Martin Luther

While searching for some pithy quotes on justification in Martin Luther’s, Table Talk, I came across this little gem about productivity and righteous indignation:

I never work better than when I am inspired by anger.  When I am angry, I can write, pray, and preach well, for then my whole temperament is quickened, my understanding sharpened, and all mundane vexations and temptations depart.

I can’t say that I relate necessarily, but I am amused that things worked this way for him.

The Hard Work of Moving

A little over a week ago my wife and I packed up and moved to a new home.  If you’ve ever moved before then you know how big of a chore it is.  Boxes, furniture, trucks, tape, narrow hallways, fragile dishes, what to keep, what to get rid of, where to put things, etc.  Needless to say, moving is hard work.

Somehow after all of our stuff had been moved everything that our volunteer help (parents and in-laws) didn’t know where to put wound up in the one room that was designated to be my new office.  It was a disaster.  There were numerous stacks of boxes piled high to the ceiling.  I was left to stare at this mess of an “office” for several days.

My new home office.

There was no way around the fact that the only solution was to get in there and go through everything one box at a time.  It would be slow-going, tedious work, but work that had to be done if my office was ever going to be functional enough to get anything done in.  So after a few of days of procrastinating I got motivated and set my self to the task.

One box at a time I filtered my way through the wreckage.  I had to make a decision regarding everything.  Would I keep it?  Why?  And where would I put it?  If not, throw it away or give to charity?  Do I know anyone else who could use it?

Every gadget, every book, every accessory, every cable (there were a ton of cables!)—it all had to be be faced.  Eventually there was enough space cleared for me to place the larger pieces of furniture in the spots they needed to go.  From there it seemed liked the rest was easy.  The smaller stuff goes more quickly.

The Value of a Disciplined Mind

Today I was reminded of the hard work I did in sorting through and organizing my new office.  While preparing a paper comparing and contrasting the Protestant doctrine of imputed righteousness with the Roman Catholic teaching of infused righteousness I came across this little gem from John Piper.  In his helpful little book, Counted Righteous in Christ, he writes that,

“Raking is easy, but all you get is leaves.  Digging is hard, but you might find gold.”

His point is made as he encourages readers to do the hard work of thinking through a difficult chapter in his book.  It took me back to before I had straightened up my office.  Everything was so cluttered.  People had filled the room with all sorts of items—some helpful, some not.  I had to dig through it all and the end result was a nice home office.

I fear that too many of our minds are cluttered the way my home office was before I worked through the mess and made things right.  If we never take the time to dig through ideas, filter out the bad, and elucidate the good, then our minds will only be confused, crowded, and undecided.  No matter what it is that we’re considering, we need to do the hard work of disciplining our minds to think through stuff.

In the end, we’ll only be better off for having drawn our own conclusions.  And who knows, maybe we’ll find gold.

Summertime can be a strange thing for teenagers.  Many go from school-year schedules that require smartphones to summertime one’s that leave them checking their pulse.  Clubs, teams, meetings, appointments—these sorts of things fill their year, but oftentimes even the busiest of students are left with nothing to do once the summer arrives.  Here are some tips for how teens can get the most out of their summers.

5 +’s and 5 -’s = 10 Helpful Tips for Teenagers in the Summertime

First, the +’s.  Let’s start things off on a positive note.  Here are five things you need to strive to be with whatever summer you’ve got left.

1. Productive
   For goodness’ sake, find your lazy self something to do!
2. Mentor
   Find one for yourself.  Be one to somebody else.
3. Reader
   Find something you like and read about it.  Books, magazines, articles…whatever.  Just read.  It’s kind of like taking a shower for your brain…and trust me, you need one!
4. Holy
   Don’t waste away spiritually during the summer.  Start right away and establish a time and a place where you can read the Bible and pray every day.
5. Helpful
   Use the extra time you’ve got to do something positive.  Help out at church.  Help your neighbors with stuff.  Just help!

Now, here’s the -’s.  At all costs, resist the temptation to veg out all summer long, not doing anything but lounging around and learning how to be more comfortable with being lazy.  Instead, take my advice and steer clear from the following headings.

1. Screen Saver
   Like a computer that’s not being used, too many teenagers turn off their brains all summer long.  This is NOT GOOD!
2. Narcolepsy
   Sleep…ahhh.  We all love it, but ‘too much of a good thing is bad’ definitely rings true with teenagers, summertime, and excessive sleeping.  GET OUT OF BED!
3. Lazy
   Summertime does not mean you’re off the hook from having to do anything.  God didn’t create us to be lazy, so get off your butt and do something!
4. Selfish
   Many teenagers feel that they’ve somehow deserved the right to be lazy because they’ve made it to the summer.  Try telling that to your boss someday!
5. Fat
   When we lay around, encourage inactivity, and don’t do anything we become fat.  The same is true with our spiritual lives.  Don’t become spiritually fat over the summer.

There’s your 10 helpful tips on teenagers and summertime.  Any I forgot?  What advice would you give to young people during their summer months?

In this week’s Taste and See article, John Piper addresses the question of why he’s not had a TV in over 40 years.  Here are a few of the highlights:

I think relevance in preaching hangs very little on watching movies, and I think that much exposure to sensuality, banality, and God-absent entertainment does more to deaden our capacities for joy in Jesus than it does to make us spiritually powerful in the lives of the living dead….

I have a high tolerance for violence, high tolerance for bad language, and zero tolerance for nudity. There is a reason for these differences. The violence is make-believe. They don’t really mean those bad words. But that lady is really naked, and I am really watching. And somewhere she has a brokenhearted father…

It’s the unremitting triviality that makes television so deadly. What we desperately need is help to enlarge our capacities to be moved by the immeasurable glories of Christ. Television takes us almost constantly in the opposite direction, lowering, shrinking, and deadening our capacities for worshiping Christ.

One more smaller concern with TV (besides its addictive tendencies, trivialization of life, and deadening effects): It takes time. I have so many things I want to accomplish in this one short life.Don’t waste your life is not a catchphrase for me; it’s a cliff I walk beside every day with trembling.

Read the whole thing here—“Why I Don’t Have a Television and Rarely Go to the Movies”

I addressed some related thoughts a few posts ago in, “10 Reasons Why You Could Do Without Cable TV.”

After having clicked this link from Tim Challies and reading this blog’s article on the benefits of dropping cable TV, I decided to try my hand at crafting a similar list of reasons why there’s better things to do with your time.

Here’s what I had to build from.  It’s the list provided by The Wisdom and Folly Blog, by Jim and Amy Spiegel.  I’m just provinding the list’s tag lines.  Visit the original post for it’s author’s commentary.

1. Avoidance of commercials and the fueling of the consumer mentality.
2. Better stewardship of time.
3. Protection of children.
4. Avoidance of narcissisim, bad ethics, and poor reasoning.
5. Enhancement of aesthetic sense.

And here are my five reasons why you’d be better off without cable TV:

1. It could save you money.
   It’s simple math.  Paying $50-100 every month adds up.   Not paying it does too!
2. It may help you value people more.
   No cable TV?  Spend time with your wife.  Call your family or friends.  Visit with a neighbor.  Be a person for crying out loud.  Don’t just waste away alone in front of a television.
3. It will probably increase your attention span.
   Less commercials.  Less multiple-scene scenarios all going on at the same time.  More time to do other focus-building activities like #’s 4 and 5 below.
4. It gives you more time to read.
   Instead of flipping channels, flip pages.  Reading is a proven way to make you smarter.  It helps you think clearer, comprehend more fully, speak more articulately, and acquire other skills easier,
5. It will encourage productivity in almost every area of your life.
   Nothing feels better than a hard day’s work, complete with productivity and the personal sense of fulfillment that can only come from getting things done.  Get off the couch and do something.  No TV means much more oppotnity to do stuff!

There are other reasons, I’m sure.  These were just a few that I thought of.  Can you think of any other reasons why getting rid of cable TV is a good idea?

Happy Anniversary to the Luther’s!

Did you know that on this day in Christian history, June 13, 1525, the German reformer, Martin Luther, was married to former nun, Katherine von Bora?  It’s true, or so at least reports Christianity Today’s church history website.  The Luther’s had six children together and remained married for 21 years until Martin’s death in 1546.  If they were still alive, today would be their 484th anniversary.  Happy anniversary!

To commemorate this special occasion I’d like to offer up 5 lessons that I’ve learned about married life during my two full months as a husband.  Granted, two months is not a great deal of time, so I claim neither to be an authority on the subject nor that my thoughts are completely original.  Instead, I only hope to give you the assurance that these are simple observations from an honest man.  I hope you enjoy.

5 Lessons Learned in 2 Months of Marriage

Before you read the list of lessons learned, a few qualifications are in order.  First of all, this is not a list of things to use in order to get yourself out of trouble.  If you only do something nice for someone in order to get yourself out of trouble, or even if you’re doing it in order to prevent future trouble, it really takes something out of it.  In order to get the most bang for your buck out of this list you need to help create an atmosphere where the following five things take place as a part of the norm.  And no, acts of appeasement, sacrificial offerings, and all other sorts of “nice” things performed as acts of prevention do not count.

Secondly, this list only directly applies to the relationship I have with my wife.  It may not work for you with yours. All situations are different.  Case in point, some wives would love the treat of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich as a late night snack.  Others, however, might die from such a gesture due to peanut allergies or lactose intolerance. What’s important is that you know your wife well enough to discern what your list of 5 things should look like.  In order to be the real thing, every list needs to be tailor-made.

Thirdly, here’s the list of five lessons.  Because my list and explanations wound up being a bit long-winded, I fear that many of you wouldn’t take the time to read this entire post.  So for those of you who don’t want to read the whole thing, here’s the short version:

1. Wash the dishes some of the time and take out the trash all of the time.
2. Don’t watch a scary movie with your wife late at night…or perhaps ever.
3. There’s something special about a fresh bouquet of flowers.
4. Nobody’s perfect, so don’t expect or demand perfection.
5. Spend time in prayer together everyday.

Now for those of you who are really ready to learn, here’s the long version.  It’s the same list as above, but with commentary added.  So without further ado, and also without qualifying my points to death (which I’m prone to do), here are the five lessons I’ve learned in two months of marriage:

1. Wash the dishes some of the time and take out the trash all of the time.
   Washing the dishes is one of those things that no one wants to do, but everyone has to.  Lesson learned: a clean kitchen makes for a wife that feels loved by her husband.  Gentlemen, this is not a one night stand kind of chore.  Anyone can do dishes once, but can you keep the kitchen clean for a solid week?  Or month?  That’s something she’ll appreciate.
   
   Trash is gross.  Everybody knows it too.  It smells bad.  Sometimes it leaks.  Often it’s heavy and awkward too, especially if it the bag begins to rip or tear.  Gentlemen, our wives are precious.  If we can help it at all, let’s work hard to keep them from having to do gross stuff like taking out the trash.
2. Don’t watch a scary movie with your wife late at night…or perhaps ever.
   Last night we tried to watch the movie, The Mothman Prophecies, before we went to bed.  It was about 9:30pm when we put it in the DVD player.  BAD IDEA!  It wasn’t 15 minutes into the film and my wife was scared to death.  Granted, it’s a pretty spooky film in a very X-Files type of way.  So we turned off the movie.  Not only that, but to get the scariness off of her mind we had to watch something more light-hearted.  Enter Adam Sandler’s, The Waterboy.  Worked like a charm!
   
   Gentlemen, its our job to protect our wives.  Part of that protection involves psychological well-being.  Even if its something silly like being scared because of a movie, if our wives are genuinely scared, it’s up to us to calm their fears.  Safety, protection, welfare, peace—these are some of the greatest things in which we’ve been entrusted to provide for our wives.  We’re responsible to provided them with this on many different levels too. Emotional, financial, physical, spiritual, etc.  Let’s not take this responsibility lightly.
3. There’s something special about a fresh bouquet of flowers.
   My wife loves flowers.  Most girls do.  Her entire demeanor lifts whenever there’s a fresh bouquet in the room.  They don’t have to be expensive.  There doesn’t have to be a reason.  They just need to be flowers and they need to be pretty.  We can do this for them.  Once a week, twice a month, I don’t know what schedule you can afford. I do know that most Wal-Mart’s have flowers near one of their main entrances.  And they’re only like $10 for the nice ones. Case in point: next time you go to Wal-Mart buy your wife some flowers.
   
   Whether its flowers, makeup, clothes, or interior decorations, women like pretty stuff.  They like to be pretty.  They like buy pretty.  They like to be around things that are pretty.  Gentlemen, don’t neglect the prettiness of your wives.  Let them be pretty.  We could complain and say things like, “No, I don’t want our bedspread to have a bunch of flowers on it!”  But if our wives like it, and it’s pretty, we should be more understanding.  I’ve seen guys who nearly turn their own wives into men with the stubbornness they display in opposition to things that their wives think are pretty.  Guys, let your wives be pretty.
4. Nobody’s perfect, so don’t expect or demand perfection.
   You’ve heard said a million time before, I’m sure, “Nobody’s perfect.”  You’ve probably even said it yourself.  Do you practice what you preach, though.  Oftentimes the people we’re the least patient with are those with whom we spend the most of our time.  This sadly is the case within some marriages.  Remembering and accounting for the imperfections that exist on both sides of the marriage equation has been one of the greatest assets to the success of my marriage thus far.
   
   Gentlemen, whether we realize it or not, sometimes we expect absolute perfection out of our wives.  Whenever they do something we don’t like and we, in turn, get short with them, what we’re essentially saying is, “How dare you do something I don’t like?  I expect and demand that you be perfect.  If not, then I’m going to wine and pout about it until you do differently.”  Sometimes, it’ me that’s having a bad day and in a crummy mood.  Other times, however, it’s her.  What’s the worst is when it’s both of us at the same time.  It usually helps to remember the fallenness within which we both have equal shares.
5. Spend time in prayer together every day.
   As Christians, our faith is not placed within ourselves.  It is placed elsewhere—namely, with God in Christ.  The worst thing we could ever do, gentlemen, is to be hypocrites within our own homes.  We pray and teach and sing and encourage when we’re at church, but hardly ever do the same while we’re at home with our wives.
   
   Let me encourage you to spend time every day praying with your wife—and I don’t just mean right before you eat.  My wife and I pray together every night before we go to bed.  It’s a time when, as a family, we remind ourselves of what our lives are really about.  It’s a time when, as a couple, we remember that God is the most important priority.  It’s a time, gentlemen, when we show our wives what were really made of spiritually.  Don’t be a hypocrite.  Pray with your wife!

This list is obviously not exhaustive, but it is sincere.  I hope you enjoyed it.  Better yet, for you guys out there, I hope you take my example and run with it.  Make a similar list for your wife based on what you’ve observed within your own marriage.

Did I forget anything?  What should have made it on my list.  Somebody help a brother out.  Comments, please.

Pastor C. J. Mahaney has been interviewing persons of relative notability within Christian circles for the last several months over at his Sovereign Grace Ministries Blog.  Today on his blog, he featured third installment of his Q & A with author, Randy Alcorn.

Both of these are very godly and articulate men.  This interview, then, made for some great questions and even better answers.

Here’s my favorite part.  It’s Randy Alcorn speaking about using time wisely.

Randy, what single bit of counsel has made the most significant difference in your effective use of time?

In Charles Hummel’s booklet Tyranny of the Urgent, which I read as a young Christian 35 years ago, he said that what is urgent is often not important, and what is important is typically not urgent. It’s not urgent to spend time with God, talk with your wife, or read to your kids, but it is extremely important. It may be urgent to return someone’s call, go speak at some event, or turn in a manuscript next Thursday, but not important. (The manuscript, for instance, will likely sit in your editor’s inbox three weeks before he has time to open it.)

Years ago I developed a response to the 99% of things I have to decline:

I have to say “no” to many good things, and even some great ones, in order to be able to say “yes” to those very few things God has called me to do.

I live by this, saying “no” unless there’s a compelling reason to say “yes.” My life is very full, but that way I am free to do some things I couldn’t otherwise do (including coaching teenagers, playing with my grandkids, and hanging out with my wife).

Mahaney and Alcorn have both written several great books.  Below are a few of my favorites.  You can get any one of these books for right at ten bucks.

In no particular order, here are the blogs that I read almost on a daily basis.  If anyone is interested in which of these are the best, just hit me up in the comments section below and I’ll be more than obliged to give you my opinions!

Simply click on any of the titles and you’ll be taken to the corresponding blog.  Enjoy.

Hands down, the best way to read blogs is through blog subscription.  This can take place one of two ways:

1) subscription through a blog reader - click here (one minute video) and here (step-by-step instructions for setting up my favorite reader, Google Reader) for further explanation.

2) subscription through email - whenever you subscribe to someone’s blog by email, you will be notified once daily whenever they post new content.  If you like what you see here at deekdubberly.com, then please subscribe to my blog by filling out this form.

[HT: The Pipers and 22 Words]

There are a number of reasons to read blogs, many of which have been adequately summed up here by ReadWriteWeb.com lead writer, Marshall Kirkpatrick.  If you don’t feel like reading through his longer, more polished list, then consider mine.  Here are my 3 reasons why you should consider reading blogs:

1. VARIETY
   No matter what it is you’re interested in, there’s a really great chance that there are a multitude of blogs that cover your topics of interest.  For me, I’m a theology buff/youth pastor/tech-geek-on-the-side-kind-of-a-guy.  What do you know?  There are more blogs out there related to these three things than I can even begin to read!
2. EXPOSURE
   Once you find some good blogs about a given subject, you’re immediately opened up to all the other good blogs on that subject.  The thing about blogs is that they help to create online community.  Great blogs link to, borrow from, and give credit to other great blogs.  So once you enter the world of reading blogs, it’s only a matter of a few clicks before you stumble upon links and blogs and sites that are great and that, for you, are absolutely brand new!
3. CURRENCY
   No, not money—although money can definitely made in the world of blogging.  I’m talking about “currency” in the sense that something is current or up to date.  Want to stay relevant?  Want to be on the cutting edge of whatever it is that you do or are into?  Then read the good blogs related to your field of endeavor.  They’re sure to keep you up to speed on whatever it is that you’re interested in.

• For many, the difference between a website and a blog is either nonexistent or not important enough to distinguish.   Fair enough.

• I’d like to offer some enlightenment in the ways of the blog.  This enlightenment was passed along to me in various forms and has since changed the way I use the Internet.

• Here’s some highlights from a post by webmaster, Shana Albert, on the differences between websites and blogs.  I found it very helpful.  You can read it in its entirety here.

[HT: SocialDesire.com]

P.S.  One last thing, blogs–with their comments’ capability, allow for interaction between the authors and the readers.  This only serves to make every post that much more interesting.  A good rule of thumb: the more comments there are, the better the blog is.

Considered by many, “The father of modern management,” business guru, Peter F. Drucker,  writes in his, The Effective Executive, several rather compelling little quips regarding the value of concentration and focus over and against the relatively novel idea that multi-tasking is somehow more productive than doing one thing at a time.  He writes,

If there is one ’secret’ of effectiveness, it is concentration.  Effective executives do first things first and they do one thing at a time…  [and a page or so later] …Humanity is a ‘multipurpose tool.’  But the way to apply productively mankind’s great range is to bring to bear a large number of individual capalities on one task.  It is concentration in which all faculties are focused on one achievement… [and again, a page or so later] …The people who get nothing done often work a great deal harder.  In the first place, they underestimate the time for any one task.  They always expect that everything will go right.  Yet, as every executive knows, nothing ever goes right.  The unexpected always happens–the unexpected is indeed the only thing one can confidently expect.”

[HT: WhatsBestNext.com]

Eaton

My bride and I will be making the approximately five hour trek from Valdosta, GA to Mobile, AL this afternoon.  The goal of this trip is primarily two-fold: 1) accomplish seven tasks which should serve for Lauren to obtain status as an Alabama resident; 2) accomplish two tasks that should help me get a job.  In reference to the former, out-of-state residents pay double the tuition in-state students pay.  So the way I see it, these seven tasks are gonna be saving us some serious bacon over the course of the next 2-3 years.  In reference to the latter, people who don’t have jobs don’t make money! 

Here’s a map detailing all the different places we need to go and get things taken care of at in just one day. Whew!

View Larger Map
 

Here’s all the things we have to do once we get to Mobile (and, by the way, the plan is to drive over tonight, eat a nice dinner at Olive Garden per the gift cards given to us by our friends, Chris and Sarah Michael, then check in to our hotel and get some rest for the incredibly busy day we have ahead of us on Friday):

1. Get apartment lease, sign, and take copy for proof of physical address

2. Get Alabama state driver’s license

3. Get Alabama state car tags/plates

4. Get Alabama state/Mobile County voter registration cards

5. Open Alabama state checking account

6. Get Alabama state library card

7. Make copies of all of the above and take to USA’s Office of the Registrar 

And then, on to stuff related to my job search:

8. Drop off a reference at Cottage Hill Christian Academy

9. Drop off copy of newly updated resume at the Mobile Baptist Association

I found this interesting:

Courtesy of Lifehacker: Tips and Downloads for Getting Things Done.