When I tell them they have to go 20 percent slower, sleep 20 percent more, or reduce ministry service by 20 percent, what they hear is: “Life is over, I’m a has-been, I’m just a lazy and unfruitful servant.” For most of them, however, doing 20 percent less simply takes them down to about 120 percent of what most normal people do with their lives!

Before Reset garage, some of these columns, maybe most of them, had fallen below the baseline into the red. Almost every day, you used up your allocated energy and more, especially in certain columns. Post-Reset garage, there is much greater balance, the energy is allocated more appropriately, and, at the end of most days, each column is still

energy capacity is divided between each column at the start of each day, and each moment of the day drains the energy from one column,

Try to imagine your life on a chart with a number of columns: family, work, church, decisions, finances, media, people, technology, traffic, information, choices, and so on.

Every month initially, then every quarter, spend some time in each repair bay, just checking that all is well and making any necessary adjustments, fine-tuning your pace and rhythm so that you can run better, wiser, and safer.

So much of our drivenness stems from a false belief in a driven God, a view of God as a slaveholder, a harsh taskmaster who can never be satisfied by anything less than his people being in a perpetual state of miserable exhaustion.

we have purposed, planned, and pruned, so that we say no to multiple other possible

“Contentment in ministry is a secret of endurance in ministry. Pastors must learn to be content with what hand God has dealt

Our new pace may be difficult for those around us, who are used to our previously faster pace and greater capacity. Honest conversations with our wives, our kids, our pastors, our elders, our colleagues, and others may be required to explain the adjustments we’ve had to make to our lives and work due to aging and other factors.