As I celebrate 8 months of amped up healthy discipline I'm experiencing what one book calls, "The Compound Effect". It's the same idea as "compound interest" on an investment in which your investment funds earn interest and then that interest earns more interest and so on and so on. Over time, IF YOU HAVE THE FINANCIAL DISCIPLINE AND DON'T SPEND IT, the multiplication affect causes your small consistent deposits to eventually become a massive fortune. For example, if you started investing $2000 per year at the age of 18 for the next 8 years (total investment of $16,000) at 12% interest and had the discipline to not spend it then by the time you turn 64 years old you'll have 2.3 million dollars! That's astounding! The key is small consistencies over time in wise directions (because a simple savings account won't yield the same results). The key that holds it all together is healthy self discipline. The discipline to save and invest money you could easily spent and the discipline to not withdrawal the growing money when you're tempted to indulge yourself and purchase something you really want, but don't need. That same compound effect doesn't just apply to money. It applies to every "investment" in your life - your nutrition, your fitness, your health, your relationships, your closeness to God, your wisdom, your knowledge, your discernment, your decision making, your time, your giftedness, your career, your joy, your freedom, your self control, your self discipline - everything! I call it, The Compound Blessing. Small consistent areas of obedience to God's Word over time yields an abundance of blessing (what the Bible refers to as "fruit") that overflows out of your life. My big problem was consistency (more accurately, it was the discipline to stay consistent). Living on the road (usually in a tent) 3-5 months each year and working 16 hour days during our events makes maintaining a consistent structure challenging. But I used those challenges to make an excuse for eating junk food, missing my workouts, having less effective devotions, etc. I would come back from a summer of awesome ministry events completely depleted and to the reality that I had just taken 1 step forward and 3 steps backwards. It's like saving a thousand dollars for a road trip, but then spending $4000 on the trip. You come back with some amazing memories, but your current reality is that you're in debt and owing more back than before you left. It's not a healthy way to live, moving forward then backward then forward then backward. It adds unnecessary struggles to your life that prevents compound blessings from taking place. So I wrestled with God in prayer over it 9 months ago. Coach Jesus pinpointed my issue. I had the discipline of a winner while I was at home and in my structure, but I didn't have the discipline of a CHAMPION to stay disciplined outside of my structure. It's like a football team that can only win home games. There is no championship in your future until you also learn to win your road games. So that's what I'm doing now. Winning my home games AND my road games. The result is compound blessings. They've always been within reach, but I had to amp up my DISCIPLINE. Now I'm 8 months into this transformation and I'm experiencing a personal resurrection of sorts. Freedoms, joys, conquests, relationships, etc that had been buried under piles of unending work hours, well intended priorities, and some areas neglect. But I serve a God of resurrection, and He had resurrected me. This song is my mantra. It captures exactly what I'm experiencing as I invest each day in wise directions. I'm more alive now than ever before... And I'm on a rescue mission along the way to share this life giving message of Jesus to anyone ready to rise from their own ashes... to step out of their own premature tomb... and move from a life of just surviving and on to a life of thriving! (John 10:10)
STRiVE to THRiVE!
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