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2015 Goal Setting

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Here it is, one of my resolutions for 2015 for all to see. I would love to write more blogs. I know I am about 15 years late to blogging being remotely cool and I'm definitely not interested in being popular or elevated among all the other bloggers out there. I simply want to become a better writer and I've been told several times that blogging helps those aspiring to write books. I am currently mapping my first book with the desire that it would be published this year (another goal for 2015)
 
I thought it'd be a great exercise for me to use this blog post to give resources I discussed this last Sunday and also use this resolution to generate new content as an example. 
 
In order to develop this resolution I had to go through the steps I outlined Sunday in establishing a life plan for the new year. 
 
Step 1: Where are you currently?
Answer: Nowhere. I think I have written 2 blog posts in the 4 years I have been in Knoxville, bringing my pace to 1 post every 24 months. I think I can improve. I also have read hundreds of books and have never written one even though I have threatened to write one several times. This last year has very little content generated by me to lead and serve others. 
 
Step 2: What values are the most important to you this year?
Answer: Devotional Life, Family, Health, Leading Legacy, Coaching Leaders, Creating Content for Leaders
 
Step 3: Write a Vision Statement for the values. 
Answer: (I am only doing this for Creating Content, but I have one for Health that was in the sermon Sunday)
 
I am a curator and creator of content that will help those and guide those who lead others whether they be business leaders, church leaders, or church planters. I enjoy teaching and coaching and feel that it fills my tank and places me where I truly enjoy my calling and glorify God effectively. I am spending adequate time polishing, nurturing, and getting coached on how to do this better than I have in the past. My heart is to produce material and methods that will outlive me and go further than me. This will means I am protecting this value and  saying "no" to many things that take me away from this goal. 
 
Step 4: Being specific, list some realistic metrics for these values. 
Answer
(1) Generate 25 blogs in 2015. They can be written anytime, but must come as close to 2x a month as possible. I must link to them in social media in a way that serves people well. 
(2) Write no less than 3 hours per week, to be done mostly if not exclusively on Mondays and Fridays. 
(3) Have my book's first draft finished by April. Have the revisions finished and totally edited by August.
(4) Develop longstanding content for the planter residency that can be used and taught by others. 
 
Step 5: Review weekly and even monthly.
Answer: For me this falls on Monday mornings
 
Step 6: Employ accountability for perspective and help.
Answer: I'll have Chris Harris as accountability in blogs as he supervises Legacy's blog content. I'll have Matt Norman coach me through the emotional challenges of writing and birthing a book. I'll need Kevin to help me keep it all in perspective. 
 
There you have it. I will re-examine this not only weekly but on the week of the 4th of July I'll take honest appraisal and make sure these goals were wise and on track, making changes where I need. 
 
I hope this helps - feel free to leave comments and ask questions. 
 
As promised on Sunday
 
Link to Richard Swenson's work "Margin"
 
Link to Brian Howard's Blog post on setting up a life plan and defining priorities. He has been super helpful to me in balancing how I set resolutions and goals. 

I'm Obligated, and I'm Eager!

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"I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome" (Rom. 1:14-15).

I read this passage this morning, and it struck me as beautiful how Paul juxtaposes these two ideas. I'm obligated, and I'm eager. We needlessly perceive a tension between law and grace, between promise and warning. We hear “obligation,” and we cringe with unsettling images of a distant, domineering master looming, testing, and waiting to see if we measure up. We hear “grace,” and we cringe at the recklessness of free, immeasurable blessing coming to dirty, hopeless people.

But then I read Paul, who identifies as a “servant” and a “messenger;” yet he also “thanks,” “serves with his whole spirit,” and “longs” to please his Master and deliver His message (Rom. 1). Paul is a servant under obligation, and he is also eager to serve. The truth is that Jesus never came to destroy the law. Rather, He came to complete it (Matt. 5:17). Yes, we have an advocate with the Father for all sin, past, present, and future. But why have an advocate if nothing is expected of you? The command for holiness remains.

We often consider God’s expectation of holiness as if it were a restraint, keeping us from good. But this isn’t Paul’s demeanor in the slightest. No, friend, he is eager for the holiness that is expected of him! Now, the question is: Why?

The gospel lifts before our eyes a bloody cross that lavishly forgives every last sin we’ve committed, going further still to call us true children of God Himself, and giving us credit for Jesus’s perfect love for the Father as if we had done the same. It is amazingly beautiful! But if we stop at the display and refuse to gaze in awe, then the gospel is not yet truly beautiful for us. It is merely factual, incomplete and twisted, and even growing close to a false gospel. We’re quick to ignore the "double cure" spoken of in the hymn Rock of Ages. The beauty of the gospel is that God will "save from wrath and make me pure."

The thing about the gospel is that as you truly gaze on Jesus and behold the depth of His exchange, as the Holy Spirit breathes life to this message, you begin to get tunnel vision. Your eyes are stolen by the Son absorbing the full heat of God’s fury and giving you the wealth of adoption to the greatest Father ever known. The weight of it moves you to deep worship and adoration, and sin is simply displaced. There’s just no room left for it. Satisfaction drips from you like a drenched sponge at the nature of God. You’re seeing Jesus. And the shocking result is that who you are at the deepest level begins to change! Restriction blossoms into freedom. Law transforms into beauty. Stiff-arming gives way to embrace. When you meditate on the first cure, you participate in the second. When you see Jesus, you become pure.

Friend, when you come home from work not wanting to serve your family, when you despise that customer who isn’t valuing your time, when you want to blow up at your roommate for not cleaning (again), and when you hate everything that’s interrupting your peace and quite -- in times like these, you need the double cure. You are obligated, but you aren’t eager. In short, you are in the flesh. Gaze of the lavishness of the gospel, the brilliance of God’s patience and justice, and fantasize on the kind of God who would go to such lengths to serve you. Soak it in, and experience the double cure that catapults you out of the flesh and into the Spirit. Only then will you be eager to serve like Jesus and find incredible satisfaction in it!

Posted by Matt Norman with