Spiritual disciplines: how to start without bailing by day three
- If you wanted to start a spiritual discipline, what should the first weeks look like?
The hosts get practical about starting prayer, fasting, Scripture reading, and meditation from zero. Expectation-setting is the theme: do not open with 30 minutes at 5:30 a.m. or you will quit. Start with borrowed words — the Lord's Prayer, the Shema, the Numbers 6 blessing, a worship song stuck in your head — and let it grow like a relationship. Going through the motions at first is fine, like learning to run the bases slow; the brain fixes things with repetition, and you should not feel bad needing reminders and structures. Ben recommends Dallas Willard's The Spirit of the Disciplines. Closing rule: God gets your first and your best, not the two leftover minutes you ask him to bless.
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Should following Jesus feel more comfortable as time goes on?
- Should following Jesus feel more comfortable as time goes on?
A host asks whether following Jesus should feel more comfortable as time goes on — noting the low-level tension many feel around am-I-doing-enough and the stigma that contentment equals laziness.
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Dear LFTP: the friend group's new wife
- How do we tell the husband that they are not invited, and who should deliver the message?
A host reads a second Dear LFTP letter: ten college-friend couples are planning a once-in-a-lifetime cruise, and nobody wants the remarried friend's demanding new wife on the ship.
From No. 592 · Because I Got High
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Dear LFTP: the $600 lawnmower and buying them a mower
- My nephew's wife took my $600, lied about it, and is avoiding me. Should I say something or let it go?
Mike reads a letter from someone who gave a nephew's wife $600 for a self-propelled lawnmower; she spent it, never bought the mower, and now avoids them.
From No. 587 · Coffee After Sunday
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Dear LFTP: the $900 couch letter
- My best friend and her son (about a thousand pounds combined) cracked my new $900 couch and want to bring more family over — what do I do?
Mike reads the second letter (same anchor/merge note): the writer bought a new house and a $900 couch; her best friend and the friend's son — 'about a thousand pounds' combined — audibly cracked it and now want to bring more family.