God's Overflowing Mercy, The Power of Today, Demanding The Best of Yourself
The Disciple-Leader Newsletter #71
Discipleship
“Not once are we told that God is ‘provoked to love’ or ‘provoked to mercy.’ His anger requires provocation; his mercy is pent up, ready to gush forth. We tend to think: divine anger is pent up, spring-loaded; divine mercy is slow to build. It’s just the opposite. Divine mercy is ready to burst forth at the slightest prick.”1
Dane Ortlund
God loves you more deeply, more perfectly, and more profoundly than your human cognition will ever be able to even begin comprehending. God is for you. He loves you more than you love you. He never tires of forgiving.2 His heart towards you is tender, soft, and warm, never reluctant.3 Never disinclined or apathetic. Jeffrey R. Holland said, “Surely the thing God enjoys most about being God is the thrill of being merciful, especially to those who don’t expect it and often feel they don’t deserve it.”4 He delights to shower you with divine love. He immediately blesses you when you follow Him.5
Divine mercy is ready to burst forth at the slightest prick. It doesn’t take much. This week, find a way to exercise your faith and feel His perfect love for you.
Leadership
“It is noble to give your life for a cause. It is even more noble to give your daily life to it.”6
Pete Davis
If you’re a sports fan, you’ve heard coaches talk about the idea of “stacking days”. It’s been the theme of Kevin Young’s (BYU basketball coach) tenure. He talks about it so much that people even made a shirt in honor of it.7
Why do coaches emphasize this philosophy so much? Nick Saban gave his explanation for it: “It’s really important that they (the players) are able to focus on what they control today. We have so many players here who get frustrated about what happened yesterday, or they get complacent because they had success yesterday, and then we get some players who are worried about what’s going to happen in the future, but really the things you do today, correctly—making the right choices, having the right work ethic, preparing yourself to go out and perform at a high-level on a consistent basis—that’s what really prepares you for the future. Understand that’s what you control and that’s what’s going to help you in your future. All of us are a little addicted to tomorrow. I’ll quit smoking tomorrow, I’ll go on a diet tomorrow, I’ll lose weight tomorrow. But really, making it happen today is the way you improve, is the way you get better, is the way you create more value for yourself.”8
There is no other mindset that works. Approaching your life in time periods longer than today leads to endless procrastination and, ultimately, endless consternation. Your life is made up of days. You have to think about your life through this lens.
Dieter F. Uchtdorf wrote: “As our days go, so go our lives. One author put it this way: ‘A day is like a whole life. You start out doing one thing, but end up doing something else, plan to run an errand, but never get there. … And at the end of your life, your whole existence has that same haphazard quality, too. Your whole life has the same shape as a single day.’
“Do you want to change the shape of your life? Change the shape of your day. Do you want to change your day? Change this hour. Change what you think, feel, and do at this very moment.A small rudder can steer a large ship. Small bricks can become magnificent mansions. Small seeds can become towering sequoias. Minutes and hours well spent are the building blocks of a life well lived.”9
One philosopher described his mindset this way: “He must live each day as if his whole existence were telescoped down to the single day before him. With no useless regret for the past, no useless worry for the future, he should live that day as if it were his only day,—the only day left for him to assert all that is best in him, the only day left for him to conquer all that is worst in him.”10
You don’t know how many, but the truth is, you only have so many days left to live. Maybe you have thousands. Maybe not! Don’t wait to live. Your life is only as beautiful and rich as are your days. Said another way, the quality of your life is only as good as the quality of your days. If you want to have a life you are proud of, follow the counsel of John Wooden: “Make each day your masterpiece.”11
Mental Performance
“How long are you going to wait before you demand the best of yourself?”12
Epictetus
Read that Epictetus quote again. And again. And again. And again. And again.
The world is waiting for your response.
Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers. Book by Dane Ortlund.
Ortlund also wrote, “He does not get flustered and frustrated when we come to Him for fresh forgiveness, for renewed pardon... It is the very thing He came to heal.”
Laborers in the Vineyard. Talk by Jeffrey R. Holland.
Mosiah 2:24
And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?
https://theroyalblue.co/products/collectively-stacking-days-tee
Daily Restoration. Talk by Dieter F. Uchtdorf.
The Kingship of Self-Control. Book by William George Jordan.
Seneca had a great quote on this as well: "Think of each single day as a single life."
Quote from John Wooden.
I also find it interesting that so many elite coaches—professionals who exist in a world of the highest levels of competition and performance, and whose job is to get the absolute best out of their players, and who have years of proven success doing it—all are convinced about this (and other) principle(s). It’s one of the reasons I’m getting graduate education in performance psychology. Those principles are applicable to every field and are the principles of an elite life.
It’s also important for me to say that the science and principles of performance psych are in perfect alignment with the gospel of Jesus Christ.