Summer Challenge & Giveaway

In years past, summer came and went and left me thinking, "Gee, I wish I'd have done something meaningful this summer." Seems like having the kids home, the slower pace and more daylight hours should be the perfect opportunity to make some positive changes in our lives, right?

It's hard work, though, mostly because it requires us to change our way of thinking. This week, I realized why that is when I had an "a-ha moment" that all started with a T-shirt.

A while back, someone gave me a Wild Olive Tee with Romans 12:2 on the back.






{want to know how you can WIN a shirt like this?? Keep reading!}

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- His good, pleasing and perfect will.” (New International Version)

The shirt fits me well and has a nice, feel-good ‘slogan verse’ on the back, so...I wear it.

Recently, my journey through the Bible in a year brought me to the book of Romans. I’ve read this verse plenty of times but this time it had a profound effect on my spiritual life.

Christians are uniquely called to live a life of service, dedicated to looking out for the needs of the people around them and loving others above themselves—and that’s definitely not how the world does things! I felt adequate in my endeavors of living a life of loving the Lord and others. I had the “do not conform to the patterns on this world” part of the verse down. Yea, me!

But I had to really park there for a while before it hit home that this verse calls us to more than just not conforming to the world-- we are also called to renew our minds so that we can be truly transformed.



That’s when the light bulb went on. True transformation only happens when we renew our minds consistently. That means that we need to spend quality time with the Lord, every day. Our minds need daily exercise, just like our muscles.

I've given up on the idea of life ever slowing down. I have to work at keeping my priorities in order. Just like running, I have to make a daily decision to spend time with the Lord or it doesn’t happen. I can’t wait until it’s convenient because, when it is ever convenient?? If I waited until it was convenient or until I felt like it, it would rarely happen. I have to be ruthlessly intentional with both. And believe me—in my life, I need to do it every day. I have to do it first thing in the morning, too, before my day gets totally out of hand.



I love my shirt and the verse on the back does make for a nice slogan. But I don’t want to be just a ‘slogan Christian.’

I could read the backs of clever T-shirts all day long, but it won’t have an impact on my life until I actually open my Bible and spend time studying the verse, figuring out what it means and applying it to my life.

The method behind my madness, by the way, is incredibly simple and if you don’t have your own method already, I hope you’ll consider adopting this one. It’s SOAP: Scripture, Observation, Application and Prayer.



All you need is a Bible, something to write on (be it a journal or a Word document) and your brain.

Here is SOAP, explained on my church's web site and a more in-depth explanation at GregQualls.com.

And you can do it in 15 minutes a day! I like to break my time into 5-minute chunks: 5 minutes to read, 5 minutes to journal about what I read and how I can apply it to my life and 5 minutes to pray. Simple.

My daily time with God makes all the difference in my life and I know it can do the same for you.

In fact, I thought it would be fun to challenge ourselves to doing a quiet time for 15 minutes a day for the next four weeks and see what we get.

I’m so excited for my blog readers to start this that I’m offering TWO GIVEAWAYS just for agreeing to participate in this 4-week challenge!

The #1 giveaway this week is for Andy Stanley’s book, “How Good Is Good Enough?”, which I will mail to your door right away. I'll even include a cute bookmark!



The #2 giveaway this week is for a gift certificate to Wild Olive Tee so you can choose the shirt you want {like the one pictured at the beginning of this post}. Their shirts are beautiful and perfect for summer!

PARTICIPATING is simple:

* COMMIT to a 15-minute quiet time with the Lord every day (ish) for the next four weeks.

* COMMENT on this post answering the question, "What is your biggest hindrance to having a daily quiet time with the Lord?" By the way, I hope to address some of them in future posts. You can sign in or comment anonymously--just leave your name, please.

You are also encouraged to SIGN UP to follow my blog so you don't miss any posts. You can follow by e-mail or subscribe. Look in the right-hand sidebar.

Think your Facebook friends would like to participate, too?? Look for the Facebook icon at the bottom of this post, under my name, to post to your Facebook page.

The winners will be chosen by the random number generator (one entry per person) at 11pm Arizona time on Sunday, June 19th. Take care to leave an e-mail address so we can contact you if you win!

STAY TUNED for my "Hit the Ground Running" series, starting next Monday, June 20th.

Feel free to e-mail me with questions at rccalderwood@aol.com

It's going to be a great summer!