a new favorite book

This morning, I finished Ordering Your Private World by Gordon MacDonald. I picked it up a week or two ago from a thrift store for the perfect price of $2 and it has been the best kick in the pants. 

I immediately shifted three things in my life. The interesting thing is that I shifted back to practices I have had in the past but had fallen out of for various reasons. That observation reaffirmed my belief that we need continual reminding about what it means to follow Jesus. You might learn more and go deeper, but we never graduate from the basics of being a disciple of Jesus. Instead we come back to the same practices over and over and over. 

MacDonald insists that if we want to follow Jesus for the whole of our lives and if we want any real depth over the years, we must pay close attention to our inner world. 

*Do we have an inner world? He compared it, at one point, to a garden that we need to cultivate and attend. 
*What is strengthening our inner world? He has six disciplines or areas that he highlights. 

The real danger is that we can lead successful lives—for a while—with no inner world. But we will not be sustainable without one. At some point, we will crash. 

I highly recommend this book wherever you are in your life of following Jesus.