Enjoy the Process

The end goal will always be more challenging if the process of getting there is not enjoyed. And you aren’t guaranteed the future, so make sure you figure out some way to enjoy the process.

Don’t let the only reward be somewhere in the distant future. Teach yourself to enjoy the challenges of today. Learn to find enjoyment in the everyday conflicts that will arise. See them as a puzzle that you get to solve instead of a roadblock. They may slow you down, but that’s okay. You still got time.

Even though it will feel like it, getting to the end goal isn’t a race. The process and journey to greatness will always require a great amount of time. If done right, the journey will stretch and grow you in ways that are often more valuable than the actual end goal.

Good kings can be made in dark caves, and effective leaders can be made in the lowly places of life. Hardships and challenges can create character or callouses. Choose to stay optimistic always, being thankful always. Know that today is the day to be glad and rejoice, for it is a gift from the Lord.

Consider how you will be an effective minister today—not just someday. God has placed people in your life today for a purpose. Many will reach their goals in life, but it’s how you reach them that really matters; it’s how you worship God through the long process.

Have a thankful heart as you overcome every obstacle with wisdom from above, and enjoy the present process while you accomplish future goals.

Dress Right for the Occasion

In a perfect world, everyone could wear whatever they wanted, and no one would judge them until they got to know them fully. This is not a perfect world.

Your outer appearance is what people are going to see first about you, and they will make a judgement—an assessment of you.

This is just part of being human.

You will need to study fashion and keep up on it because you want to make sure you are communicating what you wish to communicate through your chosen dress attire.

Ask yourself, “What am I communicating by the outfit I’m wearing? What am I saying with my hair styled in this way? What do my shoes tell others about me?”

Some people might say, “I just don’t care about style and what I wear.” Well, others do, and you’re going to communicate a message to them about yourself through your attire no matter what. Be aware of it, so you communicate your intended message to others.

A major part of being an effective minister of reconciliation is communication. In all ways, be a lifelong learner of communication, so you’re effective in ministry.

As Christians, we are not just concerned with our vertical relationship with God, but we also care about our horizontal relationship with others. Visually, a vertical line and a horizontal line makes a cross.

So have your attire help aid your communication instead of being a distraction. Dress in a way that is appropriate in that time and place to convey the right message to those you will be encouraging and ministering to as you worship God through every interaction of your daily life.

Self-Glorification

One of the toughest challenges of our spiritual walk is to cease seeking to be glorified and to glorify God instead. It’s so natural for us to want to be praised, appreciated, valued, and glorified, and there are times in life when you will get a little recognition and attention, and that’s okay.

But when the purpose of life centers around getting praise and glory, instead of giving it, that’s when you will become a very depressed and anxious person. That’s when you will become a glory robber instead of a glory giver. That’s also when you will become a very disliked person.

Jesus, who deserves all the glory, demonstrated to us by example of how to be a servant.

Sometimes Christians seek glorification in the name of Jesus. For example, someone might desire to become a successful author to share the message of Christ to the lost or become a popular musical artist to share new worship music to the world. Don’t seek fame, riches, and glory in the name of Jesus.

It’s okay to be successful, famous, and even rich, but that should never be the end goal. The most powerful thing you can do for the kingdom of God is to faithfully worship him through your humble, daily lifestyle, in everything you do.

Instead of seeking to become a celebrity for the kingdom, default your identity to being a child of God. Everything else should be secondary, and compared to being God’s child, everything else really is secondary.

Just focus on your created purpose. You were created to worship. Everyone will worship something. Many will worship themselves. Worship God, for he is the one who is truly worthy to be glorified.

Have Children if You Can

Amongst young people today, a negative stereotype exists about having children, as people preach that starting a family will hold you back from accomplishing your dreams.

Having children doesn’t stop you from accomplishing your dreams; it gives you new ones—better dreams.

When I was young, I would hear people older than me say, “Just you wait … once you have children, your whole life will change.” They said it in a way where it felt like an ominous warning. It is true that your life will change once you have children but not in a bad way. Your life will change for the better.

Yes, there will be sacrifices that parents have to make, but compared to the blessing of their children, they aren’t really sacrifices at all.

Due to the fallen nature of our imperfect bodies, not everyone gets to experience the blessing of having their own children. Don’t ever take the miracle of having children for granted.

Parenthood is a little like music in that it would be impossible to fully understand it if you have never heard any music before. You won’t fully understand the magic of being a father until you have your own child.

Being a father helps you understand the preciousness of time. You’ll quickly learn how special every little moment is, and you’ll mourn the end of each small stage as you still enjoy the new one. And you’ll pray that God will give you the wisdom and energy to be fully present in every moment so that someday when your children are grown, you can look back and sincerely say, “Those were indeed special times, and I didn’t miss out on a single moment.”

It’s About People

Always be about people. There are so many things in life, but be about people.

People will never go out of business. People will never go out of style. People will never stop being made.

Successful businesses that get it right are about their customers. The best teachers and professors are about their students. Politicians who hold onto their integrity are about their constituents. Pastors who understand what it really means to shepherd are about their congregation. This is all because people are important.

Jesus was about people; Jesus is about people. We are called to be like him.

Also, people are temporary in this life. There are no guarantees that they’ll be here tomorrow, so focus on them today. Encourage them. Teach them. Serve them. Show them. Love them.

Or just sit with them for a while, so they don’t have to be alone.

At the end of your life, two major questions will linger: Did you worship God with your entire life? Did you care for the people he created?

If yes is the answer to both of these questions, you can rest well, knowing that you lived a good life.

Asking the Right Questions

It’s important to ask the right questions. Asking the right questions creates pathways towards the right answers.

Be leery of those who oppose difficult questions.

Be patient to those who attempt to sincerely supply answers to your questions, even if their answers are misguided.

In time, you will become bored hearing all the same simple questions and answers in life, and your ambitious curiosity will guide you to genuinely explore deeper thoughts and ideas. These are the rare questions that are only sought out after the common ones are all answered.

Seek to learn. It’s okay to be responsibly curious. Truth is out there, but we might not have access to all of it yet.  

Ask the difficult questions knowing that a definite answer is not guaranteed in life, although I truly believe they will be answered eventually; every question we have ever had will be instantly silenced the moment we see Jesus face to face. His sovereign glory will be the answer. His fatherly love will gently teach us the answers as well, and everything will make sense as we live out our worship to him through eternity in our glorified bodies. But for now, God has given us inquisitive and curious minds to seek out truth, so ask those hard questions—the good ones.

Evil Within Humans

Don’t underestimate the evil that is within humans. When we spend the majority of our time around kind and decent people, we start to believe that everyone operates with the same level of respect for others, but this is not the case.

You might say, “They aren’t going to hurt me because I haven’t done anything to provoke them.” You don’t know what other people are going through. You don’t know what other people have gone through. Not everyone thinks like you do.

Some people are just trying to survive in their own twisted reality, and all morals and laws are ignored. They have been callused to the point where harming the innocent is nothing more than scratching an itch.

Some people are not driven by logic at all but by demonic evil. From years of drug abuse, they have destroyed their brains to the point where logic doesn’t exist to them anymore. Such people can kill you or another innocent person at random without a thought or remorse.

Drug abuse can destroy the human brain to the point where all that is left is a slowly dying body controlled by satanic spirits.

Stay clear of these lost souls because they don’t operate with the same rules you do. It is heartbreaking indeed, but only the Lord can miraculously change them at this point.

Being on Time

In a perfect world, you should be on time to everything.

But that isn’t always going to happen, and sometimes being the first person present is somewhat awkward, especially at a party. There are times when it’s okay to be fashionably late.

Most of the other times though, you really need to be early.

With all the extraneous variables in life coming against you, being early is really being on time, and being on time is being late. Learn to expect unexpected problems to arise and provide yourself ample time for these inevitable problems. You may spill your morning tea, find out that you have no clean pants to wear, misplace your keys, or lose your phone. No matter what the problem is, you can always count on something to come against you being on time.

Being late puts you in a bad mood. It causes stress. It lowers your confidence. And it’s dangerous. You are always less cautious when you are in a hurry, and this puts you and others at risk. Don’t put others at risk just for a few more minutes of sleep.

So learn to wake up with the first or second alarm instead of the fourth or fifth. Reward yourself for being early. Aim to make getting up on time an enjoyable experience instead of a burden.

Remember, not everyone was fortunate enough to wake up this morning. Appreciate your new day with a sincere and thankful heart. And without delaying, get ready quickly to be early, so you’re really on time.

What We Put in Our Bodies

Although we are spiritual beings, we also have a body. And these bodies are flawed due to the historic fall that took place in the garden of Eden.

To live, we must fuel our bodies. Unfortunately, we live in a society where much of what we commonly have available to put in our bodies is often more poison than fuel. If we eat what everyone else is eating, it’s only a matter of time until our bodies end up sick, fat, and nearly dead.

You can’t eat like everyone else!

Average people are not healthy. They may not have severe health problems at the moment, but they will in time, and it will most likely be caused by the foods they have been consuming for years prior.

You must be cautious of everything you eat. Become a health nut because normal people eating the common American diet are slowly poisoning themselves. Being crazyabout nutrition is really being rational and responsible these days.

Yes, with modern medications and procedures, people may live longer, but you don’t want to just live longer. You want to be healthy and active in your old age so that you can continue being productive in your ministry. You still want to be able to help take care of others in your later years, instead of them having to take care of you.

God is sovereign, but he has given us volition and wisdom. He has given us the Holy Spirit to guide us.

There are consequences to our decisions; there are consequences to what we put in our mouths. You may miss out on indulging at a few pizza parties, but you’ll be there for others in the long run.

Be a leader and example in this area of your life, for many are not.

Get Some Sleep

There’s an expression that is common amongst busy, young people: “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”

First, you probably aren’t going to want to be sleeping when you’re dead. You’ll be in the presence of the Lord, so if there’s ever a bad time to sleep, it’s then. Also, it’s likely that our glorified bodies won’t require sleep.

Second, despite having ambition paired with adrenaline, you do need sleep. Sleep deprivation affects you mentally, physically, and spiritually.

Choices are never as clear on little sleep. A lot of people’s worst decisions are made on a lack of sleep.

Sometimes the best decision you can make is to simply go to bed. If you know you’ll have trouble sleeping, still go to bed. Read a book. Play a relaxing handheld video game. Close your eyes and listen to soft music.

Pray it all over to God.

And sleep.

Trust me on this one, and just go to bed when you’re too tired. It’ll keep you young and fun in the long run.