Hi, everyone!
As I last announced, my website is finally up. You can check it out at www.invisibleworshipmusician.com/index.htm For the time being I am only offering my e-book at that site, (together with a free e-course made up of extracts from my book), but I look forward to eventually offering even more stuff there as time goes by. Thanks to all of you who quickly grabbed the book at its initial offer price! The special offer is over, but the book is still a great deal at its full price. Once you get it (and tell me you get it, of course) those of you taking lessons from me can just move on to cover new ground or study the book’s material in greater depth.
That way we all save time and get more done, right?
Anyway, I finally got the site up, set up some advertising operations and took the break I said I’d take. I woke up later (didn’t set any alarm), worshiped God and spent a while on my very-neglected kenjutsu exercises. Boy, that was a workout!
One thing that struck me that day is that for many of us it only takes a bit of effort to bring about improvements in our lives. Many of us have areas in our lives which are totally neglected, and when something is totally neglected, it only takes a little more effort in that area to start seeing some improvement.
In other words, stop seeing things as all-or-nothing. Because if you do, you’ll often end up doing nothing…
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. (Romans 12:1, NIV)
And I’ve found great benefit in applying this concept to my health. There are people who have taken that above verse from Romans (offering our bodies) and combined it with Malachi 1:13 (don’t offer God blemished sacrifices) and come to the conclusion that we need to keep our bodies in optimal health or our bodies will be blemished sacrifices.
It’s a great idea, but pressurizing for most of us. Most of us already know what we need to do to take better care of our bodies, but because we see it as all-or-nothing, pretty much nothing gets done.
So instead of thinking “I need to drink 8 more glasses of water a day”, just think “I will drink ONE glass of water NOW.” Instead of thinking “I need to go gym 3 times each week” just think “I’m gonna do 10 push-ups NOW.” Instead of thinking “I need to eat more fruits and veg”, just think “I’ll eat ONE apple NOW”.
It’s all based on the idea I mentioned with some of you before, the idea of underwhelming yourself. Because when you underwhelm yourself with an activity, it is very easy to keep it up consistently. You then build momentum from that also. Using this concept I went from a totally sedentary lifestyle to working out 5 days a week (I still can’t believe it myself).
And I still don’t see myself as a disciplined person. If I REALLY was a disciplined person, I’d… (fill in the blank with all the activities in my life I still see as all-or-nothing)
This applies to music, prayer, Bible study, health and especially exercise. If you sat yourself down to name just ONE thing you could do NOW just to make your life a little more like what you’d want it to be, what would that one thing be? Get up and do it now. Drink the water, do the push-ups, eat the apple, read the 2 verses from Proverbs (that’s not bite-sized, that’s nibbling!); whatever it is, do it! You’ll finish it in 5 minutes, but you’ll feel so much better about yourself that you’re gonna do it again. And again. And maybe do it again tomorrow too. But let’s not think so far ahead. Let’s just look at the NOW.
Before long you’ll find that you can do stuff that will take you an hour a day (write a book, maybe?) and actually stick to it over a longer period of time. And from that point on, the momentum of change you build in your life will be surprising, even to yourself.
Just some thoughts I wanted to share with you all. I know that some of my recent posts have been quite generic, not specifically on the praise and worship ministry. But that’s gonna change. Because of my advertising efforts, over the next few days there will be a number of people introduced to this blog, people I don’t really know personally, and people who specifically want more information on praise and worship. So I’ll be talking about that more. I’ll also be answering questions that those who got my book bring up, and of course they will be more focused on the worship ministry as well.
So pray for me, people, that even my blogging will be done with wisdom from God, that I can minister through this blog even to siblings-in-Christ from overseas (some have names that look African, others from nationalities I don’t recognize YET).
Thanks, everyone! Be blessed!
As I last announced, my website is finally up. You can check it out at www.invisibleworshipmusician.com/index.htm For the time being I am only offering my e-book at that site, (together with a free e-course made up of extracts from my book), but I look forward to eventually offering even more stuff there as time goes by. Thanks to all of you who quickly grabbed the book at its initial offer price! The special offer is over, but the book is still a great deal at its full price. Once you get it (and tell me you get it, of course) those of you taking lessons from me can just move on to cover new ground or study the book’s material in greater depth.
That way we all save time and get more done, right?
Anyway, I finally got the site up, set up some advertising operations and took the break I said I’d take. I woke up later (didn’t set any alarm), worshiped God and spent a while on my very-neglected kenjutsu exercises. Boy, that was a workout!
One thing that struck me that day is that for many of us it only takes a bit of effort to bring about improvements in our lives. Many of us have areas in our lives which are totally neglected, and when something is totally neglected, it only takes a little more effort in that area to start seeing some improvement.
In other words, stop seeing things as all-or-nothing. Because if you do, you’ll often end up doing nothing…
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. (Romans 12:1, NIV)
And I’ve found great benefit in applying this concept to my health. There are people who have taken that above verse from Romans (offering our bodies) and combined it with Malachi 1:13 (don’t offer God blemished sacrifices) and come to the conclusion that we need to keep our bodies in optimal health or our bodies will be blemished sacrifices.
It’s a great idea, but pressurizing for most of us. Most of us already know what we need to do to take better care of our bodies, but because we see it as all-or-nothing, pretty much nothing gets done.
So instead of thinking “I need to drink 8 more glasses of water a day”, just think “I will drink ONE glass of water NOW.” Instead of thinking “I need to go gym 3 times each week” just think “I’m gonna do 10 push-ups NOW.” Instead of thinking “I need to eat more fruits and veg”, just think “I’ll eat ONE apple NOW”.
It’s all based on the idea I mentioned with some of you before, the idea of underwhelming yourself. Because when you underwhelm yourself with an activity, it is very easy to keep it up consistently. You then build momentum from that also. Using this concept I went from a totally sedentary lifestyle to working out 5 days a week (I still can’t believe it myself).
And I still don’t see myself as a disciplined person. If I REALLY was a disciplined person, I’d… (fill in the blank with all the activities in my life I still see as all-or-nothing)
This applies to music, prayer, Bible study, health and especially exercise. If you sat yourself down to name just ONE thing you could do NOW just to make your life a little more like what you’d want it to be, what would that one thing be? Get up and do it now. Drink the water, do the push-ups, eat the apple, read the 2 verses from Proverbs (that’s not bite-sized, that’s nibbling!); whatever it is, do it! You’ll finish it in 5 minutes, but you’ll feel so much better about yourself that you’re gonna do it again. And again. And maybe do it again tomorrow too. But let’s not think so far ahead. Let’s just look at the NOW.
Before long you’ll find that you can do stuff that will take you an hour a day (write a book, maybe?) and actually stick to it over a longer period of time. And from that point on, the momentum of change you build in your life will be surprising, even to yourself.
Just some thoughts I wanted to share with you all. I know that some of my recent posts have been quite generic, not specifically on the praise and worship ministry. But that’s gonna change. Because of my advertising efforts, over the next few days there will be a number of people introduced to this blog, people I don’t really know personally, and people who specifically want more information on praise and worship. So I’ll be talking about that more. I’ll also be answering questions that those who got my book bring up, and of course they will be more focused on the worship ministry as well.
So pray for me, people, that even my blogging will be done with wisdom from God, that I can minister through this blog even to siblings-in-Christ from overseas (some have names that look African, others from nationalities I don’t recognize YET).
Thanks, everyone! Be blessed!
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