"A Wish You Aim For"
EPISODE 197
Learn from Past Experiences
If your past year were a movie, what genre would it be? And what do gratitude and belief have to do with setting goals? This week we look backward and forward with the help of a book fit for a new year, as the Bible Geeks Book Club returns. Michael Hyatt’s Your Best Year Ever, a resource Ryan had used for years, leads us through a process for “catching up” with the past and planning the year ahead. We consider what Jesus and the book of Proverbs teach us about planning. Then we go Flyin’ Through the Book, before slowing down to reflect on what limiting beliefs threaten to hold us back as we move forward into 2024.
Takeaways
The Big Idea: Looking back helps us look forward.
This Week's Challenge: Look back on the past year and note some lessons learned, some successes, and any changes you want to make going forward.
Episode Transcription
A goal is a wish you aim for. That is, that's pretty powerful, man. I, uh, I almost wish you had sung that for us so I could use that as the introduction for this episode, but. Well, hello everyone and welcome to the Bible Geeks podcast. This is episode 197. I'm Bryan Schiele. I'm Ryan Joy. And thanks so much everyone for tuning in. Man, it has been a wild few weeks. I don't know with the transition to the new year that always feels like a big, heavy thing and we've been planning some stuff. We've got some things bubbling in the mix right now, which we will be talking about on upcoming episodes for sure. But I just wanted to say that, you know, if you're expecting today for us to be in the AV club, looking at the chosen season one episode four, which by the way, we said we were going to do on the last episode. Sorry guys, we're not going to do that today. It's coming. It's coming. It's on its way, but you know, we figured we'd take advantage of the new year, the transition here and talk a little bit about goals and habits and things that, you know, really do fit the season. And today we're going to do a little Bible Geeks book club in a little bit. And we're going to talk about a book that I think is really impactful for both of us. So we're going to take a break and just jump right into maybe a different subject here on the podcast. Yeah, I think if you wait until the middle of the year to plan out what we're going to talk about, which is planning your year, it doesn't have as much relevance. So we wanted to do this at the appropriate time and then we'll pick back up with another chosen episode before we get into some other stuff. And so like we do on a lot of our episodes, we're going to start looking at something that Jesus said, or looking at something that we can learn from Jesus. And here in this episode, we're going to go to the teacher, the master teacher himself, and we're going to ask this question from Jesus life. What principles do you learn from Jesus about pausing to reflect and planning for the future and what Bible verse do you use to set goals? And so when we're thinking about goal setting, where do we go when we see Jesus doing these kinds of things, setting his intentions, what really strikes you? Yeah. And it's two different questions. What Bible verses guide you? And then how does Jesus exemplify that in my mind as I was thinking about it? And I was thinking about how I think we both went to Proverbs and thought about how Proverbs is all about wisdom and talks about planning and steadily progressing towards certain goals. There's a verse that I, a two verse set that I think go together that I was thinking of says wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. So that idea of like, you know, you're steadily moving forward towards something. If you permanently defer what your heart is set on, then it doesn't do well for your heart. You start to lose faith. You start to live in a certain kind of disappointment or cynicism, but a desired fulfilled is a tree of life. And what a important biblical metaphor that is this idea of bringing revival, bringing life, bringing us what we need. Whenever we start to see these things that we're pursuing start to be accomplished, but Jesus exemplifies all of that throughout his life, especially as he enters the final phase of the plan for his earthly ministry. And it is a plan. It is something that you see there is an itinerary that he has, and there are things that he has been setting in motion each step of the way and all those times that he's away thinking about things. There are things that he has purposefully designed. And I think of that passage in Luke 9 51 to 52, when the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem and he sent messengers ahead of him who went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make preparations for him. And this is back in chapter nine. So there is a lot of Luke left as the longest book in the New Testament. It's not even halfway through. So the cross is a long way off, but he knows what he needs to do and everything he does purposefully prepares for what he needs to accomplish, especially his focus on finalizing this stage of the disciples training. He really knows what's coming. He knows what he needs to get done with the disciples and in all of the rest of his ministry, and he's moving forward with one eye on where he's going and a real awareness and presence in where he is right now and what is the step that needs to be taken and who is the person that he needs to be teaching and that kind of thing. And so that's what I try to do as I'm thinking about goals. Obviously you go from Jesus and then you take it back to your little life. And it's a very different kind of thing. You're not saving all of humanity, but you want to be fruitful in his service and try to follow his example. So thinking about what does he want my life to be about? What can I accomplish for him in the long term? What can I accomplish for him in the short term? And then just moving forward towards that with intentionality and prayerfulness and a submission to God's will. What about you? Yeah. I was thinking here how we're coming up on our 200th episode. This is episode 197. It's very exciting, but I think the plan is that we're going to try to release our 200th episode on the fourth anniversary of the show. I love it. On February 7th, we started back in 2019. It's been crazy this whole four years, but yeah, 200 episodes. It's funny though, as I look back on where we've been, that not much has changed. Our second episode was called as was his custom. And in that episode, we really spent a whole lot of time talking about how Jesus had this habit of going off alone to meditate and how he really embodied these kinds of things, how he was taking steps every single day to get him to the cross and what a powerful thing that he was going to do for all of us, but even for us, he's leading us in this example to sometimes not always be front stage, not always be out there in front of people, but to focus on himself. That meant sometimes he would go off and be alone. And I think that was really powerful in that conversation way, way back in the day, but you know, it really is not selfish. And that was one of the points that we were making in that episode is it's not selfish for you to think about yourself. It's not selfish for you to make plans and to do things in your life that will push you forward as that proverb said, little by little. You know, I think about Matthew seven and Jesus there in the sermon on the Mount was talking about taking the log out of your own eye so that you could then go on and help other people. And I know he's obviously making another point there about sin, but if you're so focused on everybody else around you, that you can't focus on yourself and take care of yourself, it's really not going to work out very well for you. And so, you know, for us to address ourselves first, I think is really powerful. And Jesus shows that over and over again. The broader point of Matthew seven and that passage is to take responsibility for yourself first. And I think that's what you're talking about. If we're not focused on making sure that we are doing what we need to do, then how can we take a piece of sawdust out of somebody else's eye? We've got this huge plank here. So focus on what do you need to do? And I think that's what you're saying is with this process, we're taking a hard, honest look at our lives and saying, okay, what do I need to do better? Where can I be of service? And then it makes you that much more effective to lead and help others. And that verse that I was thinking of there in Proverbs 16 verse three, commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established. It fits in with what we were just saying there, your work and your plans. That's not really selfishness when you really include the Lord in all of that. And so when we give our work to him, when we, as you said, roll it onto him, that idea of just him helping us in the work. And that is what I think about when I think about goal setting is I'm going to take little steps, little by little. I'm going to find quiet places to rest. I'm going to try to get as much clarity as I can. But when I'm faced in the moment of decision to go this way or that way, is the Lord going to be the guiding factor for me in which choice I make? And all of these plans I might have, it's going to be important to keep him in mind. I think as we think about Jesus here is a good way to start out this conversation. So we're going to do here a Bible Geeks Book Club episode, part one, and then next week we'll close it up with part two on this book, Your Best Year Ever by Michael Hyatt. I think it's just any excuse to use that theme song. Don't take our word for it. All right, Levar Burton. So we've got Your Best Year Ever by Michael Hyatt. The subtitle in this book is A Five Step Plan for Achieving Your Most Important Goals, and this was your book pick this time. This is something that you have read in the past. I've never read this, so this is my first time going through it, but definitely not a religious book, although there are scriptures and passages woven in throughout this book from time to time. Michael Hyatt is definitely a productivity guru. He likes to focus on these kinds of things. He's got a lot of other books in this space. This is a book that is, I would call it a systems book, like N Number of Steps to Accomplish Blank. He sort of has this idea of marketing a lot of things very closely with his brand and his business, and I had a thought as I was reading this that I wasn't going to appreciate a lot of the trademarks and the commercial pitches and things like that here. But I actually really enjoyed this book. Getting past a lot of that stuff, it has quite a few helpful reminders for me, especially as I started out the new year. Yeah, it's in this space of self-help that I usually run away from sometimes, but it's something that I actually got turned on to it a long time ago with a course, like seven years ago, a video course long before the book was written that he did. And I've just found it to be an efficient system for really thinking through your year. And Michael Hyatt's background is in the faith-based publishing industry. He was president and then chairman of Thomas Nelson, who's you might know of as the publisher and developer of the New King James version, but they do all kinds of other books. But over the last decade, like he said, he's written bestsellers about leadership and life planning and productivity. And so there are some super subtle undercurrents of religion, but his books are really the business space. They're usually Wall Street Journal bestsellers kind of things. And I think that it's not the kind of book that I normally would want to camp on in the Bible geeks area. Like there's a long list of kind of devotional classics that I'm hoping we could get to. But as we were talking about the new year and thinking about how we wanted to engage the goal setting, we always do that seemed to be an idea at least worth considering. And it was good for me to go through it again. I mean, this book is kind of our jam, by the way. I mean, it is sort of right in our wheelhouse goals and leadership and habits. And it is definitely something we like to talk about. I think it's important for growth minded people, especially growth minded disciples, to spend some time regularly reevaluating our lives. Hopefully we're all doing that. I like to do that a lot, but you know, books like this, I think help us at least get inspired to think differently about things. They might challenge us with questions we've not asked ourselves before. And I don't know if this is really going to move the needle for anybody in a big way, but I like this book. I thought it was really helpful for me. So I think it's definitely a good contender for a Bible Geeks Book Club entrant here as we read through this together. And I hope our listeners, even if they don't read the books, will get something from this discussion. I think that in a way we summarize these things so that if you really just want to cliff notes, we're giving you something here. But I would encourage people to pause and do some work with thinking back and looking forward. And every year for the past like seven or eight years, Adrian and I, my wife and I have been using some worksheets that I got from that video course years ago. I usually haven't read the book. I just use the worksheet and work through the five steps. And usually we'll say, OK, we're going to do a five day process where each evening we're going to take an hour each or whatever it takes. And we're going to work separately in our journals and our notebooks. And then we come together and we talk about it and carving out that time, which is not always easy in December or in January. It has really paid massive dividends in our lives. And really, the process isn't groundbreaking, but it's a really helpful, effective summary for this annual process of planning. And like anything, you get what you put into it. Right. We show up each year ready to work through the wounds of the past year, the gifts of the past year, the really doing deep work in our heart and then talk about it together. And we're sharing things that we hadn't really maybe even fully reflected on ourselves. And so, you know, I would encourage you, as Michael Hyatt does, to think about doing this with a partner. So I think our prayer with all of this is that you, the listener, can take a purposeful, prayerful approach to your year as you aim to serve the Lord with some daring faith and some fruitfulness and that this conversation over the next two episodes will forward you in that process. So let's just go through the book. This is definitely a book that we can summarize fairly quickly. And maybe that leads us into this wonderful segment that we have called Flying Through the Book. I feel the need, the need for speed. All right, check your clocks here. We'll see how long it takes us to get through this. But the book starts out with this first introductory section called Your Best Year is Yet to Come. And I think it really is just that optimistic looking forward to the future that this book lays out in the beginning. Step one. Again, I called this a systems book with a bunch of steps. So step one of the five step process, Michael says, is to believe the possibility. And he's really spending this whole first section here on belief and your beliefs that hold you back, your beliefs that shape your reality and how really there is a process for upgrading our beliefs. Just because you believe something does not necessarily mean that things are fixed and set. We need to be able to wrestle with the beliefs that hold us back. And he calls them here limiting beliefs and how these limiting beliefs can keep us pinned down and stuck. And he describes them as like black and white thinking and personalizing, catastrophizing and universalizing. You know, as I was reading through this, I definitely found myself doing these kinds of things from time to time, talking to myself, telling myself that things aren't going to change or relationships aren't going to get any better or whatever it is. But it's our beliefs that really change our lives. And if we can change our beliefs, that's really going to make a big impact on what we can do in the future. A very biblical concept. Yeah. Step one is restoring and refreshing your belief. Believe the possibility. And then step two is about completing the past. And he talks about how we need to think backwards. There's that old saying about those who don't learn from the past. They're doomed to repeat it. Regret, he says, reveals opportunities. Says a lot of times you regret the things most that you could have done differently or that you can change, not the things that are out of your control. And so learn from those regrets. And then he has this great chapter on gratitude. And so this process right here, step two, really day one and day two of this process, if you're doing it in successive days, are the key to the whole thing, in my opinion. Don't skip them confronting our cynicism and our, our doubts, our regrets and disappointments, really restoring faith, looking at where you feel underappreciated for some of the things that you really did. And it's not about looking for credit. It's about being honest with yourself about where you are and what really happened. And you're not going to go out and then promote yourself on it. You're going to just acknowledge these are some things that I did well. These are some things I did poorly. How can I go forward in God's service differently? And I always start to remember all the resources available to me in this process, really learning some hard lessons, really growing and just having some confidence and completion with the past and some confidence going forward. I love his emphasis on gratitude though. I just, that's what struck me here. It's so good. I think you're going to talk about the George Bailey principle, but this is one of the things that really stuck with me and I've been thinking about a lot. I don't remember this whenever I did the course before and the, it really jumped out at me this time too. Well, I mean, of course, because we just watched Wonderful Life last month with the family. So it's my favorite Christmas movie and this George Bailey principle that he talks about is if you have difficulty with gratitude, practicing, imagining life without one of your blessings and just thinking through what would it be like George Bailey seeing what your life would be like without a family member, without the church, without the gifts you have, whatever it is. And that is, is a really powerful part of the process. And I totally agree with you by the way, that it's really important not to skip steps one and two, if you're going to go through this, because the tendency for me, at least was to jump right into step three, which is where I think we think about more often than not when thinking about goal setting is creating goals. And you might just jump right into making goals, but without that backstory of what is it that you believe, what's holding you back and dealing with those things, really wrestling with those things in your past. I don't think we can really move forward without a lot of that baggage tied to us in some way. So step three here is design your future. And so he talks about great goals, check seven boxes. Again, this is definitely very corporate in the way that he's laying all this stuff out. It feels like I'm sitting in front of my computer screen at work, going through some sort of a business focused checklist of things. But I think these are all really important for us to grapple with. And he talks about achievements and habits, how they work together, how goals can be both achievement goals, meaning like you've accomplished something and you checked off a box or habits that are sort of ongoing, but these kind of work together. And then he talks about risk being your friend. And I really appreciated this section on risk because for me, a lot of the times I want to do things that don't involve a lot of risk and I don't want to fail. So I don't want to put myself out there too much, or I don't want to get embarrassed that I didn't accomplish something. So maybe I won't do the kinds of risky kinds of things that he talks about here. And so he lays this out really talking about these seven smarter goals. You've heard of smart goals. He calls them here smarter goals and that's specific, measurable, actionable, risky, time keyed, exciting and relevant. I think those last two were really important as they sort of helped us see that we're not going to want to achieve our goals or really get to the finish line of where we want to be if we're not invested in it, if we're not really excited about it. And if those goals really don't mean anything for my day to day life today. So he's talking here about setting these kinds of goals with a good mixture on achievements and habits and how we should really put ourselves in the discomfort zone. How we should get out there and do things that really push us and challenge us and are risky as he talks about there in those goals. And so I think this is a really important chapter. And if this is something that you reference back to quite frequently, I could see why. But again, I think there's a lot here that we could dive into. But just flying through the book, smarter goals are definitely the way to go, as at least as this book lays out that risky idea is counterintuitive. Like you want to replace it with a different are like realistic. But you want to have feel like you're on an adventure, like you're stepping out into a dangerous space here. And when you accomplish it, it's that much more motivating to keep moving forward. And whenever you are feeling like your risky goal was unrealistic, that's when you need step four, find your why, which is all about motivation that you need to have a sense of what is the whole big idea behind this? Why? Why do I care so much about doing this whenever everything gets hard and ugly and it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to accomplish it? I don't know if you've ever started a goal or a project with that full head of steam. And then you get to the messy middle of the process and you start to lose momentum. Yeah. Maybe the whole thing comes to a standstill or it's just you bury it and set it aside and move on to things that feel more realistic. But to help overcome that kind of thing, he suggests making a list of reasons you want to stick with it. What's a more simple approach than just here's a list of reasons to do this. And then, you know, he suggests carefully selecting your top three and going back to them over and over again and selecting some people that you can share these goals with and that you can have a supportive community cheering you on and thinking through these things with you, bringing accountability. You don't have to share it with everybody, but maybe think about who is your community of people or who's your partner that's going to help you get to that next place. And as we like to do in our conversations with each other, especially in all of our guided studies that we put together, there is a focus on action here. And that is step five of this book, Your Best Year Ever. Make it happen. And again, you can talk all day, you can write and journal and talk to your friends and think and pontificate. But man, if you don't get out there and take the step, yeah, we're really not going to make a lot of difference in our lives. And I know we all know that and that seems pretty obvious. But, you know, he does talk about some ways to help ourselves take those steps. And the sections here, he talks about the journey being many steps and we have to start with small actions or big actions. Just start with an action. There's a lot of stuff that I've read. We should eat the frog, tackle the most challenging problem right off the bat. And some people will say, well, you got to eat the ice cream first and you got to start with the easy thing that you really want to do. Whatever it is, just get out there and start. And so he talks about triggering success, basically giving ourselves such a low barrier to entry that we almost fall over. He's very much promoting the eat the ice cream approach here that you really could get in there and just try something and make it happen. So visibility, he says, is essential here. And so he talks about breaking down big goals into manageable next steps. And I think that's really the power in this section for me. You might have these lofty things that you want to accomplish someday, but it's really important to make them small and manageable and break them down in such a way that you can do something with it on a week to week basis on a day to day basis. He talks about activation triggers here where really you're not relying on your willpower, but you're relying on elimination and automation and delegation. So, you know, if you really have struggles eating those donuts in the evening after work, well, don't have them in your house. Or if there's ways that you can automate things so that you don't have to think about it, but the stuff you want to do is getting done, then that's great. Or if you have a friend that you can give these things to and make them do it for you, that's even better. So there's all kinds of things that he talks about here that I think are really helpful in just reminding us to get out there and do the things that we say we want to do. And then he talks at the end here about a goal review and setting ourselves up to regularly go through and review what it is we said we wanted to do. And on a weekly basis, on a daily basis, going back through and doing a really quick review to be able to make sure, is this what I still want to do? Is this still a goal I want to be pushing for? Or do I need to rewrite this goal or revisit this goal or change it in some way? And he talks then at the end, wraps everything up by basically just telling us to get out there, take the action and take the leap as he wraps this book up. So that's flying through the book. Maybe that was like 12 minutes of conversation there about this fairly short, easy to read book. What do you think? Yeah, as you were talking about the idea of taking those steps, I wanted to share something that I've been doing with the kids. So my theme with my time in the mornings with the kids this month is goal setting appropriately. And my oldest is 11, but my youngest is five. So you got to start at the basic level. So the other day I took them to the mall. Everything's cold here, so you can't do very much, but you can go inside the mall. And I gave them coins and had them throw them behind their back into a wishing well and to make a wish. And then right next to the wishing well, there is this airsoft target range. And so we went over there and we shot the guns. And then we talked about this idea that a goal is a wish you aim for. And I made up a little song for them to remember, set to the tune of a song from, I think, Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella, that a goal is a wish you aim for when you're wide awake. A goal is a wish you aim for and plan the steps you'll take. And we have all been singing that song for a week and a half now. And but it's just such a simple way to get it. They know how to make a wish and they know how to accomplish things. You know, you start to think through all your wishes and some things you can't do anything about, some things you don't want to do anything about. But then there's things that you can target and you can start to, with the Lord's help, make happen with other people's help sometimes. And so as you talked about making a plan and planning the steps you'll take and taking action, that's that story came to mind. A goal is a wish you aim for. That is that's pretty powerful, man. I I almost wish you had sung that for us so I could use that as the introduction for this episode. But yeah, I think that's great. I was also encouraged over the last couple of weeks to see my daughter beg and borrow a journal, a blank journal from me. And she's been going off and filling it up and being real creative and artistic with it. And we've talked, we've had opportunities in our house to talk a little bit about goal setting as well. And I think even just getting our kids started young with this kind of stuff is important. But maybe let's get into something a little bit more personal as we move into our reach out segment. Let's get in here to a little bit of a conversation about this first section of the book, section one and the beliefs that we hold here in our reach out question. We're going to ask each other what limiting beliefs did you identify as holding you back and what truths can give you freedom and perspective to get past them? So Ryan, what's your limiting beliefs and what are your liberating truths? As he talks about here in the book to help you get past them. Yeah, I made five different ones in different areas of life and connected them again, each one to a liberating truth. And I think that exercise is really helpful. I've actually used that process in thinking with people about evangelism and thinking about all kinds of different aspects of the church's life and our relationships, because these things that block us, these beliefs we have can really hold us back, but scripture reveals a different kind of truth. And one of the themes that I saw as I was looking at mine this year is it sometimes feels like the same old problems will keep happening, you know, like, okay, we're never moving forward. I mean, it's like a fundamental limiting belief, I guess. And the truth is that in so many areas of my life, I stand in a different place than I did a year ago. Adrian and I had a hard year of marriage this year. We, we worked and we worked with each other and we, she was going through some things that we had to make a bunch of adjustments on and we talked and persevered through difficulty and we're stronger than ever and we're more connected and more ready for whatever is next than ever. But it was, it was challenging, but it's not like we're in the same place we were. And you can start to feel that idea. In the church, we've all worked so hard. And I started wondering if members are so spent that they've disconnected from the vision and they won't want to work to create it anymore. But in reality, what a few years ago was just a vision and a loose plan is becoming a reality as we all see some of the fruits of our labor and as we're all learning to work more sustainably, like, you know, sometimes you just go in all in spurts and everybody gets kind of burnt out, but then you start to learn to do the work for the long haul and to not try to do everything, but to find roles for everybody. And so I know the work will continue because of where we are and because of our prayerful approach to this work. So yeah, that was, that was a theme that I noticed. What about you? Well, yeah, I think a lot of the things I've been thinking of recently fit in the same veins of the things that you were talking about, just from the standpoint of what he talks about in this book, he talks about scarcity thinkers and abundance thinkers and how scarcity thinkers are the kinds of people who they have a fixed mindset. They see challenges as obstacles. They avoid risk. They think small and they're not able to see how they can make progress. And there have been a lot of aspects of my life over the last few years where I've developed that thinking, like how I don't see a path out of just the constant busyness of life, or I don't see a way to deal with the challenges that I might be facing in my marriage or in my parenting or, you know, as being a son in my family, like all these things, I have developed the mindset that I just can't do anything about these things. It is limiting. It is. It's definitely not something that I am seeing the possibilities in. And that's been one of the biggest mindset shifts over the past maybe six months that I've been really trying to deal with is seeing the abundance here, seeing what God really can do with all these situations in my life through my day to day actions. I can change things. I can put things in place that really make a difference in my family, in my work, in everything that I do. And so I can, and I think I am starting to see some of these challenges as opportunities and I am beginning to embrace risk more and thinking bigger and learning and looking for opportunities to grow. It's not my default. I'll just say that. Like it's not my default to jump right into thinking big and, and being an abundance kind of thinker, but it's something I really want to be focused more on because naturally I can build up stories and I can convince myself of things and all of these limiting beliefs, especially in my work and especially in the time that I'm spending with things. Like I feel like I have spent a lot of time doing the Martha work and I need to reframe my work in terms of doing the Mary kind of work, if that makes sense, just using those opportunities, not to get so caught up in the maintenance of things and the busyness of things, but to just put some blockades in place or put some guard rails or boundaries in place to be able to do the things and spend the time doing the things that I know are most important. I know that's not super detailed, but for me, it really just weaves its way through a lot of my life. So just asking myself what kind of opportunity costs am I paying for being so fixed in the ways that I've always done things that's been a helpful reminder for me. I love that. That scarcity idea and abundance, there is so much to work through for each of us in different areas of life where we're just, we become so protective and so in a zero sum kind of a thinking. And really the Bible talks a lot about what we have abundantly, you know, words like pouring out, overflowing and that kind of thing are frequent in scripture as far as the life and the grace and the blessings and the power from God and that kind of thing. And then there's something in between scarcity and abundance that we sometimes need to settle into that can free us from scarcity thinking just as much as the idea of abundance can, which is in between scarcity and abundance is sufficiency. Yeah. Like I have enough, I have enough, I have enough to do what I need to do. I might not have more than enough, but I have enough to give. I have enough to live, whether we're thinking about money or energy or time. That's a really helpful idea too. But yeah, in abundance, you start to realize all the resources from God that are available to you, all the people who are willing to support you and that availability and that sense of possibility starts to become generative of a different way of approaching God's work and our own lives. I like it. All right. So let's wrap this thing up. I know we've got another episode to talk about this book and we're probably going to get into some really cool things in the next episode. But as we get into that, let's have a challenge for this week. I think that would be appropriate given the topic of the day. I am ready to face any challenges that might be foolish enough to face me. So the challenge for this week is to look back on the past year and note some lessons learned, some successes and any changes that you want to make going forward. I think this is helpful. I've been doing this a lot actually in the past few weeks, looking forward, looking back and where do I want to be in 2024? I love this and I hope that a big group of people decide to do this work of really slowing down, really thinking carefully about where they are. And like I said, I know it is a powerful part of my life. A while back, I read this story about these African tribesmen who were leading a group of missionaries, tribe to tribe, village to village through the difficult terrain and the missionaries were in a big hurry and they were going and they were going and eventually the tribesmen just stopped and the missionaries were like, "Hey, where are you going? Why aren't you working with us and continuing to move forward?" And they said they had to stop and let their souls catch up with their bodies. I love that. And from a metaphorical sense, sometimes I get way ahead of myself. Sometimes my body is way ahead of my real well-processed heart and thoughts. And I just need to settle in and catch up with myself and learn from the past, complete the past, give thanks for what I've received and be where I am so that then I can move forward. And I think the turning of the calendar is as good a time as any to do that. So I hope everybody will take us up on this challenge. Yeah. And speaking out of time here, I know we are recording a podcast and we are releasing this in the middle of January, but if you're catching up with the show and you're listening and it's like August right now, there's work to do here too. Like you can just jump in at any point in time and do some of these things. Think about where you are now. Think about where you used to be over the past 12 months or six months or however long, and what do you want to make changes in going forward? I think there's a lot of power in this any time of year, but especially, like you said, at the turning of the calendar, let your soul catch up with your body and just take some time to think. So thank you so much everyone for tuning in to the Bible Geeks podcast. You can find us on our website at biblegeeks.fm. You can find show notes for this episode in your podcast player of choice. And also we will be closing up this conversation with part two coming up on the next episode, so tune in for that. And until next episode, everyone may the Lord bless you and keep you. Shalom. [MUSIC PLAYING]