Hello friends,
Greetings from Austin!👋
Recently, I listened to my hometown church's sermon on “Burnout & Loneliness” by Pastor Josh, and there was a lot of life-changing insight I took away from it.🧐
You can watch it here if you want:
I found myself challenged, reminded of the difficulties that are found when overworking, and recognizing many of the unhealthy ways I try to deal with my stress, exhaustion, or discouragement.😬
When I find myself in pain or discomfort, I find myself taking action in the two ways Pastor Josh above shares - to numb the pain or to control it.
Many ways I try to numb the pain involve eating late-night foods, binge reading webcomics, or frying my brain with social media (a.k.a. Twitter feeds or YouTube recommended). I try to grab onto anything so that I won't have to undergo pain. To remove the feeling of despondency or sadness that life brings at times.
Other times, I will look at my situation and try to micro-manage it. In the midst of exhaustion, I’ll neglect my present duties, pile on extra responsibilities, and try to fight back by working harder (not smarter). By forgoing sleep and making achievements in other areas of my life (whether important or not), I hope to prove myself that I’m in control.
Though these two ways have elements of importance in life (enjoyment, rest, and focus), the outcome is negative not only physically & mentally, but also spiritually.💀
The concept that the pastor shared though, Spiritual Embodiment, explains how our spiritual lives are heavily influenced by our physical and emotional well-being.
You are not just a brain on a stick. Not just spirit. “You are embodied souls”
Your environment. The habits you have. The things you do impact you spiritually.
What you are consuming impacts you. Don't be naive.
—Personal notes taken from the Burnout & Loneliness Sermon
Eating well, getting good rest, and exercising all influence the amount of energy we have to do good work and affect the mindset we can have in loving others.
It has challenged me, when I am feeling despondent, instead of grabbing a bag of chips, to instead get a bowl of veggies. And when I find myself at my desk for too long, I try to take some time to do a few push-ups to keep my body fit.💪
This change doesn’t have to be too big.
The importance is taking the time & energy to be more intentional.
Having awareness of what to improve on and taking small consistent actions to improve not only guarantees strong habits for the future but also improves the ability to love and serve others with a strong spiritual mindset.
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?
You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
Thanks for checking in on this week’s update!
It’s a bit shorter than usual, but hopefully, it was insightful.🤔
I’d love to hear from y’all on how this newsletter has been helpful, or what could be done better. I’m always open ears for suggestions & feedback!👂
Also, if any of y’all are in need of special birthday/anniversary cards (or any other type of custom card), please let me know and I can connect you with someone who does great work!
And if you have a business or side hustle you want me to promote, please let me know, and I’d love to support by sharing it. 🙂
Anyways, here are several photos from this past week to share:
(my turn to cook food for the roommates - on the menu is stuffed salmon, fried egg, rice, & roasted veggies👌)
(found this funny photo, not in my apartment complex, but I think it’s a mood 👀)
(updated my website to have a newsletter signup link as well as more info of the stuff I’m doing)
With that, if you arrived at this point, I appreciate you reading and even staying through it all. 🙂
Stay safe, keep it savvy, and I’ll see y’all in the next update 😊
Weekly Collections
Faith
Keep on rejoicing because the suffering is not a surprise, but a plan.
“It is according to the will of God when we suffer; God wills it — even when Satan may be the immediate cause of it.
We know that from the book of Job; we know it from 2 Corinthians 12:7–10, where the thorn in the flesh was what? A minister of Satan. Doing what? Humbling Paul and making him holy, so that he would love the glory of Jesus Christ because Christ was overruling Satan’s minister, and turning Satan into a means of Paul’s holiness.
That’s the kind of God we have.
He who has brought me into this darkness will plead my cause and vindicate me in time. So much has to be burned up within us.
We’re all imperfect; everybody’s imperfect. But there’ll be no imperfect people in heaven.
And a lot of God’s process of getting us ready for heaven is to burn the hell out of us.”
—What Is God Accomplishing in My Suffering? | Ask Pastor John
Entrepreneurship
Productivity
The right time may never come
Many not urgent but important things will get put off indefinitely by default. That is the unfortunate truth.
But if you want to be the kind of person that does the things they mean to do, you can follow this 5 step framework for turning a non-urgent behavior into a daily occurrence:
Make it a priority.
The right moment may never come, so make now the right moment.
Make it specific.
The more specific you are, the easier it is to do the behavior.
Create momentum.
Even 5 minutes count. Start today, not tomorrow.
Create prompts.
Find ways to remind yourself to do what you already want to do.
Visualize progress.
Find any visual way to track your progress and keep yourself motivated.
—How to do what matters to you when it's not urgent | deprocrastination
Weekly Reflections
Verse of the Week
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
—James 1:2-4
Challenging Quote
"If you find yourself constantly trying to prove your worth to someone, you have already forgotten your value.”
—Anonymous
If you guys have found the newsletter to be helpful, I would love to hear from you on what’s been good, any suggestions for improvement, and anything else you’d like to see!
Please don’t be shy to let me know and thanks in advance!