The Real Jesus, The Look and Feel of Love, A Cure for Inconsistency
The Disciple-Leader Newsletter #57
Discipleship
“It's impossible to have met the real Jesus and be indifferent. You either bow down in wonder or go away offended.”1
Tim Keller
Consider the effect Jesus had on those who encountered Him.
Peter, on first impression of Jesus, left his dream career to follow Him.
Those who disagreed with Him weren’t satisfied until He was killed.
The Nephites, when Jesus appeared to them, fell at His feet and worshipped him.
If you feel apathetic towards Jesus, it’s not because He isn’t real or because He wouldn’t impact you similarly. It’s because you haven’t really met Him.
Those who meet the real Jesus are never the same.
Leadership
“Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.”2
Robert A. Heinlein
There are so many different definitions, perspectives, and dimensions of love. I think Heinlein’s definition, though simple, is pretty encompassing. What does love feel like? Desiring another’s happiness. What does love look like? Behaving in a way that is most beneficial to their happiness.
When love motivates your behavior, others’ happiness headlines your decisions.
Mental Performance
“You have to want the lifestyle, not just the outcomes.”3
James Clear
Inconsistency is the most common vice in the world. If it isn’t right now, it has undoubtedly affected you at some point. The scenario is all too familiar: You have a dream or a goal, but you haven’t achieved that dream or goal. The reason?
Inconsistency.
You want to get in shape but don’t consistently eat healthy. You want to grow closer to God but don’t consistently exercise faith in Him. You want to make new friends but don’t consistently put yourself out there. Inconsistency holds you back from high performance.
So, why is consistency so hard? What is inconsistency’s root cause?
James Clear wrote, “When you choose the benefits of an action, you also choose the drawbacks. If you want to be an author, you can't only choose the finished novel and book signings. You are also choosing months of lonely typing. If you want to be a bodybuilder, you can't only choose the fit body and attention. You are also choosing the boring meals and calorie counting. You have to want the lifestyle, not just the outcomes. Otherwise, it doesn't make any sense being jealous. The results of success are usually public and highly visible, but the process behind success is often private and hidden from view. It's easy to want the public rewards, but also have to want the hidden costs.”
An inconsistent person, ultimately, desires a comfortable lifestyle over a dream-driven lifestyle. It’s understandable. If your goal is to write a book, for example, that is going to take a massive amount of time and work.
Or will it?
Perhaps your problem with consistency isn’t so much that you prefer comfort or don’t want a purpose-driven lifestyle, but rather an incorrect perception of what a purpose-driven lifestyle requires.
Tim Urban wrote, “And something I try to remind myself is, someone who is writing three hours a day, five days a week, but really focused—the phone is away, deep focused writing, 15 hours a week—it’s shocking how much you can produce. Add those weeks together and 40 weeks later, you have a book. The difference between the prolific writer and then self-loathing person who doesn’t write anything is that one writes for 15 out of their 112 waking hours a week. The other writes for 0 out of their 112 waking hours. So 1/7 vs. 0/7. 6/7th of those two people’s lives are the same. People who can’t put something together have this daunting assumption that the prolific writers is fundamentally different. That they’re working constantly, all the time. It doesn’t have to be that way. It’s consistency.”
Summarizing the two key points:
If you don’t want the lifestyle, you’ll never be consistent enough to see your desired outcome.
When you zoom out, consistency just isn’t as daunting. 1/7 vs. 0/7.
From Heinlein’s book A Stranger in a Strange Land
From his 3-2-1 email newsletter