Vandercar

Faith. Family. Writing. Music. Tech.
February 18, 2015

Giving Up & Taking Up

Ash Wednesday and Lent are now upon us. I’ve always encountered some internal struggle when this season of the church year comes calling. It is common practice for Christians to give something up for Lent – to fast from that which might be detracting from a walk with the Lord. Though many things to distract in my life, I am always at a loss as to what I might give up for Lent. I may even begin to feel guilty that I can’t identify that one thing that should be given up. In the end, I give up nothing.

I fault no one for the ‘giving up’ of something during Lent. I appreciate the tradition and recognize its value. However, it seems I often take a different gait as we journey through Lent.

I think, at the core, we all aim to give up so that we may take up. In giving up and in surrender, we find that we may then daily take up the cross of Jesus.

Lord, as we enter this Lenten season, remind me of my humanity and mortality. We are here on this earth for a fleeting moment in time. May we turn to you and devote these days to the lifting of Your name in our midst and among all nations. Amen.

February 12, 2015

Lenten Prep at Bethel

I’ve been trying to write this week. As I’ve mentioened, our pastor is on sabbatical. In his absence, I was asked to facilitate our midweek Lenten services and to use the opportunity to introduce our congregation to World Mission Prayer League and to explore the way of the cross from the perspective of an international fellowship. I’ve taken most all this week to retreat from the office, seek some places with less distraction and few interruption, so that I can focus an prep for the coming weeks.

Four days in and I’ve done little more than hit a wall. I’ve come to realize that it has been at least three years since I have regularly engaged in this work of program planning, devotional writing, worship prep, etc. For three years, I have been honing computer skills, pushing code about, and troubleshooting tech issues around our office. It seems I am somewhat directionally challenged in these days and am finding it quite difficult to find my way back into the mindset of creative spirituality.

Please, pray for me today, tomorrow, and throughout Lent as I prepare these evenings of worship and prayer. Thank you.

Photo courtesy of Jim Nash
February 10, 2015

National Prayer Breakfast

Photo courtesy of Jim Nash

This past weekend during our Bible class at Bethel, we had a conversation which I wish could have been had in every Christian gathering around our country.

Our pastor (currently on sabbatical) and a few other individuals connected to Bethel, the Prayer League, LINC – Twin Cities, and other ministries in the area were privileged to join the Minnesota delegation that attended the National Prayer Breakfast this year. They were blessed by this experience. And we were blessed by the report they brought home.

One of those in attendance gave us a glowing report about the three-day event. Additionally, he informed us of the history and intentions of the event. If I could capture here the totality of that hour’s discussion, I would. It was quite informative and encouraging.

Did you know that a number of Congressional members (regardless of political affiliation) gather weekly, setting aside political differences, to pray, in the name of Jesus, for those in their midst who are suffering, for the state of the nation and the world, and for the decisions that are made in Washington?

Did you know that once per year, they open this prayer meeting, inviting world leaders of all variety of faiths to join with the intent of encouraging unity and peace through the knowing of Jesus? (This is what we know as the National Prayer Breakfast)

Did you know that those in attendance are given a nametag listing only name and state/country of origin? Did you know that, with the exception of those needing special security detail, seating arrangement is randomly determined? Titles and affiliations are set aside in the interest of ‘leveling the field’. Humility is nurtured.

Did you know that during this year’s prayer breakfast, some people experienced the love of Jesus more than ever they have in life? Do you know that these same people may be at a loss in reconciling this experience with the church’s attack of the event? They may well resonate with Gandhi’s consideration of the Church on earth.

Mahatma Gandhi
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.

Washington, politicians, world leaders, spiritual leaders, and others in attendance have never intended that this gathering be a political one. We, as a church, should not fall into the trap set by the media – spinning the National Prayer Breakfast as a political event. It is not a political event. And, as mentioned in our conversation on Sunday, it’s not even an event of our cultural Christianity. It is, more precisely, a Jesus event. In that we can rejoice!

I could address the specific statements made by Obama during his brief conribution to the event. I won’t – except to say that for those in attendance, hearing his words in the context of the non-political event, they found encouragement and some direction in the way Christ taught us to live.

As followers of Jesus, let us rejoice that so many influential world leaders can gather and hear the message of the Gospel. And, let us pray that as His word goes out, it will find a welcome home deep in the hearts of these men and women.

Grace and peace upon you and your work in the Lord Jesus.

[Edit: A few of our pastor’s reflections following the event – The Cohesive Power of Love – Even in DC and Defending Our President]

February 5, 2015

Staff Retreat to Mount Carmel

This past weekend, our staff took time to retreat to Mount Carmel in Alexandria, Minnesota. It was a restful time. We discussed the topic of transitions, joined in worship, played games, broke bread, and partook in a number of antics. Aelah enjoyed her first taste of Jell-O. I missed her first look at it and the poking that ensued, but I think you can still gather that she enjoyed it. Only managed a few photos and this one video.

Notes on Transition
Clean-Up

February 3, 2015

Jesus Feared God

Isaiah 11:1-5
There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD. His delight is in the fear of the LORD, and He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, nor decide by the hearing of the His ears; but with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide with the equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins, and faithfulness the belt of His waist.

Today’s Moravian Daily Text was taken from this verse. It struck me that Jesus feared God. I don’t know that I had considered this before. I’m baffled again by the work and relation of the Trinity and I’m led to consider my own position before the Glorious Almighty One who has drawn near in intimacy. It has been long since I’ve thought on the fear of the LORD.

God of glory, might, justice, and love. Wonder of wonders. O, that I might be awed … humbled … surrendered.

February 2, 2015

Clarifying 72° & freeWord

Our friends, Dieter and Angi, have had a passion for bringing the word of God to the people of Africa. Being from South Africa, they are positioned well to move in response to this call. They have, for some time, been fleshing out their vision through the 72° initiative and a method they call freeWord.

Having had conversations both with Dieter and with folks in our home office, I’ve sensed some dissonant understanding of the form and function of 72° and freeWord. I find they are often clumped as one (72°/freeWord) by those with whom I speak here in Minnesota; yet, there is a significant distinction between the two. Allow me to walk you through my understanding of these initiatives.

Sitting on the sidelines, so to speak, I watched as the 72° initiative was re-envisioned, planned, and prodded to fit into place among the Prayer League. At the same time, I would turn and watch, what was then, the Way of the Cross initiative undergo similar testing and maturation. In a way, I considered both of these budding initiatives as frameworks for membership among the Prayer League – filling in gaps between praying membership and full-time missionary service. If the Prayer League were to adopt and advocate for these initiatives, I would envision them somewhat as progressive avenues for involvement. At the core, they aim to put a name to lifestyles that embody the beliefs, values, and purposes of WMPL.

Thus, membership among the Prayer League could take four forms.

  1. Praying Membership: Individuals who have committed to pray for the advance of the Kingdom through the work of WMPL.
  2. Way of the Cross: Groups of individuals who have committed to pursue commissioned living as hometown missionaries among their family, church, and community.
  3. 72°: Groups of individuals who have committed to periodic short-term missionary exercises outside of their primary culture in an effort to broaden their understanding of missionary involvement and affect a change toward mission-mindedness in their congregation’s identity. As 72° was initially taking shape, it happened upon my mind that SHiFT could be another good acronym to describe the initiative (Simple Harvest Field Training). A stepping stone from local missionary involvement into global missionary involvement – bridging the two while working for the integrity of mission experience (i.e. the things we value and profess as a fellowship are realized on the ground in our daily life).
  4. Missionary Service: Individuals or groups of individuals who have responded to a specific call, committing to engage in full-time service in carrying out the work of God through WMPL.

So, foundationally, 72° is a framework for involvement in God’s mission.

The modus operandi for carrying out mission in the context of 72° (as should be the case for any context into which the Prayer League enters) is found in a number of values (or distinctive emphases). Among these are prayer as mission, displaced living, missional partnership, etc.

I understand freeWord as an additional, even more, the foundational distinctive emphasis upon which the others are founded. Although the WMPL Statement of Faith points to the authority of the Bible among us, nowhere among the values linked above does the Prayer League explicitly state the intent to live in response to a belief that God’s word is living, active, and creative.

Isaiah 55:10-11
For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

It is through the word of God (both that revealed to us in Scripture and that to which we ought remain attentive each new day) that God meets us and charts a way forward. It is in this word that we determine the distinctive emphases of our lives. It is with this word, I think, that we can embrace a lifestyle of freeWord – simply God’s living word, unimpeded and active in our lives.

From recent correspondence with Dieter, he says:

  1. freeWord’s reformational essence is that the bible continues to be the creative word of God – making things and bringing things into existence that were not there before. As Luther says, His promises are performative … reading is not a study but an awareness of being addressed, of a disruptive grace entering in.
  2. freeWord is thoroughly disenchanted with the current theological recolonization of Africa and other parts of the world by the so-called interpretive super powers of the Christian universe and seeks to foster the genuine bible reading that undergirds the prolific proclamation of the gospel on a saturated and hyper-evangelized Southern Africa.
  3. freeWord is intentionally sensitive to the necessity for de-colonizing missionary bible reading (i.e., rather than talk of “contextualizing” western Christendom we ought to be thinking about de-colonizing our biblical interpretive praxis, or we need to think more carefully about what I might call the hermeneutical art of over privilege).

So, freeWord is not so much a thing as it is our personal missional engagement.

freeWord then is simply a crucial and inexpendable aspect of SHIFT72, one element of the SHIFT program of missionary exercises shaped by my perspective, reflections, experience and perception of the need for bible reading innovations in contemporary missionary Africa and other parts of the world.

So, to read His creative word in the world is freeWord…… To provide an avenue and opportunity for displacement away from ordinary societal expectations is “way of the cross”…… To provide an avenue for intercultural missionary exercises and discipleship is SHIFT72…… To provide the paradigm and opportunity for full time missionary faithfulness and effectiveness is WMPL….YAY!

May we remain attentive to the Spirit of God at work among us and may we ever stand upon His word – for His word shall stand. May this word indelibly and daily mark our hearts and lives. And, may this word fill us with such fire as can’t be contained.

Why the 72° Name?

While engaging communities along the Zambezi River in Mozambique, Dieter & Angi found that 72°C was the temperature to which water should be heated for some minutes in order to make it potable. Also, when visiting the United States, they found that 72°F is often considered the most ideal temperature for indoor comfort. The 72° initiative is intended to meet people at the edge of their comfort zone and usher them into a testing that may refine them for more effective service in global mission of the Church.

January 27, 2015

Vying for Authority

Disregarding God

I have recently happened upon two things. Both are unsettling and both, in some sense, disregard the authority of Scripture. One, in looking to preserve the authority of scripture takes an extreme in which an attempt is made to confine the work of the Spirit among us. The other simply embraces a blatant disregard for the sanctity of God’s word to us in the Bible. I’ve wrestled with how or if I should share these thoughts. I offer them here for discussion and to spur us on toward respect for the voice of God – both that revealed to us in Scripture and that to which we ought remain attentive each new day.

IMG_0509.JPG

Better Bible

As a developer, I have found my way onto Github, a collaborative document storehouse with revision control. Recently, I stumbled upon the Better Bible. According to some, it seems the message we have received from God is boring, inaccurate, and archaic. And so, in true human fashion, it’s been decided that we ought to be and act as our own gods. Individuals have been invited to collaboratively rewrite and/or fork personal versions of the Bible. From the page itself:

Here are the goals of the BetterBible project:

  1. Fix errors — Where the Bible makes obvious mistakes, let’s fix them.
  2. Inject humor — The Bible can be a dry read and could do with some humor.
  3. Modernize — Make it something that we can relate to. Jesus didn’t address a topic? Well in this version, he can.
  4. Clarify — The verses about homosexuals are apparently important and relevant today. Not so much the ones about shellfish and mixed fabrics. Let’s not leave these things up to interpretation.
  5. Blaspheme — Because none of the above would be very fun if we didn’t.

This grieves me and I pray that the word of God may go out in power and in truth.

A Spirit Constrained

As an active member of a congregation affiliated with the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, I am dismayed – disturbed even – by recent decisions and determinations that are being made by the leadership of the Synod.

I recently received emails directing me to CCM (Commission on Constitutional Matters) Opinion 14-2724 regarding Bylaw 3.8.3. This document seeks to bring clarity to amendments that have been recently made to the bylaws of the Synod’s constitution. With a small sampling of 39 entries, the document currently has a rating of 2.08/5.00. (You can read and rate it yourself via the above link.)

In essence, their interpretation of these bylaws affirms that congregations (and other entities with a formal connection to the Synod) must acquire Synod approval for any and all involvement in foreign mission work. Whether giving of time (specifically that of officially called church workers) or of money, no thing should be utilized for the work of the Gospel in a “foreign” field without the synods say-so. Such is my understanding.

In an effort to preserve the sanctity of scripture and ensure that Christians faithfully live in accordance with some codified law, the church has overstepped bounds of authority. When God says “Go!”, who are we to say “But not just yet!”? When God says “Speak.”, who are we to say “Oh, but only to these people.”? And, when God says “Give.”, who are we to say “Only to those worthy.”?

There is most definitely a place for collective discerment and accountability, but we must remain open to God working as He will. I read this over the weekend.

Oswald Chambers
Do not look for God to come in any particular way, but look for Him. That is the way to make room for Him. Expect Him to come, but do not expect Him only in a certain way.

One will not effectively build Concord within the Church by erecting fences to contain the flock, nor by chaining the wayward. It is through Godly teaching, edification, and encouragement that we will find ourselves together under the Word of God to the glory of His name among the nations. Let us not shackle His spirit.

A Humble Way

There is a better way. Jesus, He who has all authority on heaven and on earth shows us a way of humility – a way of laying down, of sacrifice and of surrender. Such a way is so foreign to our tainted human hearts. May we, through the power of God and through devotion and prayer, find ourselves living as faithful citizens of God’s kingdom. When He speaks, let’s listen, for all authority belongs to Him alone.

January 23, 2015

Hello Old Friends!

Seeking Counsel

I’ve found that with the itinerant life I lived for 15 years or so, it can often be difficult to connect and secure counsel from close friends. I’m attempting to map the past years, better grasp my current position, and seek clarity for what might stretch ahead. I’d greatly appreciate your assistance.

We have begun to meet on Monday nights with a group of ~12 individuals interested in service with the Prayer League. Some of us currently serve as missionaries, some are candidates, and others are in the beginning stages of inquiry. We gather for soup supper and a discussion that revolves around our reading of MissionSmart – a book promoting missionary preparedness.

This week, we took a look at our skillsets and the gifts that we have to offer the kingdom. In reading this chapter, I realized that it has been quite some time since I have stopped to evaluate such things. I thought back over the many various places that I have worked and the countless people with whom I have served. It became evident that there are certain skills and talents which have long lain dormant.

Proverbs 11:14
Where there is no counsel, the people fall;
But in the multitude of counselors there is safety.

I also realized that most any tool I’ve ever seen for evaluating such things are self-assessments, self-evaluations, self-tests. It is true that many jobs have regular performance assessments, but those have been far and few between for me and even those give only a limited assessment – most often focused on the specific work with which you might currently be engaged. Rarely, unless, we intentionally seek the counsel of our friends and family, can we position an understanding of ourselves that is founded upon the understanding that others have of us. And, as the verse above states, a one-legged chair won’t stand all that well.

I would love to sit with each of you in conversation over a cup of coffee or tea, but that is probably not going to happen for most of us. I’m in Minnesota. You are probaly not. So, in a swift effort at gathering some friendly counsel, I put together this form – hoping to crowd-source an assessment of my self. If you’ve worked or lived alongside me for any length of time, would you mind giving a few minutes to offer your thoughts? I’d be much appreciative. Just trying to get a better handle on what might be next for me and our family.

Hebrews 10:24-25
And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

Thank you!

Counsel Me, Please.

[caldera_form id=”CF54c16e4bb76e0″]

January 20, 2015

How I Will Tweet in 2015

 

I first joined Twitter in June 2012 and I don’t think I’ve yet left the nest.

I can’t remember why I first joined. I think it was because I knew my work at WMPL would require a personal presence on the platform. Like any novice to a social site, my first year was littered with great stretches of inactivity. My first username was @Ua_MV because @UaMV was taken. At some point during that first year, an oddity and improbability happened – that user modified their handle and my online moniker of @UaMV was freed for the taking.

I didn’t begin grasping the value of Twitter until after months of toying with management of the @prayerleague account. Now, over two years later, I may have my flying wings. There are loads of articles out there on Twitter how-tos, dos & donts, guidebooks and such. Here I intend to share only a single point regarding my philosophy on Twitter use and how I intend to Tweet in 2015 and beyond.

Twitter Is Invading My Feed!

If you’re into Twitter, you may have heard the recent fuss about how Twitter may soon be implementing algorithms for the content pushed to a user’s feed. Additionally, they have begun serving up your follower’s favorited Tweets. Many people (especially at the outset) were resistant to this change. Even I was less than pleased about this invasiveness on Twitter’s part and replied to a few of these favorited Tweets with something like …

I thought maybe the hashtag would catch on, Twitter would take notice, and the algorithms would be out the window. It didn’t, they didn’t, and it is probably inevitable that additional curated content algorithms will have a hand in user’s feeds.

However, after further consideration of Twitter’s move to serve me my follower’s favorited Tweets, I came around. The move would be a good one for Twitter. They have even stated their own reasons for this change. Personally, I think it’ll encourage curated content and closer-knit collectives and will be doing just this very thing for me in 2015. This is how …

Twitter’s Favorite ≠ Facebook’s Like

I’ve shifted my perspective on what it means to favorite a Tweet. I don’t think Twitter’s favoriting feature was ever intended to serve the same purposes as Facebook’s like feature. I could be wrong. People have written on the origin of the fave and the various ways in which it’s employed today. Here’s my new take on what it means to favorite a Tweet.

I have begun to think that a favorites feed should serve as one’s own personal library of Tweets. You read books and then place them on a shelf. Your personal library is a collection of books that you have found to hold value or books you may wish to read again later. If a friend stops by, they can peruse your bookshelves, pluck a volume from its place and enjoy what it might have to offer. Your library tells a story about who you are. If someone were to ever drop by my profile’s favorite feed, they should be offered a decent glimpse of me and the things I value. This is how I intend to build my favorites feed.

In 2015, I resolve to stop using a favorite as a simple acknowledgment or an affirmation. Such favoriting would continue to produce an endless feed of messages like this …

I would rather encounter a rich library of resources, good reads, and inspirational thoughts and I think you would, too.

Is Tweeting for the Birds?

At the end of the day, who knows whether I have a better grasp on this little corner of the social media landscape. I like to think it offers me some significant benefit relationally, spiritually, and professionally. However, I expect that I might ultimately find, as I have with Facebook, that the virtual life is but a weak substitute for reality. And, someday, I may join the ranks of those who have walked away. Even so, I hold that there is some hope for these communities being daily forged online. For now, I’ll do my part to conserve some unspoilt nature in this virtuworld. Care to join me?

How the Sun Was Brough Back to the Sky Cover
January 15, 2015

How a Book Was Brought Back to My Memory

How the Sun Was Brough Back to the Sky Cover

I’m not quite certain how or why the memory of this book came to mind over the past weeks, but I am most pleased that it has. During a recent Twitter conversation, I was asked for children’s book suggestions and it again entered my mind. I do know that the memory came only as a hazy recollection of the cover image. I had to reach out to mom, dad, and my siblings in order to dig up the title. So thankful we recalled it!

I ordered a used copy on Amazon, which arrived early this week. Adapted from a Slovenian folk tale, the story has beauty, simplicity, and deep lessons for life. One evening, Aelah asked that I read it three times straight. I hope she continues to enjoy it just as much as I did and still do. And, I hope you, too, appreciate this reading of How the Sun Was Brought Back to the Sky by Mirra Ginsburg.

Have you read this book before? I’d love to hear your memories. Also, it’d be great to track down the Slovenian folk tale from which it was adapted, but I have been unable to do so, as of yet. If you know or happen upon it, please share.

List of verses
January 12, 2015

Navigating Decisions With Spiritual Discernment

Have you ever read an article that just stuck? Years ago, while working at Camp Lutherhaven, I was introduced to Discipleship Journal, a now retired NavPress publication. In one issue, there was an article about the voice of God and how we can best tune our ear to hear Him. After having read the article, I jotted the following notes & quote and tucked them in my Bible. I don’t remember much else from that piece, but I would happen upon this folded sheet of paper from time to time.

Within the past two years, or so, it found its way out of my Bible and has been lost a time or two. A portion of the sheet has now been ripped away – in order, I suppose, to serve some small purpose of its own. The remnants continue to wear. I thought that before it is lost again or wears away to nothing, I ought to share it here. I hope you benefit.

List of versesThe following table was presented by the author. He suggested that when weighing a decision, one should consider and pray over these things. And, if a course of action would do well in leading you from the ungodly to the Godly, it may well be pursued. In this way, we can modeestly map and navigate what God might will for us in each situation and in each choice that confronts us.

Verse From To
Matthew 6:33 self-absorption concern for God’s kingdom
1 Samuel 15:19-22 defiance submission
Jeremiah 17:5-8 self-reliance God-reliance
Matthew 25:14-30 squandering resources stewarding them
Luke 17:11-19 expecting & taking for granted accepting & gratitude
2 Peter 1:3-8 spiritual indifference spiritual growth & vitality
1 Samuel 16:7 concern with externals concern for character
Romans 12:1-2 conformity with the culture conformity to God
Philippians 2:3-4 concern for self concern for others
Mark 10:42-45 lording over others serving others
James 3:13-17 quarreling cooperation
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 independence community
1 Corinthians 13:4-13 envy, competition, self-protection love
Ephesians 4:32-5:2 harboring hurt & resentment extending forgiveness & seeking reconciliation

I can’t remember the author of this article. If you know, I’d let m know so that I can give proper attribution. I did take note of the following quotations from Roc Bottomly (who may well be the author of the full article).

If we could mark with a yellow highlighter the messages from God that cross our minds, we’d see yellow daily.

It’s easy to forget that when two of us are talking there are three in the room and it’s that third person’s voice that we most need to hear. We need to keep one ear tuned to God while we listen to the person with the other. Sometimes, we both need to stop talking and listen to God.

Oh, that we might listen. Still our hearts, Lord. Lay us bare before Your grace and love. Turn our desire toward You. It is so easy to numb ourselves amidst the onslaught of this worlds offerings. It is too tempting to embrace the machinations of our own minds. Soften us. Set us right. Lift Your voice just enough to gather our attentions again. And then, whisper the wind and send Your word as mist among us – resfreshing our weary souls.

Reflect On the above passages
Praise God that His word is full or grace and truth
Offer Thanks for His messages we might highlight yellow
Confess those times when you may have stopped up your ears
Ask God to pluck you from the madness of daily life into a rhythm of rest
to tune your ear to that third voice in every conversation
 Comment Can you think of other items that might be added to this list?
What decisions are you facing that could benefit from a new perspective?

 

January 7, 2015

How I Plan to Check My Email

In the days leading up to 2015, I undertook a massive overhaul of my email and task management. I’ve already begun to see returns.

Previously

Since beginning work at the Prayer League, I had been using a single Gmail account to manage both personal and work messages. Three active accounts were being funneled into a single inbox. Messages sent to my two work addresses were then auto-tagged as WMPL and removed from my personal inbox. I also used Gmail’s priority inbox with sections for Unread, Starred, and Everything Else to offer some semblance of organization from which I rarely benefited. My todo list was little more than a mess of scattered emails that had been flagged. Messages were easily left untended and tasks were neglected.

Email Field Guide

Over break, I read through an Email Field Guide by @MacSparky that offered some excellent suggestions on managing email. In a section titled, Your Inbox Is Not Your Task List he presents the following metaphor.

Imagine that mailbox outside your house. There is a pretty simple workflow involved with paper mail. A very nice postal worker arrives at your abode and crams lots and lots of paper into a little box. You then fetch the paper and sort through it. You throw some of it away. You read some. You may even scan some and keep it for later.

The one thing you are not going to do is walk out to your mailbox, look through your mail, and then stuff it all back in your mailbox, wishing the postal worker luck getting tomorrow’s load into the already full box. That would be crazy.

Nevertheless, crazy is what a lot of us do every day.

Yes, I have long been guilty of this very thing. It was time to figure something new.

Moving Forward

First, I attempted to determine which tools would best serve my needs. I settled on:
Evernote
cloudmagic
qs_postboxPostbox • An OSX email client
CloudMagic • An iOS email client
Evernote • For note-taking & task list

Both email clients integrate very well with Evernote, allowing me to effortlessly save messages as todo list items. I can then easily keep my inbox clean and my todo list orderly and accessible. After having these tools in place and connecting my various email accounts, I spent a good number of hours purging emails both from my inbox and from my archives. I even went so far as to migrate messages from my personal Gmail back to their corresponding accounts. Currently, the inbox of two accounts sits at zero messages! I intend to keep it that way.

The field guide also suggested that, in addition to your inbox, sent, drafts, and trash folder, you utilize only one additional folder – an Action folder. This will serve as temporary housing for messages that I know need to be acted upon or replied to, but which I can’t immediately do so.

I’ve also set a few filters to better manage some of the incoming mail and have unsubscribed from a number of lists. Finally, and quite significantly, I intend to devote specific time each day to checking mail rather than depending upon notifications, which offer such unwelcome interruptions. All my email notifications have been disabled. (Note: This means you may find me a bit less prompt in responding, but hopefully more dependably so.)

It is a radical shift in perspective, but a generously healthy one. Let’s hope I can keep up the new routine long enough so that it becomes nothing less than my natural workflow.

What do you think? Could you benefit from some sanity when it comes to your email? What simple steps could get you headed in the right direction?

Update Aug 18, 2015

todoistSince setting this workflow in place, I have since moved my task management to Todoist. Evernote was a bit too unwieldy for the purposes of task management. I have been wonderfully pleased with Todoist, which integrates seamlessly with most other tools I use.

January 6, 2015

Joyfully Scattered Days

This new year has brought with it some good direction, clarity, and motivation for me personally, but we still have some scatteredness in our lives. Case in point, this weekend, Aelah sported an owl puppet mitten since we could only locate one of her mittens.

It was a good and full weekend! Friday afternoon, I joined Mark and his friend Nate for a couple brewery drinks. We then joined the Meier family at their home for a rocklette dinner. Aelah and I did a small bit of grocery shopping on Saturday, then enjoyed a daddy-daughter lunch date of grilled cheese, tomato soup, monkey bread and root beer at Pow-Wow Grounds Coffee and All My Relations Gallery. That evening, Dave, Carly, Adam, Josh, Mark, and I gathered for a game of Battlestar Galactica wherein which I managed to play very little. Sunday morning, Prepare the Way led music for worship at Trinity Lutheran in Waconia after which we enjoyed lunch at a mexican restaurant with the Meiers.

All in all, an enjoyable start to the new year!

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