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These are questions that are always worth asking yourself. For a list of questions I’m currently asking and investigating, see my /questions page. Five-Minute Journal Questions Morning I am grateful for… What would make today great? Daily affirmations: I am… Evening What are 3 amazing things that happened today? How could I have made today even better? Morning Questions (5 minutes) What’s one thing I’m grateful for? What’s one thing I’m excited about? What’s one virtue I want to exhibit? What’s one thing I’m avoiding? What’s the one thing I need to do? Evening Questions (5 minutes) What were my biggest wins of the day? Did I have any major realizations? What’s on the agenda for tomorrow? Bottleneck Breaker What’s the biggest bottleneck to achieving my next goal? Why aren’t I working on it today? 80/20 Analysis Where am I feeling satisfied? Where am I feeling dissatisfied? For each of the above, what are the 20% of places, habits, people, beliefs, etc. that are responsible for 80% of the positive and negative results? Compounding Projection If I repeated every action from today for one year, where would I end up? Is this the place I want to be? Course Correction Questions What do I need to spend more time doing? What do I need to spend less time doing? What do I need to schedule? What do I need to do? What do I need to be more mindful of? What unresolved issues am I overlooking? What opportunities are in front of me? What obstacles are in my way? Am I going in the right direction with my commitments? What do I need to add? What do I need to delete? What do I need to expand? What do I need to shrink? What have I done well recently? Source: The Productivity Project Forty-Nine Questions to Improve Your Results, by Josh Kaufman Do I use my body optimally? What is the quality of my current diet? Do I get enough sleep? Am I managing my energy well each day? How do I manage daily stress? Do I have good posture and poise? What can I do to improve my ability to observe the world around me? Do I know what I want? What achievements would make me really excited? What “states of being” do I want to experience each day? Are my priorities and values clearly defined? Am I capable of making decisions quickly and confidently? Do I consistently focus my attention on what I want vs. what I don’t want? What am I afraid of? Have I created an honest and complete list of the fears I’m holding on to? Have I confronted each fear to imagine how I would handle it if it came to pass? Am I capable of recognizing and correcting self-limitation? Am I appropriately pushing my own limits? Is my mind clear and focused? Do I systematically externalize (write or record) what I think about? Am I making it easy to capture my thoughts quickly, as I have them? What has my attention right now? Am I regularly asking myself appropriate guiding questions? Do I spend most of my time focusing on a single task, or constantly flipping between multiple tasks? Do I spend enough time actively reflecting on my goals, projects, and progress? Am I confident, relaxed, and productive? Have I found a planning method that works for me? Am I “just organized enough”? Do I have an up-to-date list of my projects and active tasks? Do I review all of my commitments on a regular basis? Do I take regular, genuine breaks from my work? Am I consciously creating positive habits? Am I working to shed non-productive habits? Am I comfortable with telling other people “no”? How do I perform best? What do I particularly enjoy? What am I particularly good at doing? What environment do I find most conducive to doing good work? How do I tend to learn most effectively? How do I prefer to work with and communicate with others? What is currently holding me back? What do I really need to be happy and fulfilled? How am I currently defining “success”? Is there another way of defining “success” that I may find more fulfilling? How often do I compare myself to my perceptions of other people? Am I currently living below my means? If I could only own 100 things, what would they be? Am I capable of separating necessity and luxury? What do I feel grateful for in my life and work? Testing the “Impossible”: 17 Questions That Changed My Life, by Tim Ferriss What if I did the opposite for 48 hours? What do I spend a silly amount of money on? How might I scratch my own itch? What would I do/have/be if I had $10 million? What’s my real TMI (Target Monthly Income)? What are the worst things that could happen? Could I get back here? If I could only work 2 hours per week on my business, what would I do? What if I let them make decisions up to $100? $500? $1,000? What’s the least crowded channel? What if I couldn’t pitch my product directly? What if I created my own real-world MBA? Do I need to make it back the way I lost it? What if I could only subtract to solve problems? What might I put in place to allow me to go off the grid for 4 to 8 weeks, with no phone or email? Am I hunting antelope or field mice? Could it be that everything is fine and complete as is? What would this look like if it were easy? How can I throw money at this problem? How can I “waste” money to improve the quality of my life? No hurry, no pause. Useful questions for reframing (Derek Sivers, Useful Not True) When something goes wrong What’s great about this? How can I use this to my advantage? Does this change the goal, or the path, or nothing? How can I reduce the downsides? When changing direction When I was at my happiest, what was I doing? What have I strongly wanted for the longest time? What’s the opposite of what I usually do? Which of my old beliefs are not serving me? Forget me. What would be most helpful for others? When stuck What is my one top priority now? How can I begin without waiting for anything? What advice would I love to hear from an all-knowing sage? What am I doing that’s actually a distraction? Instead of avoiding mistakes, how can I make more to learn faster? Who can help? To make peace with what’s out of your control What happens if I ignore it and do nothing? Should I learn a lesson from this, or just move on? How can I blame no one, and see this as nobody’s fault? How can I be OK no matter what happens?

Say what you will about Tim Ferriss, I’ve always really enjoyed the questions that he asks himself and others. I also really enjoy LEARNING as much as I can from other people. And so, with that in mind, I’d like to “open source” my search for mentors and invite you, dear reader, to answer at least one of the questions below. Please comment your answers below this post (that way others can benefit from your knowledge as well!). Or, if you’d like, send them to me via email (use my contact form here). Then, go ask these questions to others! Cheers! ...

#ACNAtoo is a movement of survivors of ACNA-related abuse & their supporters seeking justice, repentance, healing & a healthier ACNA. This is an overview of the movement including what you can do to hear, to support, and to respond. By Whitney Evans Harrison and Conor Hanson. Why we are here In May 2019, Cherin’s 9-year-old daughter confided in her that she had been repeatedly sexually abused by Mark Rivera, a lay catechist at Christ Our Light Anglican (COLA), the church they attended in Big Rock, Illinois. ...

I’m working my way through the classic job search guide What Color Is Your Parachute. First, I’ll summarize the 7-part “Flower Petal” exercise—a comprehensive self-assessment geared toward the workplace. Then, I’ll share *my* results from the self-assessment. Ah, but first, my TL;DR: If you’re looking for work, or going to be looking for work soon, do yourself a huge favor and buy the latest edition of What Color Is Your Parachute. Work through the book, especially the Flower Petal Exercise. It’s well-worth your time! ...

Sermon preached on Saturday, November 28, 2020 (First Sunday of Advent) via Zoom at Church of the Savior in Wheaton, IL. Your browser does not support the audio element. If there are two things I hate, they are waiting and staying awake. I hate waiting. Ask anyone who knows me. I am absolutely horrible when it comes to delayed gratification. I’ve been known to open new boxes of cereal on the way home from the store. ...

I received word yesterday that the Ph.D. Committee voted to approve my request for “Excused Program Leave” beginning in January 2021 and lasting until January 2022. At the risk of sounding like Captain Obvious, 2020 has been a particularly difficult year. Attempting to complete my “Barth, Bonhoeffer, and the Bible” dissertation has taken a toll on my mental health as I ran into some major research and writing roadblocks right before and during the COVID pandemic. ...

Hey everyone! Just a brief update to note that I’m looking for a new role to supplement my part-time work as Managing Editor of Anglican Compass! I’m pretty flexible at this point, but I want to do something that benefits the church. I think I would make a great Assistant Rector! 🙂 Any advice, opportunities, or connections you can offer would be appreciated! You can view/share my CV here. And here’s my LinkedIn profile. ...

This is, admittedly, a half-baked opinion. However, I need to get back in the habit of blogging/writing regularly, so here goes. In my opinion, the use of the sign of the cross in clergy names/signatures—unless it’s done in official ecclesiastical communication or immediately after a blessing or prayer for the recipient—is pretentious. It’s showy. At the very least, it conveys or connotes pretentiousness. Note that I’m not making a claim about the *people* who use crosses in their signatures, their inner thoughts, or their intentions. For all I know, every single clergyperson out there says a prayer of blessing for their recipients every single time they use the sign of the cross in a signature. I’m also not writing this about any person in particular. ...

Due to increased symptoms of depression and anxiety in recent weeks, I’ve decided to try out a combination of counseling and medication. Sure, I’ve still been able to get out of bed in the morning. And I wasn’t having any serious thoughts about hurting myself. But still, I was feeling hopeless and trapped often enough that I decided it was time to seek out help. I know, I know. That’s pretty personal for a blog post for the whole internet to read! ...

I needed this prayer this morning, and I plan to return to it often in the days ahead. Most loving Father, you will us to give thanks for all things, to dread nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on the One who cares for us. Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, and grant that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which you have manifested unto us in your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. ...

Not sure how this is going to go, or even why I’m doing this anymore, but here we go! Still praying for either a dissertation break-through or a clear sign that I should quit. I hope to receive or discover one of those before the end of the calendar year.

After listening to the Blinkist summary of Cal Newport’s Deep Work (I’ve read the book, this was just for a refresher), I’m convinced that it’s time for another 30-day fast from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. I think I’ll still keep my micro.blog up and running, but between running Anglican Compass and sprinting for some last-ditch clarity on my increasingly frustrating dissertation, I need all the extra bandwidth I can get! If you need to get in touch for some reason, please use the contact form on my website. You can also sign up for my very occasional email newsletter here. ...

For months and months now, I’ve been praying for either (1) a breakthrough on my “Barth, Bonhoeffer, and the Bible” dissertation or (2) a clear sign that I should quit the Ph.D. Unfortunately, after countless confusing dead ends in my endeavors to put Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer into precise conversation with each other regarding specific passages of the Bible, I’ve now realized that such an approach is not going to work. ...

After realizing just how easy it was to lose access to the physical books that I own (now sequestered in my library carrel at Wheaton), on a bit of a whim I created a fundraiser to help my upgrade my Logos Bible Software library to either the Anglican Gold ($216) or Anglican Platinum ($582) libraries. Upgrading would help me in my preaching, teaching, and writing roles (as a pastor-theologian and as the Managing Editor of AnglicanCompass.com). I’ve already benefited immensely from the Anglican Silver package I bought when I got into the Logos Bible Software ecosystem a couple years ago (mainly to gain easy digital access to Barth and Bonhoeffer’s writings for my dissertation). I plan to stick with Logos—especially for biblical commentaries, systematic theologies, and reference works—because it allows me to quickly research, prepare for sermons, answer questions from readers, etc. ...

There is not unanimous agreement about women’s ordination in the worldwide Anglican Communion. Godly and thoughtful Christians hold opposing convictions about Holy Orders and who is called to ordained ministry. You often see the results of this debate at the Provincial level—a national expression of the Church may or may not ordain women, in accordance with their conviction. But for the Anglican Church in North America this disagreement is internal to the Province, varying from diocese to diocese and bishop to bishop. ...