And a really thought-provoking and encouraging essay about the way our very small and daily choices make a profound difference in our lives, read Kate Harris' D'Souza, Undset, and Picking What we Pick. A taste:
. . . spending exorbitant amounts of time and energy to resolve seemingly impossible conflicts with a spouse or child or friend; learning to know yourself better or how to relate more effectively with others; remaining chaste; keeping finances in check; having (marital) sex regularly; eating well and exercising; having regular family dinners; committing to a particular church or community despite its imperfections… these are choices that require intentionality, hard work, and energy to sustain. They are particularly hard because they are precisely the habits and choices that do not come naturally to our sin nature. We have to pick them with extra intention, with greater will than we do when we simply yield to sin. Yet most of the time there is no praise for these kinds of sustainable, ordinary choices, and the kicker is that it is sort of right that there isn't. They are their own reward. And by this I simply mean, the fruit of a family well-loved is a well-loved family. The fruit of staying out of debt (or getting out of debt if you are still paying some off like me) is the freedom that comes from not being in debt. The fruit of staying put in the body and place and moment in which you are situated is to feel at home, to belong in the place and circumstance in which you find yourself. The fruit of resting is that you feel rested. It is ordinary stuff, this faithfulness business, but it is also as good as it gets. It is also what I long to see increasingly in the lives of more Christian leaders.
