Issue #152

Your weekly roundup of insights and resources to help you get more done for the glory of God.

​Read on the Web​

In Today’s Issue:

• When Productivity Becomes a Drug
• Finding Time to Read
• Loving God & Your Job?
• We're All Sellouts Now
• Book: A Call to Contentment

Dear steward,

A few years back, the Lord opened my eyes to how I was using "productivity" as a mask for a deeper heart issue.

And over the past three years of interacting with members of our Academy, I've realized just how common this is among those interested in productivity.

I'm talking about the idol of competence. It's a flavor of the fear of man that has you obsessing over whether people judge you as capable or not.

I wholeheartedly believe productivity is something Christians should pursue. We want to lead fruitful lives for the glory of God. But motives matter. And as I write in this week's article, "When you idolize competence, productivity becomes a drug."

You can watch, read, or listen to this week's essay in which I dive into this issue and how to address it. It's called "The Idol of Competence."

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​6 Ways to Find (and Protect) the Time You Need to Read Books (5 mins)

Tony Reinke / Crossway

I really enjoyed this from Tony Reinke.

Here are a few of my favorite takeaways:

1. It's a battle.

"Our spirit may be eager to read a book, but our flesh is weak. Our flesh would rather self-indulge on passive entertainment."

It's always going to be easier to choose lower-quality leisure activities. Acknowledging that it's hard helps you muster up the determination to choose the harder path because it's a better path.

2. You have a LOT of leisure time.

Modern life affords us a stunning amount of leisure time, but we invest it poorly. If we value reading, we've got to make time for it.

This goes to the point I made a couple of weeks ago: we need to redeem our free time. And as Reinke points out, making time for reading very likely means you'll need to stop doing something else.

3. Have a plan.

Reinke talks about both book selection and setting your reading priorities. This is all part of creating a reading plan.

For more tips on becoming a better reader, check out my video, 8 Tips for Becoming a Better Reader. And here I share a few tips of my own for reading more books in a year.

​Can You Love God and Your Job? (8 mins)

Bill Hendricks / DTS Voice

I think you'll find this encouraging.

H/T to Jacob Abshire's Creative Disciple newsletter for digging this one up.

​Everyone's a sellout now (14 mins)

Rebecca Jennings / Vox

There's a lot I disagree with in this piece. But I thought it did a good job describing what it feels like to be an artist or writer in the online creator economy.

These feelings are felt even more acutely by Christians in these worlds.

I talk to a lot of other believers who are creating things online or writing books, and feeling like a sellout is incredibly common. Despite the realities of bills to pay and the instructions of the New Testament concerning these matters (1 Timothy 5:18), asking for donations to your ministry, telling people about your book, or even just using social media can still feel gross and self-promoting. And while these things can be done poorly, they are not inherently wrong.

Two books I would commend to you if you're in ministry of any kind or even a Christian business owner struggling with these things are The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn and Business for the Glory of God by Wayne Grudem. Both have helped me tremendously.

​The Idol of Competence (6 mins)

When you idolize competence, productivity becomes a drug.

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I've often joked that contentment is the ultimate life hack. Too often, we seek to improve our lives by rearranging the externals instead of focusing on the internal. In Christ, you can be satisfied regardless of your circumstances. But contentment must be fought for.

David Kaywood has written a wonderful new book on the practice of Christian contentment. I had the privilege of reading a pre-release and writing an endorsement.

Here's what I had to say about the book:

A Call to Contentment comes out on March 12th. But you can pre-order it right now.

That's all for this week. If you want to chat about anything in this newsletter or want to say hi, you can just hit reply.

Until next week!

Reagan Rose

Reagan Rose

I talk about personal productivity from a Christian perspective. Creator of ​Redeeming Productivity​.

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