January Bits and Bobs

Things that mattered to me this month

First, an Apology

Greetings, dear reader.

I can safely say that I have never had a month as busy as this January. I apologize for not writing on a regular schedule this month, but I’ve been juggling between 6 and 43 balls at the same time and I could not tell you which number I have in the air at any given time.

The unstoppable creep caught me in November and is now ebbing back to a “normal” busy. As such, TtT should be back to a regular schedule in February. I have several thoughts percolating and am eager to share them with you.

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Journaling

As the tide of busyness the last couple of months have surged over my minutes, any all healthy habits eroded as well: eating better, walks with my wife, regular reading, writing…you name it and they all washed out from the streams of other activity.

Yet at the beginning of January something remarkable happened. Mandy and I have often talked about pastoring when I come home and often I feel badly for her because she carries a weight I unload on her. I find myself thinking “It’s not fair to her. She didn’t marry me to be a pastor’s wife.” Now, dear reader, please understand that God called me to the pastorate and Mandy has been unbelievably supportive and patient with me over the years.

As an aside: While I was a “first chair” guy in my first pastorate, I was unprepared and unequipped to handle it. I think I performed alright, but mostly through ignorance and obliviousness rather than through skill. I could intuitively know the right thing to say or do, but never quite be able to act in the opportune moment or give the rationale for why something needed to be done a specific way. Here I sit, over a decade later, and I have only somewhat learned how to pastor, but by God’s grace I’m improving.

At the heart of my “unloading” on Mandy is an inability to unplug at the end of the day, either when getting home, cooking dinner, hanging out with my family, putting the kids to bed, spending time with Mandy after the kids go to bed, or actually laying my head on the pillow at night. It is a years-long struggle.

Several months back I mentioned that I was going to try a new journaling habit. Through the writing of a guy I know tangentially, Jeff Medders, I discovered the Clear Habits Journal produced by Baronfig in cooperation with James Clear. Based on Clear’s book Atomic Habits, the Clear Habits Journal predicates itself on the premise that “You do not rise to the level of your goals—you fall to the level of your systems.”

I don’t want to gush, but to this point, the journaling habit of debriefing my day has been the life-giving pursuit I need. For the last couple of years, I have attempted to create to-do lists and manage my schedule at the end of each day by recording what I need to get done, but that did nothing to help me unplug. It only ratcheted the constraints on my time and my productivity tighter and tighter, producing unease and stress rather than organization and focus. Now, at the end of the day, I mix objective recording and reflection to self-debrief and it allows me to brain-dump about the things I’ve accomplished that day, the feelings felt pre-, during, and post-working as well as thoughts which need further processing. I’m not saying you should do what I do, but I am becoming a fan and can see how this will provide more relief for me into the future. In fact, I am working on trying to incorporate it into a “leave the office” system and protocol. I’ll let you know how that goes.

If you’re interested in trying out the journal for yourself, here’s a referral link which will save you some money as you get started: https://baronfig.refr.cc/default/u/bobinpursuit122?s=sp&t=cp

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The Blueprint of Grace (EXCERPT)

Most of you know, I wrote a book. It published last March. I’m happy with my work. It was written as a guide for those who wrestle with the concept of being holy. I think it’s a helpful look at what God desires from you.

You can pick it up here: The Blueprint of Grace.

Here’s an excerpt from the introduction to whet your appetite.

Several years back I was blessed to be asked to deliver a commencement speech to the senior class of Braymer High School in Braymer, Missouri (Props to the class of ’14!) If you’ve ever had pleasure of such a speaking engagement, you know it is both exciting and daunting. What do you say to people who you know and like and whose world is about to change drastically? What advice do you give to children deemed by society to be ready to be grown-ups? What wisdom do you dispense to a captive audience on the cusp of one of the biggest transitions they will ever face? I chose to speak on the task that lay ahead of any kid sitting in any high school gym listening to any commencement speaker—becoming who you really are. Regardless of location, urban to rural, something changes when you graduate high school. You leave behind the past and take your first step into the rest of your life. At the heart of the address was a deep conviction that who you are today is only a version of yourself. You are constantly in transition from who you were to who you will become.

And that’s what this book is about: how we leave behind who we were in order to become who God wants us to be. The technical term is sanctification, the process of becoming conformed to the image of Christ as Paul references in Romans 8, “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son,” (Rom 8:29) (Now, understand that we could get into all the deep conversation about predestination at this point, but that’s not the aim of this work.) The main thrust of Paul’s words here is that God has a plan for his people, but it is important to note that Paul is not urging Roman Christians to act more Christlike, but to become Christlike. One of the first books about being a Christian I read was Max Lucado’s Just Like Jesus. The basic premise is that God meets you where you are, but doesn’t want you to stay where you are. He wants you to become just like Jesus, hence the title. It was transformative in many ways, but first and foremost I began to understand that there was something “more” that God was calling me to. When I read about this Christlikeness which God wanted from and for me, it felt like the early days following my big growth spurt between 6th and 7th grades.

I grew 6” in a summer and my feet went from a size 8 to size 11.5. I was the same kid, but I looked different. My brain still functioned like I was 5’0” but my body was now 5’6”. That summer in Little League, I had a terrible year because my brain hadn’t adjusted to my new gangly arms and legs. Not only was it physically painful to grow that much over such a short period, but my body didn’t agree with what I wanted it to do and that was mentally taxing. Eventually, everything caught up, but man it was awkward for a bit.

In the same way, as God was working this new understanding of what it means to be a Christian in my heart, I began to see myself as a work in progress, a person changing not just my clothes or posture or accent to ape someone else, but someone who was fundamentally different from who I was the day before. I realized there was a path laid out before me which had less to do with doing Christian things and more with leaving behind my old self, specifically my old ways of thinking, in order to become Christlike. It’s a cliche, but I had to keep reminding myself that God wasn’t finished with me yet, which allowed me to have a little grace for myself because what God was doing in me was both hard and time-consuming. (I say “was” but he is, of course, still accomplishing his will in me even as you read these words.) That’s why I wrote this book. It flows out of my experiences in becoming who God wants me to be. But my experience is not solely mine. It is yours as well if you desire it to be.

I don’t claim to be an expert, but one thing I have learned is that this sanctification stuff can be a little daunting to understand. What you’re about to read is my attempt to explain it in such a way as to help you become who God wants you to be. As much as I’d like to, I can’t tell you exactly who God wants you to be in any tangible sense. What I can do, however, is explain what the Bible says about engaging in the process of figuring it out and share snippets gleaned from my own experiences. Hopefully you find value in these revealed truths as you pursue whatever it is that God has laid before you. My prayer is that you are encouraged and inspired to let Biblical truth shape the path forward to transform your life into one which increasingly reflects God’s glory.

So, in trying to get at the heart of sanctification, and how Christians become set apart for God’s purposes, we must first start with some backstory, some brief explanation of how we got where we are at the moment. Such a pursuit leads us to examine “why” which ultimately leads us to a “who.”

To help readers process the information in the book, I wrote study guide to use either by yourself or to facilitate small group discussion about the book. If you’re interested in the study guide, e-mail me at bob@tracingthethread.org, and I’ll send it to you free of charge.

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Prayers: Continued and Answered

Over the last several months I have requested prayer for my family as we’ve been dealing with varying issues. I want to report back on a couple of things for those of you who have been lifting my family up in prayer.

1. Some of you know that my wife, Mandy, has AGS (Alpha-Gal Syndrome: an auto-immune allergy response transmitted through a tick bite). The last several months have been irksome to say the least. Even as we work diligently to manage the dietary implications, we uncover more issues or triggers which cause a flare up. Recently, we discovered that eggs can cause flare ups even though they shouldn’t contain any of the proteins which would normally cause a reaction. To that end, continue to pray for us as we reshape what we eat in the Allen household. Pray that we would also be gracious with one another as decision fatigue is a real thing in our house right now.

2. God has been incredibly gracious to us in this season. We’ve been overwhelmed with kindness and generosity over the last couple of months. We have not asked for anything from anyone yet God has moved people to meet our needs, physically and emotionally. We are grateful for those through whom God has blessed us and it’s a substantial list. My prayer in response to this outpouring is one of thanksgiving.

   “I give thanks to my God for every remembrance of you, always praying with joy for all of you in my every prayer, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”¹

3. If there is anything I can be praying about for you, please drop a line to bob@tracingthethread.org with how I can be interceding for you. It is my honor and pleasure to do so.

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1. Philippians 1:3-6, CSB

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