In our age and culture, humility is universally appreciated and widely regarded as a positive value and character trait, even amidst the “electioneering” of social media, the entertainment industry, and politics. We are naturally attracted to the humility of others. Conversely, we are also repulsed when there’s a lack of humility. We frequently read and hear about people with great power and wealth misusing it, and that never seems to sit well with us.

But it hasn’t always been like that. Here’s an excerpt from Chapter 12 of my book Thriving by Following explaining some of the history of humility:

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The following text is an excerpt from Chapter 11 of Thriving by Following.

“My dad was born and raised in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, about a twelve to thirteen-hour drive from where I currently live in Cleveland, Ohio. As children, my brother and I would spend most of our summers up there. But as we got older and our commitments grew, we traveled there less and less. In the past few years, I’ve rediscovered my joy for making trips up there, and I’ve found its good way to unplug from the world and spend time thinking, praying, and resting.

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While writing my book Thriving by Following, I had the opportunity to speak with many good friends concerning the topic of rhythm. Some of those conversations turned into stories or content for my book. Others didn’t make it. Just like I shared earlier in this article series some of the stories that didn’t make the final cut, in this post, I wanted to share a conversation I had with my friend Mitch on the topic of community and movement.

Q: I recall you recently mentioned you’ve been reading a book on spiritual disciplines. What have you been learning through that…

Let’s face it. We are addicted to our technology.

And it doesn’t stop there. Not only are we spending copious amounts of time on social media and our phones, but our schedules are also overloaded. From our regular work hours to going to the gym a few times a week to carting the kids to five different sports practices, we are not only addicted to technology but also to doing things. It seems like we can’t say no for the life of us and that we are truly more hurried than ever before. …

During a recent dinner with a friend, we got on the topic of boundaries. We both shared how easy we found it sometimes to say “yes” to people and things. Most, if not all, of what we were saying “yes” to was good. Yet, in the process of saying “yes,” we were failing to understand what we were simultaneously saying “no” to.

The conversation reminded me of something I discussed in my book in the chapter on boundaries. It’s something I call “space theory,” and no, it does not have anything to do with outer space. …

The following text is an excerpt from Chapter 8 of “Thriving by Following.”

“I don’t know about anyone else, but whenever I’m at the gym, I always feel like everyone’s watching me. Maybe I’m just too self-conscious or insecure. Maybe I feel like I don’t know what I’m doing and don’t want others to judge me. Maybe I just need to grow thicker skin. As it turns out, I’m not alone (thankfully). A study published in Current Biology found that we have a tendency to ‘perceive others’ gaze as directed toward us,’ especially in uncertain conditions (such as when someone…

At the top of this post, I’ve included a screenshot of the “context index” I kept while writing my book. Before I started compiling my chapters, I started by writing stories. These stories were what eventually became the bedrock of my chapters. But, as it goes, not all the stories made it. Between my first and final manuscript, I had to cut almost 30,000 words!

In this installment of my article series, I’m going to share with you some of those stories. Who knows: Maybe there’s a second book in here somewhere?

Story No. 1 — Tchotchke Jesus

This story centered around a phenomenon I call…

I first heard about the concept of rhythm roughly two and a half years ago through a message series at the church I was attending at the time. I was a good series and had a lot of practical teaching. The only problem was, when I first heard about rhythm, I thought the concept was stupid, frankly, a notion I held on to for another year and a half.

About a year later, after that series, I asked a good friend of mine (in a completely unrelated conversation) what they thought I could improve on in my life. They (very…