Living by the Book/Living by the Book Workbook Set (57 page)

“Well, I don’t know. All of it, really.” He laughed. “I’ve realized that I just have so much to learn. When I get home I’m going to start reading my Bible more. And I’m really going to change the way I treat people. And I think I may sign up to help out in Sunday school. And I think I need to take a look at my giving. I was really touched by your message on missions.”

“It sounds like you got a lot out of this retreat,” Pastor Jones said enthusiastically. “I’ll be praying for you.” The two men shook hands and parted.

On the surface, this exchange sounds wonderful. On the basis of Pastor
Jones’ teaching of Philippians, Larry identified a few specific areas for spiritual growth and action. That’s great. But the bright picture dims a bit when we find out that Larry has been to at least a dozen retreats like this one over the years. He has made similar remarks after each one. But has he changed? Not one whit. He gets pumped up by the enthusiasm of the moment. But when he gets back home, his good intentions evaporate, and he never gets started on a process of change.

The problem for Larry is one from which countless people suffer—the problem of a plan. We could state it in the form of a question: Where do I begin? That may be the most determinative question to ask about application.

You see, anybody can come up with a grandiose scheme for change. One person says he wants to reach the world for Christ. Somebody else wants to study every book in the Bible over the next five years. Somebody else plans to memorize a hundred verses. Somebody else is going to become a Christlike spouse. Wonderful. Where are you going to begin?

Until you answer that, all you have is good intentions. Those have about as much value as a worthless check. After all, what good does it do to dream of reaching the world with the gospel if you can’t share Christ with the person in the office next to you? How are you going to study the entire Bible when you don’t even know what verse you’re going to study tomorrow? How can you memorize a hundred verses when you’ve never even tried to memorize one? And rather than fantasize about a Christlike marriage, why not start with something simple, such as doing the dishes if you’re a husband, or encouraging your husband if you’re a wife?

Too much “application” stays at the level of good intentions because we talk about the end of the journey without specifying when, where, and how we’re going to take the first step. As someone has well said, we don’t plan to fail, we fail to plan.

So I want to give you a simple framework to use in planning your own process of life-change. Again, by talking about a “simple framework,” I’m not trying to oversimplify things. Obviously life is not a simple process. Life is complex, and many elements of growth cannot be charted easily. Moreover,
the process of becoming like Christ is life-long. It never ends until we are with Christ.

But my concern here is not with the end of the journey, but its beginning. Many Christians stall out in their spiritual development because they never get started. Indeed, many don’t even know how to get started. They know all about the glorious promises that are supposed to be theirs someday. The real question is, what will they do today to start heading in that direction.

So here are three steps for translating good intentions into life-changing action.

That is, make up your mind. Determine what sort of change you need to make, and then
choose
to pursue it. This is largely a matter of
setting objectives
. In other words, how will you be different as a result of making this change? What will you look like at the end of the process?

Robert Mager, a specialist in learning and education, said that a well-stated objective describes what a person will be doing once he achieves the intended outcome. For example, the objective of this book is to help you ask observational questions of the biblical text, explain what a passage means, and then describe practical ways to use what you’ve learned in everyday life. This statement points to specific behaviors that we could measure if we wanted to know whether we had accomplished our objectives. For instance, we could listen to you probing the text with questions. We could read an interpretation that you might write. We could look at your schedule to see whether you were taking action.

So what objectives are you prepared to set in order to accomplish change? Describe what you’ll be doing when you reach that objective. Do you want to become a better parent? What does that look like? Can you state it in terms of noticeable, measurable behaviors? For instance, “better parenting” might involve spending more time with your kids if you are a father. It might mean organizing and managing the family schedule if you are a mother. We can measure these behaviors, and we can use them to plan (see below).

The more clear and demonstrable your objectives are, the more likely it is that you will accomplish them. Fuzzy objectives lead to fuzzy results. If you
say you are going to “evangelize more,” you will have a hard time knowing when you’ve evangelized more. But if you say you’re going to initiate conversations about Christ with your neighbors, John and Mary, you’ll know exactly when and whether you’ve accomplished the task.

Does this seem too rigid, too confining? If so, may I suggest that you might be settling for a decaffeinated form of Christianity—one that promises not to keep you awake at night. You see, God gives us His Word not to make us comfortable but to conform us to the character of Christ. And that goes way beyond pious feelings and good intentions. It penetrates to the level of our schedules and checkbooks and friendships and jobs and families. If our faith makes no practical difference there, then what difference does it make?

Clearly defined objectives help us see truth as actions, not abstractions. Likewise, they keep our expectations on the ground, within reach. Is your aim to develop the compassion of a Mother Teresa? Wonderful. But don’t make that your objective. A better place to start is with a soup kitchen in your own community. Determine some practical ways to meet others’ needs. That’s achievable. That’s something you can do right now. That’s a realistic step in the right direction.

This is the step where you ask how. How am I going to accomplish the task? If you’ve done a good job of stating your objectives, this should be fairly easy to answer. If not, you may need to go back and revise your objectives, making them clearer and more doable.

A plan is a specific course of action for how you’re going to reach your objectives—and I do mean specific. Think it through in terms of all that it’s going to take to do what you say you intend to do. Who are the people involved? What resources will you need? When are you going to plan it in your schedule? What’s the best timing?

For example, suppose your objective is to become a better father by spending more time with your children. How are you going to accomplish that? Maybe it means taking your son out for pizza and telling him about your own childhood. That could be an excellent plan. But what will it take to pull it off? When will you schedule it? Is your son agreeable to that? When would
be the best timing? How long do you plan to take? Where will you go so that you can talk? What are you going to say?

Or suppose you’re a mother for whom “better parenting” means organizing and managing the family schedule. How will you accomplish that? Maybe it means putting up a calendar in the kitchen. So when will you get a calendar? How big does it need to be? Where are you going to put it? How often are you going to update it? How will you know what to put on it?

Again, suppose you decide that you need to engage your neighbors, John and Mary, in conversation about Christ. You know that they have questions in that regard. How can you initiate that? One way might be to give them a copy of C.S. Lewis’s
Mere Christianity
as a way of stimulating discussion. If so, when will you get a copy to give them? When will you give it to them? How do you plan to follow up? Will you have them over for dessert some evening to talk about it? If so, when? Are they agreeable to that?

Planning a course of action means coming up with specific ways to achieve an objective and then thinking through what you need to do to run the plan. It assigns names, dates, times, and places to your intentions. The more specific your plan, the more likely it is that you’ll succeed in it.

Get started. Does your plan begin with a phone call? Then pick up the phone. Does it start by rearranging your schedule? Then rearrange it. Do you plan to evaluate your giving habits in light of your budget? Then sit down and update your budget so that you’ll have the information you need.

The first step is always the hardest. But take it. Don’t put it off. If you’ve come this far in the process, reward your efforts with solid follow-through. Pay yourself the respect of carrying out your commitments.

Three strategies can help you in this process. First, consider using a checklist, especially if your plan calls for repeated activity or a number of progressive steps. For instance, if you plan to memorize Scripture, you would be wise to list all of the verses you intend to memorize, and the dates by when you plan to memorize them. Then, as you commit the verses to memory, you can check them off the list. Over time, you’ll be able to see and celebrate your progress, which will spur you on in your efforts.

A second strategy is to set up some relationships of accountability. These could be formal or informal. Informal accountability might involve telling your spouse or a close friend about what you plan to do. Then, as you work your way through the process, you can keep him or her aware of your progress, your struggles, and your victories.

However, for long-term spiritual growth, I recommend a formal accountability group. Jeanne and I were part of such a group for years, and we wouldn’t have traded it for anything. A group of people committed to each other brings encouragement and wisdom to the growth process. And the dynamic of the group helps one follow through on the commitments he makes.

A third way of ensuring that you carry out your plans is to evaluate your progress. Keeping a journal is an ideal way to do that. As you set your objectives and accomplish them, write the process down in a notebook. Record why you wanted to make changes, why you took the course of action that you did, and what you learned as you went about it. Later you can come back and review where you’ve been. You’ll notice where you’ve made progress, and where you still need to grow.

Another way to do this is to get away periodically for a time of personal reflection and evaluation. Take your journal, your Bible, your calendar, and any other records of what you’ve been up to during the past few months or so. Ask yourself questions such as: What have been the three greatest challenges to my walk with the Lord during this period? How did I respond? What victories do I have to celebrate? What failures do I need to consider? What specific answers to prayer can I recall? Have I changed for the better or for the worse? In what ways? Where have I spent my time? My money? What has happened in my relationships?

One word of caution, though, in regards to self-examination: don’t get discouraged that you haven’t made more progress. Progress in the journey of faith is often incremental. But progress of any kind should be valued, no matter how tiny the steps. Every step is necessary. Perhaps what matters most is not the size of one’s steps as much as the direction in which they are headed.

Think back to World War II. The Normandy invasion on June 6, 1944, may be the largest offensive every undertaken by a military force. The fighting was terrifyingly fierce. Thousands of men died on both sides. For much of
the day the outcome was hanging in the balance. It could have gone either way. Yet by the end of the day, the Allies had established a beachhead in France. So was that the end of the war? No way. It took another 11 months to defeat the Nazis and bring hostilities in Europe to a halt. Many of the battles fought on the way to Berlin were every bit as ferocious as Normandy. The progress at times seemed incremental. Sometimes the Allies met with defeat. But the back of the enemy was broken, and with each yard of territory recaptured, victory was that much closer in hand.

So it is in the spiritual life. God established a beachhead in your heart when you came to Christ. In Christ, victory is assured. The back of the enemy has been broken. Yet the battles are not over, and on some days the progress may seem more like regress. But don’t let that dissuade you from persevering. Devise ways to realistically measure your stride as you walk through life. Know yourself and the ways God has worked in your experience.

In a previous chapter, I mentioned the apprehension that the last part of Philippians 2:12 used to engender in me as a boy: “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” The planning process that I’ve described in this chapter is a form of “working out your salvation.” You have to take responsibility for making choices and taking action in order to grow as a believer.

But never forget the other side: “For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). As you set your objectives, make plans, and carry them out, God is right there with you. That’s the encouraging thing about the spiritual life—you’re never alone. God provides His resources to help you in the process. He won’t make decisions for you, or do what you are able to do. But He does work in ways known and unknown to help you become like Christ.