The MITs, 10/23/11

Why are you here? There are pleny of other people in the world already; why did God bother to make you? That is your mission. Ecc. 12:13 says that the whole duty of man is to fear God and keep his commandments. How will this work out in life?

Law may be understood as particular rules, but ethics deals with the concepts behind the rules. Through ethics we learn what to do about things that the law doesn't mention.

In addition to ethics, though, we have to develop values, that is, the ability to rank various good things and to hold them in their proper balance. Helping someone in an emergency is more important than being on time for prayer meeting. However, values may sometimes differ from person to person: one person may value studying while another believes it to be pointless.

To understand your specific mission in life, it will be necessary to follow God's rules, learn biblical ethics, and develop mature values. Additionally, God's particular purpose for your life will emerge in response to the practice of biblical spirituality. Eph. 5:8, 10 tells us to walk as children of light, learning and doing what is acceptable to the Lord.

The MITs, 10/09/11

This class seeks to address a problem: the scarcity of time. The solution is (1) to identify the most important things in life and (2) to organize our lives so as to obtain them. As I wrote on the chalkboard on Sept. 11th, the course title is "The MITs: How to Know Them, How to Get Them."

Considering the second point first, we've pointed out that life is a big and complex project, but it is made up of individual decisions. To organize our lives, it is important to grasp (1) the power of volition and (2) the power of a "capture tool." (I.e., writing stuff down is the first step in gaining control of our responsibilities.)

Although many things can fall into the category of MITs, surely one of the most basic is "happiness." Practically every choice that we make proceeds at some level from the desire to be happy. Despite the claims of some preachers, there is no real difference between the words happy, glad, and joyful. The biblical idea of happiness, however, can be quite different from the world's idea. Happiness is a very major idea in the Bible. See here.

The MITs, 10/02/11

Things are truly important as they relate to godly obedience and/or long term results. A helpful question is "What will happen if I don't do this thing?" If the answer is "nothing," then the activity must not be important.

Q2 activity, overall, is more important than Q1 because of its long term effect on things in general and its effect on Q1 specifically. Q1 tends to shrink as Q2 gains power in your life.

Having the right priorities can be approached top->down or bottom->up.

In the top->down approach, you identify your purpose in life, then devise 5-year goals, then decide on some 1-2 year goals that will be your top priorities as you reach for those 5-year goals, then identify your roles in your family, church, career, community, and personal development, which will help you rank the importance of the 20-30 projects you're currently working on, which gives you your actions list for the day and week. *whew!*

In the bottom->up approach, you focus immediately on getting your life in order so that your mind can be free to rise to higher levels and hear God's leading *genuinely.* This is a part of walking carefully, not as those who don't know the meaning of life, but as those who do (Eph 5:15).