Time to Stop Voting

 From James Clear's weekly newsletter 8/6/21:

"A quick and easy tip for building habits that last:

Pick a standard time and place to do it.

It’s easier to wake up knowing "I exercise at 4pm" than to decide each time when to fit a habit into your day.

If it’s already decided, all you need to do is show up."

I'm reminded of working with a vice principal who one day stated that he gave up voting many years before. As a former government teacher, I was appalled.

Then he said, "I gave up voting if I was going to walk and read my Bible every day. I go to bed every night and set my alarm to have time to read the Bible first and then walk every morning. I don't wake up in the morning and vote if I'm going to do those or not."

I'm thinking about the things I need to quit voting about.

I Am a Debtor

Yesterday the minister at church quoted from I Am a Debtor, a poem by Robert Murray McCheyne. These are two of my favorite stanzas from the poem.

When this passing world is done,
When has sunk yon glaring sun,
When we stand with Christ in glory,
Looking o’er life’s finished story,
Then, Lord, shall I fully know –
Not till then – how much I owe.

When I stand before the throne,
Dressed in beauty not my own,
When I see thee as thou art,
Love thee with unsinning heart,
Then, Lord, shall I fully know –
Not till then – how much I owe.

Then later in the afternoon I was doing my regular Bible reading and not being too excited about Isaiah. Then I read chapter 55 and I read these verses. Oh the wonderful invitation of God to seek Him, and I am reminded how much I owe.

“Come, everyone who thirsts,
    come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
    come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
    without money and without price.

“Seek the Lord while he may be found;
    call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake his way,
    and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,
    and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
    and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
    giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
    it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
    and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

“For you shall go out in joy
    and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
    shall break forth into singing,
    and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
    instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is an excellent read--much is common sense but so easy to overlook when trying to establish good habits or end bad habits. I already have used Make it Easy to complete the book. I like to read on the train but lately I get on and am tired. I end up playing a game on my phone or just sit. To finish the book and establish the habit to read on my afternoon ride home, I now take the book out of my bag while still in my office and carry it to the train. It shouldn't be so hard to take a book out of a bag to read, but this ensures I've made it easy to read.

Another idea I've practiced is "the most effective way to change your habits is to focus not on what you want to achieve, but on who you wish to become." So my change of eating habits the past 9 months wasn't a diet to lose weight but to be a person who eats mostly healthy food.

The most effective way to change your habits is to focus not on what you want to achieve, but on who you wish to become.

Pair this with The 7 Habits of highly Effective People. The two would set a high school graduate on a good life path.

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Book Review: A Time for Mercy

A Time for Mercy by John Grisham
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Jake Brigance has been a favorite character of mine since I first read John Grisham in 1993 and will always look like Matthew McConaughey in my mine. A Time for Mercy is classic Grisham and right in his sweet spot as a legal novel set in north Mississippi. (I think every time he's left that topic and location except for some in DC his books fall short--think his attempts at sports writing, Camino Island, etc.)

My one complaint is how quickly the side plots are wrapped up in the last two chapters. Again, classic Grisham.

Written in the same vein as A Time To Kill but not quite as charged. It was a great read for my holiday weekend that kept me up too late on two nights to find out what happens.


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Book Review: Speaking for Myself

Speaking for Myself: Faith, Freedom, and the Fight of Our Lives Inside the Trump White House by Sarah Huckabee Sanders
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a Christmas gift that I started in January but had to put down for awhile due to work reading. I finally got back to it last week and couldn't put it down. Sarah Huckabee Sanders had probably the hardest job in politics--conveying Trump's message to a press that for the most hated him. The book details her childhood as daughter to governor of Arkansas, her introduction to politics working in her father's campaign, and her moving to the Trump campaign. Her faith and family transcended her work in the West Wing.
(One advantage of e-reader is being able to save quotes from a book. I haven't figured out how to save in GoodReads from a "real" book.)
Excellent read--highly recommend!

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Book Review: In-N-Out Burger: A Behind-the-Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules

Living in Texas I've had a few In-N-Out burgers but not many. (The Texas dispute is Whataburger or In-N-Out, and I'd take In-N-Out any day of the week.) This book is 11 years old so much more to the story. The chain has spread far eastward since publication.

It's an interesting read about the cult burger chain but much is repeated--example the location of store #1 in Baldwin Park. The book also goes back and forth in time which is somewhat confusing. 

My heart really went out to Esther Snyder, co-founder of the chain with her husband, as she endured so much tragedy after a long life of hard work.

Mostly I'm hungry for a burger and plan to look up the secret menu on the internet.

I got the book because I saw it listed in two or more important business books to read within just a few days. After reading I'm not sure I'd include it in that type of list; however, it was a good train read.

Book Review: The Colour Box

 

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The lives of Anne Hart Gilbert and Elizabeth Hart Thwaites are perfectly summed up on the last page of the book, “The thousands of slaves—they are their memorial.” What an amazing story of two mixed-race sisters whose Christian beliefs caused them to value all people. Their concerted efforts to teach slaves how to read and do numbers along with teaching the Bible prepared the slaves in Antigua to be ready for freedom in one step in 1834 rather than in stages as occurred on most Caribbean islands.

 Having lived in Antigua for 38 years, Barbara Waite very capably captures Antiguan culture including dialect. She also carefully crafts the story to be historically accurate while filling in the gaps with a compelling characters and sub-plots. 

The Colour Box will leave you challenged to deeper Christian living and care of all—messages we all need in today’s world.