Rob Armstrong–a financial representative from Illinois. Rob told me about a habit he practices that caught my attention. This is something his father taught him to do: Schedule a Weekly Worry Hour.

For about 4 weeks I’ve been giving this worry hour thing a try, and I think I will stick with it. We’ll see how it goes over the coming months. If you want to minimize worry in your life, you might want to give this a try. Below is an explanation of HOW I do it and WHY I do it.

HOW I Do It:

I always carry a small notepad in my pocket. I carry one that Lukas Naugle designed, but any notepad will do. This notepad triples as my to-do list, my write-down-ideas-that-pop-into-my-head-list, and my Worry Hour list.

As I move throughout my week/day, whenever I notice that a worrisome thought is getting a hold on my attention, I pull out my notepad and write down what it is I’m worrying about (I summarize the worry in one sentence). I use the back page of the notepad for this.

Once I write that worry into my notepad I make the firm decision to not worry about it again until my appointed “worry hour.”

11:30am Wednesday is my worry hour. I have this scheduled on my calendar. Each Wednesday at 11:30am I pull out my notepad, look at what’s written on that back page, and then I force myself to worry about it. By this time many of my worries from the week have lost their power. So far I haven’t practiced a full worry hour, it’s been more like 20-30 minutes of ruminating on what’s written on the list: worrying and ruminating that eventually graduates into prayer.

After I’ve “worried,” I tear out and throw away that sheet of paper, write down “Worry Hour” as the heading on the new back page of my notepad, and start moving through the rest of my day/week, writing down worries if they occur.

WHY I Do It:

Because some uptight Bible college student in the Midwest is reading this and concluding that I’m condoning worry, I must give the theological, personal, and practical reasons why I’m trying out this Worry Hour habit.

The Bible is clear: worry is sin.

My experience is clear: worry is no fun.

The pragmatics are clear: worry doesn’t help.

So, I’m committed to giving worry less of a foothold in my week. I’ve come to greatly despise worry. It’s a dark sin. It’s the fruit of unbelief. It’s evidence of not valuing and trusting my Heavenly Father. Plus, as I said above, worry is just annoying and unhelpful (note that Jesus also attacks worry at this level in the Sermon on the Mount).

So, one method among many for subtracting the amount of time I worry each week is to carve out a one-hour space in my week for worrying. For how I’m wired, this method is helpful. Knowing I have that one-hour slot in my week devoted to worry has resulted in me worrying less throughout the week. It’s a  way of proving my trust in God, to write down that worry and then move on with what it was I was doing.

It’s a bit of a paradox, but scheduling worry results in less worry.

And less worry glorifies God. Less worry is more fun. Less worry helps.

*Note: When I meet with God in the mornings to read Scripture and pray this involves taking time to cast my cares on the Lord, and those cares may overlap with some of what’s written on the back page of the notebook. But I do my best to not give mental space to worry during these morning sessions. I’ve grown to tell the difference between praying about something so that I truly cast it onto God’s shoulders and prayer that is merely a worry rehearsal that only makes worry worse.

Outside magazine tells the tragic, fascinating story of Colton Harris-Moore.

In the Northwest’s San Juan Islands, best known for killer whales and Microsoft retirees, a teen fugitive has made a mockery of local authorities, allegedly stealing cars, taking planes for joy­rides, and breaking into vacation homes. His ability to elude the police and survive in the woods has earned him folk-hero status. But some wonder if the 18-year-old will make it out of the hunt alive.

This year, we did the same thing. Today we wrote a 3 page “What Happened in 2009″ list. We then asked ourselves some questions and did some praying and dreaming for 2010. We’re finding that this new tradition gives a great sense of cohesiveness, history, and focus to our life together. In the future I imagine it will be helpful to look back at these “what happened” lists and remind ourselves of how God was at work in our lives in the past.

I got this idea from productivity guru David Allen. If you’re wanting to do something like this, below is an excerpt from Allen’s latest newsletter that can help jump start your listing and thinking. We don’t use all of Allen’s prompts and questions, and we have added questions of our own, but we’ve found that many of Allen’s prompts and questions generate great discussion in bringing closure to the old year and focus to the new year.

…here are some questions that can guide you in your 2009 review and 2010 goal setting. When I go through these kinds of questions I like to consider my answers in several areas:

Physical
Emotional
Mental
Spiritual
Financial
Family
Community Service
Fun / creativity / recreation

COMPLETING AND REMEMBERING 2009
Review the list of all completed projects
What was your biggest triumph in 2009?
What was the smartest decision you made in 2009?
What one word best sums up and describes your 2009 experience?
What was the greatest lesson you learned in 2009?
What was the most loving service you performed in 2009?
What is your biggest piece of unfinished business in 2009?
What are you most happy about completing in 2009?
Who were the three people that had the greatest impact on your life in 2009?
What was the biggest risk you took in 2009?
What was the biggest surprise in 2009?
What important relationship improved the most in 2009?
What compliment would you liked to have received in 2009?
What compliment would you liked to have given in 2009?
What else do you need to do or say to be complete with 2009?

CREATING THE NEW YEAR
What would you like to be your biggest triumph in 2010?
What advice would you like to give yourself in 2010?
What is the major effort you are planning to improve your financial results in 2010?
What would you be most happy about completing in 2010?
What major indulgence are you willing to experience in 2010?
What would you most like to change about yourself in 2010?
What are you looking forward to learning in 2010?
What do you think your biggest risk will be in 2010?
What about your work, are you most committed to changing and improving in 2010?
What is one as yet undeveloped talent you are willing to explore in 2010?
What brings you the most joy and how are you going to do or have more of that in 2010?
Who or what, other than yourself, are you most committed to loving and serving in 2010?
What one word would you like to have as your theme in 2010?

No. 17 How Gentle God’s Commands

How gentle God’s commands!
How kind His precepts are!
Come, cast thy burdens on the Lord,
And trust His constant care.

Beneath His watchful eye
His saints securely dwell;
The hand which bears creation up
Shall guard his children well.

Why should this anxious load
Press down the weary mind?
Come, seek your heavenly Father
And peace and comfort find.

His goodness stands approved,
Unchanged from day to day;
I’ll drop my burdens at His feet
And bear a song away.

1. At least once every day I shall look steadily up at the sky and
remember that I, a consciousness with a conscience, am on a planet
traveling in space with wonderfully mysterious things above and about
me.

2. Instead of the accustomed idea of a mindless and endless
evolutionary change to which we can neither add nor subtract, I shall
suppose the universe guided by an Intelligence which, as Aristotle said
of Greek drama, requires a beginning, a middle, and an end. I think
this will save me from the cynicism expressed by Bertrand Russell
before his death when he said: “There is darkness without, and when I
die there will be darkness within. There is no splendor, no vastness
anywhere, only triviality for a moment, and then nothing.”

3. I shall not fall into the falsehood that this day, or any day, is
merely another ambiguous and plodding twenty-four hours, but rather a
unique event, filled, if I so wish, with worthy potentialities. I shall
not be fool enough to suppose that trouble and pain are wholly evil
parentheses in my existence, but just as likely ladders to be climbed
toward moral and spiritual manhood.

4. I shall not turn my life into a thin, straight line which prefers
abstractions to reality. I shall know what I am doing when I abstract,
which of course I shall often have to do.

5. I shall not demean my own uniqueness by envy of others. I shall
stop boring into myself to discover what psychological or social
categories I might belong to. Mostly I shall simply forget about myself
and do my work.

6. I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply
stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be
concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are.
I shall joyfully allow them the mystery of what Lewis calls their
“divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic” existence.

7. I shall sometimes look back at the freshness of vision I had in
childhood and try, at least for a little while, to be, in the words of
Lewis Carroll, the “child of the pure unclouded brow, and dreaming eyes
of wonder.”

8. I shall follow Darwin’s advice and turn frequently to imaginative
things such as good literature and good music, preferably, as Lewis
suggests, an old book and timeless music.

9. I shall not allow the devilish onrush of this century to usurp
all my energies but will instead, as Charles Williams suggested,
“fulfill the moment as the moment.” I shall try to live well just now
because the only time that exists is now.

10. Even if I turn out to be wrong, I shall bet my life on the
assumption that this world is not idiotic, neither run by an absentee
landlord, but that today, this very day, some stroke is being added to
the cosmic canvas that in due course I shall understand with joy as a
stroke made by the architect who calls himself Alpha and Omega.

…the 52 best workout songs were
selected in an epic exploration of the foot-tapping, guitar-screaming
and beat-boxing tracks that have found a welcome home in gyms across
America. Most of them famous, some very obscure, but all great songs
for running, lifting, spinning and any other workout you can think of.

As for selection criteria one key element stood out from all the rest: tempo.
Why? According to experts it is the most important factor in enhancing
workout performance because it provides timing and coordination for
your movements. Music in the 120-140 beats-per-minute (bpm)
range is best for most aerobic exercise because it most closely matches
the average person’s heart rate.

Go here to see the list. I’m not sure about some of the songs that made the list. I’d  workout to about half of these songs.

I found helpful and interesting a few of the "12 Ways to Super-Charge Your Brain" articles from this month’s Wired magazine.

I passed my motorcycle safety class this weekend and now have my motorcycle license!

During my year and a half at Whitworth College I got to know a classmate named Lukas Naugle. Over the years Lukas and I lost touch. We reconnected at the Together for the Gospel conference in 2006 where I learned that Lukas was working as Director of Resource Strategies for Desiring God.

A few weeks ago Lukas and three friends from Desiring God/John Piper’s Bethlehem Baptist attended the 11am service at CPC where I preached a sermon about The Secret of Contentment. After the service I had  a long, laughter-filled, encouragement-filled, edification-filled lunch with Lukas and his friends. Good times. I was very impressed with these four men, with the type of questions they asked and with the quality of their thinking regarding the gospel and the church.

After lunch Lukas gave me a small handful of free resources from Desiring God and asked if I might have use for a larger volume of these resources at my church. I said yes. Little did I know that I’d receive 7 boxes from Lukas, some of them 36 lbs. in weight, filled with John Piper resources! 

After hauling these boxes into my office yesterday I opened them with great excitement, all the while praying and thinking about how to best use them to advance the gospel and disciple the people under my care. I’m looking forward to start emptying these boxes and getting these booklets, books, and CD’s into other people’s hands.

Thank you Desiring God! Thank you Lukas Naugle!

Lukas, this is the second time you’ve shown such generosity to me–several months ago you gave me your paid registration and room & board slot for The Gospel Coalition Conference. You’re too kind.

Steve Hart, thank you for The Heart of a Servant Leader: Letters from Jack Miller

Judy Berkins, thank you for After the Baby Boomers: How Twenty- and Thirty-Somethings Are Shaping the Future of American Religion

Alan Brenneis (I think this came from you?), thank you for The Explorer’s Eye

I passed my motorcycle permit test today. Step 1, completed.