200 Hours in 200 Days

This is not going to be a play by play like I did with my weight loss goals last year, but I have a new personal target. This time it's related to completing the first draft on my book, All I Needed to Say. 200 hours in 200 days gets me, hopefully, through my first draft by September 4. I'm on day 14 and my hours are at 18:25. While I've been at this for months already, the focus I've been getting from this new goal has added some real productivity to my daily words-on-the-page output.

If you're new to this conversation, my book is a father's parting words to my children (and all Christian kids) as they launch out from home to independence and the big choices in life.

Five great questions of life: Life * Love * Learning * Labor * Leadership

200 Hours in 200 Days

This is not going to be a play by play like I did with my weight loss goals last year, but I have a new personal target. This time it's related to completing the first draft on my book, All I Needed to Say. 200 hours in 200 days gets me, hopefully, through my first draft by September 4. I'm on day 14 and my hours are at 18:25. While I've been at this for months already, the focus I've been getting from this new goal has added some real productivity to my daily words-on-the-page output.

If you're new to this conversation, my book is a father's parting words to my children (and all Christian kids) as they launch out from home to independence and the big choices in life.

Life:

What will be my center?

Love:

Who will I spend my life with?

Learning:

What will my worldview be?

Labor:

How will I provide for myself and my family?

Leadership:

What impact will I make in the world?

The book is passionate and personal. It reflects a very intense desire to pursue God in all areas of my life. It also chronicles snapshots of the drama of the last 25 years of my life.

The idea for the first draft is to scrape the stuff out of my soul and get it on the page as roughly and quickly as possible. I am not polishing. That will come later.

Want a sample from this week? My first section--Life: What will be my center?--uses mountain imagery. On this road trip of life, the first stop is a nearby mountain overlooking the broad landscape of our life decisions. So I've included a chapter entitled: "I'm climbing a mountain. What could possibly happen?" Remember, it's rough...

Retreat to heal and strengthen.

Mount Hermon’s towering 9200 foot peak marked the northern boundary of Israel. On a clear day, Mount Hermon is visible from Jesus’ childhood town of Nazareth. Hermon is snow covered most of the year, providing spectacular vistas throughout Galilee. Waters run down from the mountain into the Jordan River valley.

Photo overlooking Rosh Pina, near Nazareth.

The Sons of Korah penned the words to Psalm 42.

My soul is downcast within me;

   therefore I will remember you

from the land of the Jordan,

   the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.

Deep calls to deep

   in the roar of your waterfalls;

all your waves and breakers

   have swept over me.

 By day the LORD directs his love,

   at night his song is with me—

   a prayer to the God of my life.  (Psalm 42:6-8)

This is the “As the deer pants for streams of water” psalm. We still sing it. The serenity of the natural beauty it depicts still brings us to a place of spiritual healing and rest. The roar of the waterfalls might well have been the Banias Waterfall still popular for tourists at the base of Mount Hermon.

Banias Waterfall at the foot of Mt. Hermon

And King David, the warrior worshiper, wrote these musical words in Psalm 26:

Your love, LORD, reaches to the heavens,

   your faithfulness to the skies.

Your righteousness is like the highest mountains,

   your justice like the great deep.

   You, LORD, preserve both people and animals.

How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!

   People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.

They feast on the abundance of your house;

   you give them drink from your river of delights.

For with you is the fountain of life;

   in your light we see light. (Psalm 36:5-9)

When David wrote these psalm lyrics, he knew of the highest mountain range in Israel: the triple peaks of Mount Hermon. And from the slopes of Hermon, you can see the depths of the Mediterranean Sea stretch out to the west. Fountains and rivers “of delight” spring out from Mount Hermon on their way to the Jordan River.

This is creation. You might say, this is the paradise we haven’t lost.

Hermon means sanctuary. The mountain heights inspired David to sing of God’s love, faithfulness and righteousness. They inspired the Sons of Korah to the spiritual communion of deep calling to deep.

When you’re battered and bruised, find God in the mountains. When you’re physically spent and emotionally wrung out, climb the ancient slopes. Receive healing and strength.