April 28, 2025 • 28 mins
If you’ve felt like life just keeps getting in the way of living on mission—even with your spouse, kids, or those closest to you—there may be deeper reasons behind your lack of motivation.
This week on the Everyday Disciple Podcast, we’re digging into why we procrastinate and how that hesitation can quietly kill our efforts in discipleship and mission. In This Episode You’ll Learn:- The 3 major underlying causes of procrastination
- What procrastination looks like in discipleship and missional living
- How putting off action might be a form of not trusting God
- Ways the gospel speaks to this issue and how to get “unstuck.”
Get started here… From this episode: “Be honest with yourself when it comes to understanding if you have ever really intentioned to live a lifestyle of discipleship and mission. It may not be procrastination you’re suffering from; it could be that the gospel you understand, and live in light of, is too small and is primarily about your personal happiness.”
Each week the Big 3 will give you immediate action steps to get you started.
Download today’s BIG 3 right now. Read and think over them again later. You might even want to share them with others…
Thanks for Listening!
Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Join us on Facebook and take part in the discussion! If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of this page or right below. Also, please subscribe and leave an honest review for The Everyday Disciple Podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them. Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Coaching with Caesar and Tina in discipleship and missional living. Free Discipleship and Missional Resources
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Caesar Kalinowski (00:01):
So typically we think of procrastination as an intention action gap where those two aren't coming together.
Our intentions aren't lining up with our actions or vice versa.
If we intend to do something and we voluntarily and needlessly delay action.
On our intention, well, that's procrastination, butwhat if we never make the intention in the first place?
(00:24):
A lot of Christians have never made the intention of making disciples andliving their lives genuinely focused on and reoriented around God's mission.
And I wanna pause for a moment and ask our listeners.
Have you ever intentioned to make disciples and have your life be focused on God's mission and hisglory, rather than focused on your plans and your own glory and kind of fitting him in a little?
(00:46):
Have you ever committed to that?
Heath Hollensbe (00:58):
Welcome to the Everyday Disciple Podcast where you'll learn how to live with.
Greater intentionality and an integrated faith that naturally fits into every area of life.
In other words, discipleship as a lifestyle.
This is the stuff your parents, pastors and seminary professors probably forgot to tell you.
And now here's your host, Cesar Kalinowski.
Caesar Kalinowski (01:17):
Hey Heath, as always, good to be with you, my friend.
Heath Hollensbe (01:21):
You too, man.
Today we're talking about how procrastination kills discipleship andmission and kind of the aspect of living an incarnation life, right?
Yeah.
And I've never really given too much thought as to how this would actually play out.
Yeah.
Maybe you can unpack where you came up with this conceptand what was driving you to want to talk about it more.
Caesar Kalinowski (01:39):
Yeah.
Well, I think as thinking through why, you know, why do so many of us, you know,confessing professing Christians have such low engagement when it comes to discipleship.
We don't really talk about it like being a discipleshipcrisis in the church a lot, but it really is.
There's not a lot of discipleship going on and it's the numberone thing, the church, which is us, you know, kind of get to do.
(02:01):
You know?
Yeah.
It's what we've been commissioned by Jesus to do and why we exist.
So some of the why really has to do with the church having, I think.
A small gospel or a very little true gospel, uh, and an understandingof why we get to make disciples and live by mission with God.
Huh.
So accomplishing God's eternal purposes to fill the worldwith his glory, that's what's going on with the discipleship.
(02:22):
And you can just listen to a million episodes where we talk about that andif we don't know and embrace this, and I'll expand on this in a few minutes.
Sure.
Well, I think that's, that's what's led to having such low discipleship engagement, but some of it.
As I've seen in community and churches that I've helped leadand be a part of, really does have to do with procrastination.
Okay.
(02:42):
Okay.
And so like these couple of bible verses sort of haunting, you know,come to mind like, Proverbs six, nine to 11, how long will you lie there?
You sluggard.
When will you get up from your sleep?
A little sleep, a little slumber.
A little folding of the hands to rest.
And poverty will come on.
You like a thief?
Yep.
And scarcity Like an armed man.
Okay.
Like, well, that might be talking about our work or jobs or whatever, but it, it doesn'texclude it from also being about like, oh, have we been asleep and sort of putting off.
(03:11):
Like, like someone else will do the discipleship.
Yeah.
You know, I don't know.
Galatians six 10, uh, take advantage of every opportunity, be a blessingto others, especially to our brothers and sisters in the family of faith.
Hmm.
Wow.
You know, and I, I know that verse there in Galatians six 10 is generally theGreek imp complies about finances and, you know, being a blessing to others.
Right.
Which is also part of discipleship.
(03:32):
So I, I think this is where it's come from, is like, okay, why?
Do, do we just have too small a gospel and people don't understand the implicationof getting to live out of our identity and and fulfill the eternal purpose of God?
Or does procrastination actually.
Play into this a whole lot more?
I think it does.
I really do.
Heath Hollensbe (03:49):
So one of the things I've thought about quite a bit is the, uh, I've been part of many missional communities and different groups that
would claim to be missional in, in the way that they wanna live, but theydidn't have any sense of purpose or intentionality in what they were doing.
And so you'd have just a bunch of misses because there'd be no intention in moving people.
Let's hang out a bunch, but what are we doing?
Yeah, exactly.
(04:09):
So would you say that cra procrastination and a lack of intentionality.
Are brothers in the same camp, because I can see often that a lack ofintentionality really hurts mission, but maybe you see differences between the two.
Caesar Kalinowski (04:21):
Well, so let's look at the word intentionality, right?
It says the fact of being deliberate or purposeful, right?
Yeah.
Having a purpose.
So that kinda speaks to what you're talking about.
So that's the intentionality side, and.
It also goes and say the, the, the quality of mental states are, you know, our thoughts anddesires and hopes that consists in being directed towards some object or state of affairs.
(04:41):
So yeah, you're right.
It's hard to have.
Uh, intentionality if we've never set out a goal.
Sure.
Right.
So, what, you know, what is the goal of making disciples?
Well, it's, it's to make disciples of Jesus that we, we, he would live our lives through us.
We would understand how we are now one with him.
And increasingly, there'd be more and more disciples ofJesus, the glory of God filling the earth with his glory now.
(05:03):
So we have to have intention.
In other words, it consists of being directed towards some object or state of affairs.
Sure.
Now, typically we think of procrastination as an intention.
Like action gap where our actions aren't lining up with our intentions.
If we intend to do something and we either voluntarily and orneedlessly delay action on our intention, that's procrastination.
(05:25):
But what if we've never made the intention in the first place?
Hmm.
So a lot of Christians have never made the intention of making disciples andliving their lives genuinely focused and reoriented around God's mission.
And so I wanna pause for a moment and ask our listeners, have you ever in intentioned, like youpersonally, or your small group, or your missional community, have you ever intention to make
(05:47):
disciples of Jesus and have your life be focused on God's mission and his glory rather than.
Kind of focused on our own plans and our own glory.
Hmm.
Have you ever committed to
Heath Hollensbe (05:56):
that?
That's a really good question, man.
And as you're talk, even as, as you're kind of walking through this definitions, I'mthinking about how we constantly are tying things back to the thing behind the thing.
And so yeah, a lack of intentionality or procrastination, it's never just like, well, Iforgot to get to it, but there's always some sort of hard thing going on a bit deeper.
Yeah, for sure.
What do you think are some of the reasons that we procrastinate in life in general,and maybe even more specifically when it comes to discipleship and mission?
Caesar Kalinowski (06:22):
It is really important, Heath, when trying to move beyond procrastination in any area of life to first understand the possible reasons, right?
So I want to go into 'em, uh, you know, what are the possiblereasons, be behind, you know, my particular brand of procrastination.
But I do wanna connect the dots as we go along to okay,then maybe this, we're procrastinating in this way.
(06:44):
Making disciples and living on mission.
Okay.
Yeah.
So, but these apply.
You're right.
So reason number one, it's a big one, is perfectionism.
In other words, it's this thinking that if I can't do it perfectly or at leastreally, really well and control both the outcome and people's perceptions
of how I'm doing at something, then I'll avoid it and I'll put it off.
Not wanting to expose any weakness in myself.
(07:06):
I. Okay.
Yep.
So I was, I was doing a little research on this and, uh, there's a Stanford Universitypsychologist, Carol Dweck, and she details the power of one's mindset connected to this.
Okay.
And, and she, she relates successes in school and sports, or work, you know, yourjob or the arts and other areas of human endeavor to how one thinks currently about
(07:26):
their own abilities and talents and a, you know, and, and how they're gonna do.
Mm-hmm.
And so she, she explains that people either have a fixed mindset.
Or they have a growth mindset, and those with a fixed mindsetbelieve that their abilities are sort of set in stone.
This is where they're at, this is how it'll go.
And so they only focus on their current intelligence or insightsor talents or skills, believing they cannot really be developed.
(07:49):
Hmm.
So why, you know, can a fixed mindset be dangerous?
Well, it hinders one's ability to grow and learn and make positive changes.
And so how are we gonna make disciples if we are not both a disciple of Jesus?
Meaning learning how to walk in his ways and obey all of histeachings, and then learning how to help others do the same.
So if we have this fixed mindset, yeah, which is so much of it's connected to perfectionism.
(08:13):
Like, I don't know if I know how to do this and I'm kindof stuck and I'm really worried about not doing it well.
So I'll just put it off kind of forever.
I won't say it's bad.
Sure.
I just won't do it.
Heath Hollensbe (08:23):
Wow.
Yeah, it makes me too think of like the, you know, I know in my, my ownpursuits of perfectionism, a lot of times I really have to check my heart
and go like, is there a fear of man thing if people see me screw up?
Or am I believing that these people are more glorious than even God is?
And so there's, if we wanna tie this even into the four Gs man, and it's reallyeasy to go there with, with some of these underlying things we're talking about.
(08:43):
It's
Caesar Kalinowski (08:43):
no kidding.
And think about like, for, for a lot of people, they thinkdiscipleship is still, is like teaching a bunch of classes to somebody.
Versus helping them learn how to move from unbelief to belief.
Yep.
In the gospel, in every area of life.
Well, that requires time.
That requires understanding the gospel, having a fluency at the gospel.
Um, it involves a lot of challenging people.
Yeah.
And their thinking and their thoughts and why, you know, they're doing what they're doing.
(09:06):
Are they considering that?
And I. Are they living to God's glory or their own?
And so, yeah, I think you're right.
The thing behind the thing there does have to do a lot of fear of man issues.
Yep.
And, um, and my own personal comfort, like, I love me Yeah.
More than you in God's glory.
So if it's going to require time, effort, and, and there again, if I have sort ofa fixed mindset where I don't, I don't even know if I could do it or whatever, or
(09:29):
control that, well, I'm just, I'll leave that to the professionals or something.
Heath Hollensbe (09:33):
Yeah, no, that makes sense ma'am.
Caesar Kalinowski (09:34):
Okay.
Reason number two.
Okay.
So fear of the unknown.
So, so few of us have ever seen or experienced life on life, life and communitydiscipleship, that it really is the unknown frontier and it freaks us out a little bit.
Hmm.
And we don't fully understand or comprehend the life that Jesus came to give us all.
So we fear it.
(09:54):
It's just, it's too hard to believe that we get to live in lightof the gospel in every area of life that the kingdom's come.
It's just too hard.
Sure.
And like I mentioned a few years ago, so many within our, within our family,the church, have been sold a very small gospel, a very little, you know,
gospel and not much truth in it, and an understanding of why we get to makedisciples and live on mission with God and how that transforms our lives.
(10:18):
Hmm.
Now.
Here's what's interesting to me.
Um, you know, people research, procrastination, all that.
Researchers from University of Michigan con conducted a study
Heath Hollensbe (10:26):
okay.
Caesar Kalinowski (10:27):
On the effects of allowing misinformation to linger in someone's mind.
Okay?
So I'm tying this right now to like.
Oh, that wasn't really the gospel that you say a Jesus in yourheart prayer and then you wait for heaven and try to sin less.
No, sure.
But, but misinformation lingers, and the study notes that misinformation remains in one's memoryand continues to influence their thinking, even if the person is aware that that was not even true.
(10:52):
Hmm.
So the person is also likely to make use of this mismisinformation, especially if it fits with their existing beliefs.
Sort of makes sense to others, huh?
This then leads to spreading the inaccurate information to other people.
Heath Hollensbe (11:06):
Isn't that funny, man?
'cause I, I do that in my own life too, where I know there's things that are not truethat just habits that I've believed for a long time that have kind of car, but that's the
Caesar Kalinowski (11:14):
narrative and everybody else is in, on
Heath Hollensbe (11:16):
the, the, the, the gag or whatever.
Yeah.
And so then when you try to actually start like actually takingthose thoughts captive, it's impossible 'cause that misinformation
is sat in there for so long that these trenches have been developed.
Caesar Kalinowski (11:26):
And so you couple that with the fear of the unknown and I'm kind of sticking to the, you know, hey, doesn't everybody just
go to church and we're kind of waiting for Jesus to get back and all
Heath Hollensbe (11:33):
this, and.
Yeah.
So it turns out that what we don't know can actually hurt us and notonly hurt us initially, but keep hurting us as well as hurting others.
Absolutely.
Caesar Kalinowski (11:43):
Absolutely.
Heath Hollensbe (11:44):
Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski (11:45):
And I think the thing behind the thing there again, is that, that the fear of the unknown, and I've never seen this done.
I've never seen people live in community this way.
I've never seen people who can fight and forgive and speak the truth and love, and they givetheir lives away to each other in service and their neighbors, and we, we exist as family.
Like I've never seen that.
And, and so I think I'm pretty safe to just keep believing the old, sort of check thebox Christianity, even though I, I kind of know there's way more to that than that.
(12:13):
So Absolutely.
Still self-love, if you think about it.
Yeah, it always comes.
It really is.
Come back to that like I know right now.
So here I am, you know, over the, uh, internet poking people in the chest a little bit.
But I know there are people who've listened to us a lot.
Yep.
And yet , they still haven't really made those changes in their family life.
They haven't like do dove into community, even though if it's icky or weird, they're learning.
(12:35):
They haven't, they haven't started to lead their churches in light of that.
So it's a procrastination.
Yep.
Right.
They've intention, now they're listening to it, they're intention, but they'restill kinda living within the umbrella of, well, the old way of thinking.
Yeah.
And even though I know it's not right and everybodyelse is still in on that deal, I'm getting away with it.
Heath Hollensbe (12:53):
Or So you think?
Yeah.
Oh
Caesar Kalinowski (12:54):
yeah.
Right.
Alright.
Reason number three, third reason, and this is a big one, is that you experiencea lack of motivation connected to something, so that's why you procrastinate.
Okay.
Okay.
So have you ever thought to yourself that life has just gotten like in the way of discipleship?
Sure.
Like, you know, even when it comes to your own family or spouse orkids, and so you haven't been able to do what you know you get to do.
(13:15):
And have actually intentioned to do so this, but, but there'slike, you don't have a great motivation connected to it.
And this lack of motivation can come from all kinds of underlying causes.
So, well I just pull a list together here.
So maybe it's a lack of energy.
Yep.
Right.
You're not feeling well or fatigue or something like that.
It could be stress in other areas of your life.
Heath Hollensbe (13:36):
Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski (13:36):
So it's kind of zapping your motivation to like, I.
I really do wanna make disciples.
I do wanna start taking, you know, responsibility for discipling my own kids.
Sure.
And, you know, those I love and, and maybe my neighbors and all that.
Right.
Uh, but I'm so stressed out or fatigued or lacking energy or, um, other priorities.
Hmm.
Like I. In our life could just zap it, you know, for us.
(13:59):
And, and so we don't, we lack motivation.
'cause right now, well when this is done or when we get the house finished or when we, youknow, get the kids into school or when we get a, the next raise or if I get a bigger house or
you know, or whatever, we've always got another priority that's kind of getting in the way.
Yep.
And, and so we don't have the motivation to get started right now.
Um, you know, emergencies come up in life or sicknesses thatare real and, and we, you know, we've gotta deal with them.
(14:25):
Or maybe you're like, we intention to get something started and we're having a baby.
Yeah.
Or something like that.
So it changes our family schedule again.
Um, or people, uh, well can lose motivation 'cause theyhave trouble finding new ways and ideas to get started.
Hmm.
And so they're like, I don't even know how to get started.
Uh, so.
We just keep thinking, well, I know and I, so I order a bunch of booksand I download stuff and I'll even buy a course and never watch it.
(14:48):
Sure.
You know, or never read the book.
I've done that a lot.
Yeah.
Or you know, or maybe you're surrounded with negativity connected to something.
So in this case, what we're talking about is discipleship and mission.
Like no one gets what you're talking about.
Yeah.
The church is not necessarily into it.
Or maybe you are the pastor and you're into it.
Sure.
But you get so much negativity.
People are like, what?
(15:09):
Yeah.
You expect, how many nights a week do you expect us to live our faith?
Like, wait a minute.
It's our identity, you know?
Yeah.
Right.
So that negativity keeps you from like really implementing new things and newdiscipleship in your church or in your community, wherever, or you've got a lack of
confidence, which is sort of somewhat connected up to reasons one and two above, right?
(15:29):
Yep.
Where, you know, you're either perfectionist and you don't know if you're gonna be good at it.
So I don't wanna start, or, or the fear of the unknown, like,where's this gonna lead to and how much time will it eat?
So sometimes you have a lack of confidence, um, oryou perceive you're working in the wrong environment.
In other words like, well, that won't work here.
You know, we're listening to Heath and Caesar talk about life on mission and incommunity, and it sure sounds messy, but it seems to be working for them, but.
(15:51):
That's probably 'cause they live in Pacific, Northwestern, you know?
Sure.
It'll never work here in the east coast.
It'll never work in the south.
Or they probably live in the inner city and, and I live in a suburb or whatever.
Well, that's not true.
And we've talked about a lot of this stuff, so, you know, or like you mentioned, unclear goals.
Yeah.
Can kind of like lead to a lack of motivation.
And so, uh, there was a study there, again, I did a lot of research on this.
(16:12):
There was a study done at, at Carnegie Mellon Universityrevealed that people lack motivation when they find little value.
In the projected outcome of their work.
Hmm.
Right.
So you know how that is.
If you know, if you just go like, why am I doing this?
Yeah.
I don't see a clear line drawn to.
Goal accomplished.
Sure.
Right.
You just don't know it.
We've had jobs like that.
(16:32):
Oh yeah.
We've worked for people.
We're like, this is how we do it, and this is how you're gonna do it, and we're never gonnachange it and come in early and make sure you, and you're like, but I don't understand why.
What we're, you know?
Yep.
And so we, and, and this makes sense, this doesn't sound like a bigrevelation to me, but people, people will lack motivation when they
find little value in the projected outcome in the work, however.
The study goes on and say, if people are able to clearly see how their workconnects to their interests or goals and concerns, they are more likely to value
(16:58):
their work and get started and be motivated to invest their energy into things.
Heath Hollensbe (17:04):
Man, that is really funny 'cause I, as you were talking there, I was thinking about even when I wrote my last book, and I don't know if you have
the same situation, but you have something you really wanna see an outcome of.
Like, I wanna write this book and bless people.
And then you sit down to write it and it's like.
I did every single thing under the sun that I could toavoid actually having to get to what I wanted to do.
I mean, I checked websites I haven't been to in 20years and, and reached out to old Facebook friends.
(17:26):
And so I think you're absolutely right when you lack motivation and you don't know, likeyou're, you're scared of the unknown that all piles up and causes you to procrastinate.
Yeah.
And think about it.
If, if we.
Caesar Kalinowski (17:36):
If we're not accurately communicating to ourselves, to our spouse, to our kids, to our community, to the those that we
lead at a, at a church, if we're not accurately helping them see that.
Life on mission.
Life in a community following after Jesus and reorientingour life around his life is the best possible life.
Yeah.
And it's what we were created for.
(17:57):
It's why God created us.
This, you know, the angels long to look into this, you know, scripture says what?
That God would fill the world with His glory.
What he's like through humans.
Yeah.
That's it.
So like this idea of everything else gets in the way and everything elsesteps our motivation and now I'm fearful of this and I don't know how to do.
I in light of wait a minute, are, do you understand like what this is really about?
(18:23):
Sure.
And are we connecting it to like, no, this is how you're gonna find truejoy and peace and fulfillment and your what, what purpose is in life, and
how you'll leave a legacy and how you'll pass on the gospel in every areaof life to your kids and to those that God brings close to you in life.
Oh, I mean, yeah.
It's so big and so I, boy, I'd hate for that to be, but,but boy, what a long list of things that zap our motivation.
(18:46):
Right.
Heath Hollensbe (18:46):
Yeah, and, and I think sometimes it's like kind of an ethereal, like what we're talking about is like, yeah, we can kind of relate to that.
But I know that both you and I and and having lived this way for years, um, haveactually seen this play out with some actual flesh on some boots on the ground for sure.
I would ask me, what are some examples of how you've actually seen procrastination?
Really, truly affecting the community of believers that are attempting to live on mission.
Caesar Kalinowski (19:09):
Yeah.
For those who at least have intention to.
Right?
Yeah.
You know, so then we can call it procrastination.
Yeah.
Because call it what it's like we said at the beginning, if you,if you have any ever intention it, then you can't procrastinate it.
Right?
Yeah.
So, right.
So, whoa.
So that's so hard to really narrow down.
There are so many reasons and it's so complex, but, but common things that I've seen that my fellowbrothers and sisters, uh, of course never including me, I have procrastinated, are on things like.
(19:35):
Moving their small group, say their traditional smallgroup or their missional community beyond a weekly meeting.
Hmm.
Like they kind of know that this kind of meeting once a week and sort of, kind of, sortof doing a study sometimes and eating some pie or whatever, that's not what this is about.
Sure.
This isn't really making disciples, this isn't movingoutward to bless others, transform our community.
So they just kind of put it off because of all the stuff we just said.
(19:57):
Uh, other areas really focusing on having a healthysort of up in out balance in their community life.
So we're really worshiping us and being in community, itfeels really rich, and that's kind of why I got into this.
It's just kind of pick and choose my friends.
Um, but we're not really growing deeper in the gospeland we're not really out much at all with anybody else.
(20:18):
So we.
We kind of put off like, no, let's grow in our upward, inward outward balance as a community.
Yeah.
Uh, other things I've seen, uh, failing to plan to intentionally serve others as a community.
Yep.
So maybe they, we've got a, you know, we've got an up in thing goingon where we're like, we're really starting to live more like family
and love each other and prefer one another, and, you know, all that.
(20:41):
Um, and we're growing in the gospel.
But we're not, we, we just kind of put off that, like serving others thing.
Sure.
Or it's like a, it's an annual thing and hardly anybody makes it.
And, but it's not a lifestyle.
We're not living out of our servant identity.
We're kind of putting that off,
Heath Hollensbe (20:54):
right?
Caesar Kalinowski (20:54):
And there's all kinds of ramifications there.
Um, planning predictable patterns that have, you know, highinvitation, easy for people to step into your life, but low challenge.
Right away so that you can, you know, your neighbors and potentialpersons of peace can actually start to walk in the ways of Jesus with you.
So we just kind of get into our rhythm.
It's like, well, we do this Wednesday night, small group thing and youknow, call missional community now, but we're not adding another, say
(21:19):
a brunch or a, you know, happy hour or just an open table or something.
That's high invitation.
Sure.
Easy to step on, but it's slow challenge at first.
It, you know, so we just haven't gotten around to it.
Why?
Well, procrastination.
We're just preferring ours.
Ourselves, right?
Yeah.
In our current whatever that we're doing.
Um, here's another one that I've seen procrastination in that kindascrews us up, is consistently following up with people of peace.
(21:45):
Now there's those people you go like, oh, I know this person, this neighbor's leaning in.
Heath Hollensbe (21:48):
Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski (21:48):
Like, they wanna be our friends and they're totally here.
I'm guilty of this.
I, I can think of people right now, like, man, they're leaning in harder than I am.
Um.
But we're not consistently following up with them and, and going like, what's next?
Lord?
You know, when it comes to gospel conversations and opportunities tobe family together, so, you know, we could be inviting people into
more of our normal family rhythms so we can treat 'em like family.
(22:10):
Um, or maybe instead of that we're resting on ourorganized rhythms and not really engaging organically.
It's like, well, if they don't fit into my box, my weeklymeeting, then I guess we won't be doing community with them.
'cause our community group meets this night or whatever.
It's like, hmm.
What if you, what if you told that to your kids?
I can only be your dad.
I can only be your mom.
Mondays and Tuesdays.
Yeah, Mondays and Tuesdays between these hours.
(22:31):
But then after that, man, I'm, I'm kind of, it's me time.
Yeah.
And I don't, this doesn't work.
It might happen accidentally, but not intentionally.
So, um, and then I'll just make this the last one that where I've seen procrastinationreally happen a lot is getting the help from others who have succeeded in making disciples.
Huh.
Which goes back to some of the reasons we lack motivation.
Um, 'cause, you know, we can't manage it and all this, I don't know whatI'm doing, but, you know, we have, we've prioritized our time and money in
(22:57):
other less important areas of life, and we're not willing to change our mind.
Hmm.
Which is what repentance means.
Yeah.
And trust God in this area of our life for the time, for the learning, for the resources to do that.
So we're actually procrastinating on trusting God.
Wow.
Like we know we're kind of stuck and we know we can find help, but we won't.
(23:18):
We won't do that either.
We keep putting that off.
It's like, oh, don't procrastinate and trusting God.
He is faithful.
You know,
Heath Hollensbe (23:25):
I've never put that connection there, like actually procrastinating.
When your trust in Jesus that is, yeah, man, what a good call out there.
So, uh, maybe people are listening and they've been part of these groups orthey've led groups and they're feeling like a bit of conviction, or maybe they
want to change their ways and, and be more intentional to stop procrastinating.
How would you encourage people who've either experienced this procrastination we've talkedabout today and, and beginning to change this and to get unstuck and where they're at?
Caesar Kalinowski (23:52):
Yeah.
Let me, let me kind of break our format slightly today.
Let me address that.
In the big three.
Okay.
Okay.
I think this is really important, so, we'll, you can tell folks what the big three is.
Yeah, sure.
But then I'll answer that question of how to.
You know, I wanna encourage people to, you know, kind of get unstuck
Heath Hollensbe (24:08):
and get going.
Yeah.
So the big three is the three takeaways.
If nothing else from the show that we want you to walk away with this week,and you get 'em as a printable PDF that goes straight to your inbox as,
and they're free as a download by going to everyday disciple.com/big three.
You'll get 'em right now.
Print 'em out, download 'em, put 'em on your wall.
Caesar, what are the big three for this
Caesar Kalinowski (24:26):
week?
Okay, so first is be honest with yourself when it comes to understanding.
If you've ever really intentioned.
To live a lifestyle of discipleship and mission.
Hmm.
It, it may not be procrastination you're suffering from.
It could be that the gospel you understand and live in lightof is too small and is primarily about your personal happiness.
(24:47):
Wow.
Or, or it may be that your Christian faith is focused on your afterlifeand therefore discipleship and mission is kinda optional here.
So it's taken a back seat in your life.
Heath Hollensbe (24:55):
Huh.
I never would've connected that man.
Alright, number two.
So don't miss that.
Okay.
Yeah, that's
Caesar Kalinowski (24:59):
great.
Okay, so, uh, number two, if you're feeling stuck orknow you've been procrastinating is, let me ask you this.
Do you believe that Jesus lived the best life of any human being ever?
Hmm.
Any wants that for you too?
Like, did, did any other human have a better life than Jesus?
It's a perfect God, man.
You know, Nope.
God has immense blessings and benefits in store for us when welive in community with others and trusting his spirit to guide us.
(25:25):
As we make more disciples of Jesus.
Hmm.
So, so we're all getting his life.
Increasingly, our lives are meant to be part of God fulfilling his eternal purpose.
Filling the world with his glory through us.
This is the life you're created for.
It's the most amazing life ever.
It's Jesus life.
Yeah, that's We're one with him now.
And the good news is that there's no condemnation for those of us procrastinators.
(25:48):
Okay.
So if we have been dragging our feet with this, or like kind of hidingbehind a small gospel, but everybody seems to let us get away with it.
Or we know we've been procrastinating in a lot of ways.
I please hear this, there's no condemnation.
God's not going.
I've been telling him, you know, when's he gonna get off his late?
You know?
So that's good news.
So that's good news, right?
Yeah.
And, and then the third of the big three is, I'd say make a list of the things that you have beenprocrastinating in when it comes to your family or community, and living on God's mission together.
(26:16):
If wherever you're at, if it's like, I haven't even gotten started, or I've beenlistening to this show for a while, and I, I realize this is the life, but I'm not
availing myself to learn and attempt or, or we, we do have a community, but we'rekind of stuck, like you said, being more about us and not so much about anybody else.
Sure.
So like, kind of make a list.
This takes a little bit of work and it'll only be for the bold of heart.
That'll take us up on number three here.
(26:37):
Like do you understand the thing behind the thing connectedto each of the things that you're procrastinating around?
Hmm.
I just say repent now.
Allow God to change your mind and to be your strength and, and your new motivation going forward.
So pick one thing that you'll get started on this week.
Put it in your calendar now.
(26:58):
And get started.
Trust God for the results.
Okay.
So like kill that perfectionism thing or, I don't know what I'm doing.
He's perfect.
So you don't have to be So we don't have to be,
Heath Hollensbe (27:07):
yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski (27:07):
All right.
Heath Hollensbe (27:08):
And it's kinda like writing training wheels, right?
Like this gets easier over time once you start, once you start takingthese leaps and seeing that things work and that you're loved and
Caesar Kalinowski (27:15):
it starts seeing the life that God starts to give us when we trust him.
And we walk in the ways of Jesus.
Yeah.
And we help others do the same.
It is.
There's no going back to checking the box once a week, there just isn't difficult.
Yeah.
Heath Hollensbe (27:26):
Hey, next week we're talking about seven secrets to lifelong marriage, unity with your, your Bride.
Caesar Kalinowski (27:32):
Yep.
Tina's gonna join us next week and we're gonna lay some, uh, thingson everybody that we've learned over, uh, [cough] years of marriage.
A really long time.
Yeah.
Heath Hollensbe (27:43):
Oh, such a long time.
But she, uh, she might actually be more interesting than you even next week.
She always shows you up, man.
I'm sure like I love you, but she always won up.
Caesar Kalinowski (27:51):
She's way better.
Heath Hollensbe (27:53):
Thanks for joining us today.
For more information on this show and to get loads offree discipleship resources, visit everyday disciple.com.
And remember, you really can live with a spiritual freedomand relational peace that Jesus promised every day.
So typically we think of procrastination as an intention action gap where those two aren't coming together.
Our intentions aren't lining up with our actions or vice versa.
If we intend to do something and we voluntarily and needlessly delay action.
On our intention, well, that's procrastination, butwhat if we never make the intention in the first place?
(00:24):
A lot of Christians have never made the intention of making disciples andliving their lives genuinely focused on and reoriented around God's mission.
And I wanna pause for a moment and ask our listeners.
Have you ever intentioned to make disciples and have your life be focused on God's mission and hisglory, rather than focused on your plans and your own glory and kind of fitting him in a little?
(00:46):
Have you ever committed to that?
Heath Hollensbe (00:58):
Welcome to the Everyday Disciple Podcast where you'll learn how to live with.
Greater intentionality and an integrated faith that naturally fits into every area of life.
In other words, discipleship as a lifestyle.
This is the stuff your parents, pastors and seminary professors probably forgot to tell you.
And now here's your host, Cesar Kalinowski.
Caesar Kalinowski (01:17):
Hey Heath, as always, good to be with you, my friend.
Heath Hollensbe (01:21):
You too, man.
Today we're talking about how procrastination kills discipleship andmission and kind of the aspect of living an incarnation life, right?
Yeah.
And I've never really given too much thought as to how this would actually play out.
Yeah.
Maybe you can unpack where you came up with this conceptand what was driving you to want to talk about it more.
Caesar Kalinowski (01:39):
Yeah.
Well, I think as thinking through why, you know, why do so many of us, you know,confessing professing Christians have such low engagement when it comes to discipleship.
We don't really talk about it like being a discipleshipcrisis in the church a lot, but it really is.
There's not a lot of discipleship going on and it's the numberone thing, the church, which is us, you know, kind of get to do.
(02:01):
You know?
Yeah.
It's what we've been commissioned by Jesus to do and why we exist.
So some of the why really has to do with the church having, I think.
A small gospel or a very little true gospel, uh, and an understandingof why we get to make disciples and live by mission with God.
Huh.
So accomplishing God's eternal purposes to fill the worldwith his glory, that's what's going on with the discipleship.
(02:22):
And you can just listen to a million episodes where we talk about that andif we don't know and embrace this, and I'll expand on this in a few minutes.
Sure.
Well, I think that's, that's what's led to having such low discipleship engagement, but some of it.
As I've seen in community and churches that I've helped leadand be a part of, really does have to do with procrastination.
Okay.
(02:42):
Okay.
And so like these couple of bible verses sort of haunting, you know,come to mind like, Proverbs six, nine to 11, how long will you lie there?
You sluggard.
When will you get up from your sleep?
A little sleep, a little slumber.
A little folding of the hands to rest.
And poverty will come on.
You like a thief?
Yep.
And scarcity Like an armed man.
Okay.
Like, well, that might be talking about our work or jobs or whatever, but it, it doesn'texclude it from also being about like, oh, have we been asleep and sort of putting off.
(03:11):
Like, like someone else will do the discipleship.
Yeah.
You know, I don't know.
Galatians six 10, uh, take advantage of every opportunity, be a blessingto others, especially to our brothers and sisters in the family of faith.
Hmm.
Wow.
You know, and I, I know that verse there in Galatians six 10 is generally theGreek imp complies about finances and, you know, being a blessing to others.
Right.
Which is also part of discipleship.
(03:32):
So I, I think this is where it's come from, is like, okay, why?
Do, do we just have too small a gospel and people don't understand the implicationof getting to live out of our identity and and fulfill the eternal purpose of God?
Or does procrastination actually.
Play into this a whole lot more?
I think it does.
I really do.
Heath Hollensbe (03:49):
So one of the things I've thought about quite a bit is the, uh, I've been part of many missional communities and different groups that
would claim to be missional in, in the way that they wanna live, but theydidn't have any sense of purpose or intentionality in what they were doing.
And so you'd have just a bunch of misses because there'd be no intention in moving people.
Let's hang out a bunch, but what are we doing?
Yeah, exactly.
(04:09):
So would you say that cra procrastination and a lack of intentionality.
Are brothers in the same camp, because I can see often that a lack ofintentionality really hurts mission, but maybe you see differences between the two.
Caesar Kalinowski (04:21):
Well, so let's look at the word intentionality, right?
It says the fact of being deliberate or purposeful, right?
Yeah.
Having a purpose.
So that kinda speaks to what you're talking about.
So that's the intentionality side, and.
It also goes and say the, the, the quality of mental states are, you know, our thoughts anddesires and hopes that consists in being directed towards some object or state of affairs.
(04:41):
So yeah, you're right.
It's hard to have.
Uh, intentionality if we've never set out a goal.
Sure.
Right.
So, what, you know, what is the goal of making disciples?
Well, it's, it's to make disciples of Jesus that we, we, he would live our lives through us.
We would understand how we are now one with him.
And increasingly, there'd be more and more disciples ofJesus, the glory of God filling the earth with his glory now.
(05:03):
So we have to have intention.
In other words, it consists of being directed towards some object or state of affairs.
Sure.
Now, typically we think of procrastination as an intention.
Like action gap where our actions aren't lining up with our intentions.
If we intend to do something and we either voluntarily and orneedlessly delay action on our intention, that's procrastination.
(05:25):
But what if we've never made the intention in the first place?
Hmm.
So a lot of Christians have never made the intention of making disciples andliving their lives genuinely focused and reoriented around God's mission.
And so I wanna pause for a moment and ask our listeners, have you ever in intentioned, like youpersonally, or your small group, or your missional community, have you ever intention to make
(05:47):
disciples of Jesus and have your life be focused on God's mission and his glory rather than.
Kind of focused on our own plans and our own glory.
Hmm.
Have you ever committed to
Heath Hollensbe (05:56):
that?
That's a really good question, man.
And as you're talk, even as, as you're kind of walking through this definitions, I'mthinking about how we constantly are tying things back to the thing behind the thing.
And so yeah, a lack of intentionality or procrastination, it's never just like, well, Iforgot to get to it, but there's always some sort of hard thing going on a bit deeper.
Yeah, for sure.
What do you think are some of the reasons that we procrastinate in life in general,and maybe even more specifically when it comes to discipleship and mission?
Caesar Kalinowski (06:22):
It is really important, Heath, when trying to move beyond procrastination in any area of life to first understand the possible reasons, right?
So I want to go into 'em, uh, you know, what are the possiblereasons, be behind, you know, my particular brand of procrastination.
But I do wanna connect the dots as we go along to okay,then maybe this, we're procrastinating in this way.
(06:44):
Making disciples and living on mission.
Okay.
Yeah.
So, but these apply.
You're right.
So reason number one, it's a big one, is perfectionism.
In other words, it's this thinking that if I can't do it perfectly or at leastreally, really well and control both the outcome and people's perceptions
of how I'm doing at something, then I'll avoid it and I'll put it off.
Not wanting to expose any weakness in myself.
(07:06):
I. Okay.
Yep.
So I was, I was doing a little research on this and, uh, there's a Stanford Universitypsychologist, Carol Dweck, and she details the power of one's mindset connected to this.
Okay.
And, and she, she relates successes in school and sports, or work, you know, yourjob or the arts and other areas of human endeavor to how one thinks currently about
(07:26):
their own abilities and talents and a, you know, and, and how they're gonna do.
Mm-hmm.
And so she, she explains that people either have a fixed mindset.
Or they have a growth mindset, and those with a fixed mindsetbelieve that their abilities are sort of set in stone.
This is where they're at, this is how it'll go.
And so they only focus on their current intelligence or insightsor talents or skills, believing they cannot really be developed.
(07:49):
Hmm.
So why, you know, can a fixed mindset be dangerous?
Well, it hinders one's ability to grow and learn and make positive changes.
And so how are we gonna make disciples if we are not both a disciple of Jesus?
Meaning learning how to walk in his ways and obey all of histeachings, and then learning how to help others do the same.
So if we have this fixed mindset, yeah, which is so much of it's connected to perfectionism.
(08:13):
Like, I don't know if I know how to do this and I'm kindof stuck and I'm really worried about not doing it well.
So I'll just put it off kind of forever.
I won't say it's bad.
Sure.
I just won't do it.
Heath Hollensbe (08:23):
Wow.
Yeah, it makes me too think of like the, you know, I know in my, my ownpursuits of perfectionism, a lot of times I really have to check my heart
and go like, is there a fear of man thing if people see me screw up?
Or am I believing that these people are more glorious than even God is?
And so there's, if we wanna tie this even into the four Gs man, and it's reallyeasy to go there with, with some of these underlying things we're talking about.
(08:43):
It's
Caesar Kalinowski (08:43):
no kidding.
And think about like, for, for a lot of people, they thinkdiscipleship is still, is like teaching a bunch of classes to somebody.
Versus helping them learn how to move from unbelief to belief.
Yep.
In the gospel, in every area of life.
Well, that requires time.
That requires understanding the gospel, having a fluency at the gospel.
Um, it involves a lot of challenging people.
Yeah.
And their thinking and their thoughts and why, you know, they're doing what they're doing.
(09:06):
Are they considering that?
And I. Are they living to God's glory or their own?
And so, yeah, I think you're right.
The thing behind the thing there does have to do a lot of fear of man issues.
Yep.
And, um, and my own personal comfort, like, I love me Yeah.
More than you in God's glory.
So if it's going to require time, effort, and, and there again, if I have sort ofa fixed mindset where I don't, I don't even know if I could do it or whatever, or
(09:29):
control that, well, I'm just, I'll leave that to the professionals or something.
Heath Hollensbe (09:33):
Yeah, no, that makes sense ma'am.
Caesar Kalinowski (09:34):
Okay.
Reason number two.
Okay.
So fear of the unknown.
So, so few of us have ever seen or experienced life on life, life and communitydiscipleship, that it really is the unknown frontier and it freaks us out a little bit.
Hmm.
And we don't fully understand or comprehend the life that Jesus came to give us all.
So we fear it.
(09:54):
It's just, it's too hard to believe that we get to live in lightof the gospel in every area of life that the kingdom's come.
It's just too hard.
Sure.
And like I mentioned a few years ago, so many within our, within our family,the church, have been sold a very small gospel, a very little, you know,
gospel and not much truth in it, and an understanding of why we get to makedisciples and live on mission with God and how that transforms our lives.
(10:18):
Hmm.
Now.
Here's what's interesting to me.
Um, you know, people research, procrastination, all that.
Researchers from University of Michigan con conducted a study
Heath Hollensbe (10:26):
okay.
Caesar Kalinowski (10:27):
On the effects of allowing misinformation to linger in someone's mind.
Okay?
So I'm tying this right now to like.
Oh, that wasn't really the gospel that you say a Jesus in yourheart prayer and then you wait for heaven and try to sin less.
No, sure.
But, but misinformation lingers, and the study notes that misinformation remains in one's memoryand continues to influence their thinking, even if the person is aware that that was not even true.
(10:52):
Hmm.
So the person is also likely to make use of this mismisinformation, especially if it fits with their existing beliefs.
Sort of makes sense to others, huh?
This then leads to spreading the inaccurate information to other people.
Heath Hollensbe (11:06):
Isn't that funny, man?
'cause I, I do that in my own life too, where I know there's things that are not truethat just habits that I've believed for a long time that have kind of car, but that's the
Caesar Kalinowski (11:14):
narrative and everybody else is in, on
Heath Hollensbe (11:16):
the, the, the, the gag or whatever.
Yeah.
And so then when you try to actually start like actually takingthose thoughts captive, it's impossible 'cause that misinformation
is sat in there for so long that these trenches have been developed.
Caesar Kalinowski (11:26):
And so you couple that with the fear of the unknown and I'm kind of sticking to the, you know, hey, doesn't everybody just
go to church and we're kind of waiting for Jesus to get back and all
Heath Hollensbe (11:33):
this, and.
Yeah.
So it turns out that what we don't know can actually hurt us and notonly hurt us initially, but keep hurting us as well as hurting others.
Absolutely.
Caesar Kalinowski (11:43):
Absolutely.
Heath Hollensbe (11:44):
Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski (11:45):
And I think the thing behind the thing there again, is that, that the fear of the unknown, and I've never seen this done.
I've never seen people live in community this way.
I've never seen people who can fight and forgive and speak the truth and love, and they givetheir lives away to each other in service and their neighbors, and we, we exist as family.
Like I've never seen that.
And, and so I think I'm pretty safe to just keep believing the old, sort of check thebox Christianity, even though I, I kind of know there's way more to that than that.
(12:13):
So Absolutely.
Still self-love, if you think about it.
Yeah, it always comes.
It really is.
Come back to that like I know right now.
So here I am, you know, over the, uh, internet poking people in the chest a little bit.
But I know there are people who've listened to us a lot.
Yep.
And yet , they still haven't really made those changes in their family life.
They haven't like do dove into community, even though if it's icky or weird, they're learning.
(12:35):
They haven't, they haven't started to lead their churches in light of that.
So it's a procrastination.
Yep.
Right.
They've intention, now they're listening to it, they're intention, but they'restill kinda living within the umbrella of, well, the old way of thinking.
Yeah.
And even though I know it's not right and everybodyelse is still in on that deal, I'm getting away with it.
Heath Hollensbe (12:53):
Or So you think?
Yeah.
Oh
Caesar Kalinowski (12:54):
yeah.
Right.
Alright.
Reason number three, third reason, and this is a big one, is that you experiencea lack of motivation connected to something, so that's why you procrastinate.
Okay.
Okay.
So have you ever thought to yourself that life has just gotten like in the way of discipleship?
Sure.
Like, you know, even when it comes to your own family or spouse orkids, and so you haven't been able to do what you know you get to do.
(13:15):
And have actually intentioned to do so this, but, but there'slike, you don't have a great motivation connected to it.
And this lack of motivation can come from all kinds of underlying causes.
So, well I just pull a list together here.
So maybe it's a lack of energy.
Yep.
Right.
You're not feeling well or fatigue or something like that.
It could be stress in other areas of your life.
Heath Hollensbe (13:36):
Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski (13:36):
So it's kind of zapping your motivation to like, I.
I really do wanna make disciples.
I do wanna start taking, you know, responsibility for discipling my own kids.
Sure.
And, you know, those I love and, and maybe my neighbors and all that.
Right.
Uh, but I'm so stressed out or fatigued or lacking energy or, um, other priorities.
Hmm.
Like I. In our life could just zap it, you know, for us.
(13:59):
And, and so we don't, we lack motivation.
'cause right now, well when this is done or when we get the house finished or when we, youknow, get the kids into school or when we get a, the next raise or if I get a bigger house or
you know, or whatever, we've always got another priority that's kind of getting in the way.
Yep.
And, and so we don't have the motivation to get started right now.
Um, you know, emergencies come up in life or sicknesses thatare real and, and we, you know, we've gotta deal with them.
(14:25):
Or maybe you're like, we intention to get something started and we're having a baby.
Yeah.
Or something like that.
So it changes our family schedule again.
Um, or people, uh, well can lose motivation 'cause theyhave trouble finding new ways and ideas to get started.
Hmm.
And so they're like, I don't even know how to get started.
Uh, so.
We just keep thinking, well, I know and I, so I order a bunch of booksand I download stuff and I'll even buy a course and never watch it.
(14:48):
Sure.
You know, or never read the book.
I've done that a lot.
Yeah.
Or you know, or maybe you're surrounded with negativity connected to something.
So in this case, what we're talking about is discipleship and mission.
Like no one gets what you're talking about.
Yeah.
The church is not necessarily into it.
Or maybe you are the pastor and you're into it.
Sure.
But you get so much negativity.
People are like, what?
(15:09):
Yeah.
You expect, how many nights a week do you expect us to live our faith?
Like, wait a minute.
It's our identity, you know?
Yeah.
Right.
So that negativity keeps you from like really implementing new things and newdiscipleship in your church or in your community, wherever, or you've got a lack of
confidence, which is sort of somewhat connected up to reasons one and two above, right?
(15:29):
Yep.
Where, you know, you're either perfectionist and you don't know if you're gonna be good at it.
So I don't wanna start, or, or the fear of the unknown, like,where's this gonna lead to and how much time will it eat?
So sometimes you have a lack of confidence, um, oryou perceive you're working in the wrong environment.
In other words like, well, that won't work here.
You know, we're listening to Heath and Caesar talk about life on mission and incommunity, and it sure sounds messy, but it seems to be working for them, but.
(15:51):
That's probably 'cause they live in Pacific, Northwestern, you know?
Sure.
It'll never work here in the east coast.
It'll never work in the south.
Or they probably live in the inner city and, and I live in a suburb or whatever.
Well, that's not true.
And we've talked about a lot of this stuff, so, you know, or like you mentioned, unclear goals.
Yeah.
Can kind of like lead to a lack of motivation.
And so, uh, there was a study there, again, I did a lot of research on this.
(16:12):
There was a study done at, at Carnegie Mellon Universityrevealed that people lack motivation when they find little value.
In the projected outcome of their work.
Hmm.
Right.
So you know how that is.
If you know, if you just go like, why am I doing this?
Yeah.
I don't see a clear line drawn to.
Goal accomplished.
Sure.
Right.
You just don't know it.
We've had jobs like that.
(16:32):
Oh yeah.
We've worked for people.
We're like, this is how we do it, and this is how you're gonna do it, and we're never gonnachange it and come in early and make sure you, and you're like, but I don't understand why.
What we're, you know?
Yep.
And so we, and, and this makes sense, this doesn't sound like a bigrevelation to me, but people, people will lack motivation when they
find little value in the projected outcome in the work, however.
The study goes on and say, if people are able to clearly see how their workconnects to their interests or goals and concerns, they are more likely to value
(16:58):
their work and get started and be motivated to invest their energy into things.
Heath Hollensbe (17:04):
Man, that is really funny 'cause I, as you were talking there, I was thinking about even when I wrote my last book, and I don't know if you have
the same situation, but you have something you really wanna see an outcome of.
Like, I wanna write this book and bless people.
And then you sit down to write it and it's like.
I did every single thing under the sun that I could toavoid actually having to get to what I wanted to do.
I mean, I checked websites I haven't been to in 20years and, and reached out to old Facebook friends.
(17:26):
And so I think you're absolutely right when you lack motivation and you don't know, likeyou're, you're scared of the unknown that all piles up and causes you to procrastinate.
Yeah.
And think about it.
If, if we.
Caesar Kalinowski (17:36):
If we're not accurately communicating to ourselves, to our spouse, to our kids, to our community, to the those that we
lead at a, at a church, if we're not accurately helping them see that.
Life on mission.
Life in a community following after Jesus and reorientingour life around his life is the best possible life.
Yeah.
And it's what we were created for.
(17:57):
It's why God created us.
This, you know, the angels long to look into this, you know, scripture says what?
That God would fill the world with His glory.
What he's like through humans.
Yeah.
That's it.
So like this idea of everything else gets in the way and everything elsesteps our motivation and now I'm fearful of this and I don't know how to do.
I in light of wait a minute, are, do you understand like what this is really about?
(18:23):
Sure.
And are we connecting it to like, no, this is how you're gonna find truejoy and peace and fulfillment and your what, what purpose is in life, and
how you'll leave a legacy and how you'll pass on the gospel in every areaof life to your kids and to those that God brings close to you in life.
Oh, I mean, yeah.
It's so big and so I, boy, I'd hate for that to be, but,but boy, what a long list of things that zap our motivation.
(18:46):
Right.
Heath Hollensbe (18:46):
Yeah, and, and I think sometimes it's like kind of an ethereal, like what we're talking about is like, yeah, we can kind of relate to that.
But I know that both you and I and and having lived this way for years, um, haveactually seen this play out with some actual flesh on some boots on the ground for sure.
I would ask me, what are some examples of how you've actually seen procrastination?
Really, truly affecting the community of believers that are attempting to live on mission.
Caesar Kalinowski (19:09):
Yeah.
For those who at least have intention to.
Right?
Yeah.
You know, so then we can call it procrastination.
Yeah.
Because call it what it's like we said at the beginning, if you,if you have any ever intention it, then you can't procrastinate it.
Right?
Yeah.
So, right.
So, whoa.
So that's so hard to really narrow down.
There are so many reasons and it's so complex, but, but common things that I've seen that my fellowbrothers and sisters, uh, of course never including me, I have procrastinated, are on things like.
(19:35):
Moving their small group, say their traditional smallgroup or their missional community beyond a weekly meeting.
Hmm.
Like they kind of know that this kind of meeting once a week and sort of, kind of, sortof doing a study sometimes and eating some pie or whatever, that's not what this is about.
Sure.
This isn't really making disciples, this isn't movingoutward to bless others, transform our community.
So they just kind of put it off because of all the stuff we just said.
(19:57):
Uh, other areas really focusing on having a healthysort of up in out balance in their community life.
So we're really worshiping us and being in community, itfeels really rich, and that's kind of why I got into this.
It's just kind of pick and choose my friends.
Um, but we're not really growing deeper in the gospeland we're not really out much at all with anybody else.
(20:18):
So we.
We kind of put off like, no, let's grow in our upward, inward outward balance as a community.
Yeah.
Uh, other things I've seen, uh, failing to plan to intentionally serve others as a community.
Yep.
So maybe they, we've got a, you know, we've got an up in thing goingon where we're like, we're really starting to live more like family
and love each other and prefer one another, and, you know, all that.
(20:41):
Um, and we're growing in the gospel.
But we're not, we, we just kind of put off that, like serving others thing.
Sure.
Or it's like a, it's an annual thing and hardly anybody makes it.
And, but it's not a lifestyle.
We're not living out of our servant identity.
We're kind of putting that off,
Heath Hollensbe (20:54):
right?
Caesar Kalinowski (20:54):
And there's all kinds of ramifications there.
Um, planning predictable patterns that have, you know, highinvitation, easy for people to step into your life, but low challenge.
Right away so that you can, you know, your neighbors and potentialpersons of peace can actually start to walk in the ways of Jesus with you.
So we just kind of get into our rhythm.
It's like, well, we do this Wednesday night, small group thing and youknow, call missional community now, but we're not adding another, say
(21:19):
a brunch or a, you know, happy hour or just an open table or something.
That's high invitation.
Sure.
Easy to step on, but it's slow challenge at first.
It, you know, so we just haven't gotten around to it.
Why?
Well, procrastination.
We're just preferring ours.
Ourselves, right?
Yeah.
In our current whatever that we're doing.
Um, here's another one that I've seen procrastination in that kindascrews us up, is consistently following up with people of peace.
(21:45):
Now there's those people you go like, oh, I know this person, this neighbor's leaning in.
Heath Hollensbe (21:48):
Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski (21:48):
Like, they wanna be our friends and they're totally here.
I'm guilty of this.
I, I can think of people right now, like, man, they're leaning in harder than I am.
Um.
But we're not consistently following up with them and, and going like, what's next?
Lord?
You know, when it comes to gospel conversations and opportunities tobe family together, so, you know, we could be inviting people into
more of our normal family rhythms so we can treat 'em like family.
(22:10):
Um, or maybe instead of that we're resting on ourorganized rhythms and not really engaging organically.
It's like, well, if they don't fit into my box, my weeklymeeting, then I guess we won't be doing community with them.
'cause our community group meets this night or whatever.
It's like, hmm.
What if you, what if you told that to your kids?
I can only be your dad.
I can only be your mom.
Mondays and Tuesdays.
Yeah, Mondays and Tuesdays between these hours.
(22:31):
But then after that, man, I'm, I'm kind of, it's me time.
Yeah.
And I don't, this doesn't work.
It might happen accidentally, but not intentionally.
So, um, and then I'll just make this the last one that where I've seen procrastinationreally happen a lot is getting the help from others who have succeeded in making disciples.
Huh.
Which goes back to some of the reasons we lack motivation.
Um, 'cause, you know, we can't manage it and all this, I don't know whatI'm doing, but, you know, we have, we've prioritized our time and money in
(22:57):
other less important areas of life, and we're not willing to change our mind.
Hmm.
Which is what repentance means.
Yeah.
And trust God in this area of our life for the time, for the learning, for the resources to do that.
So we're actually procrastinating on trusting God.
Wow.
Like we know we're kind of stuck and we know we can find help, but we won't.
(23:18):
We won't do that either.
We keep putting that off.
It's like, oh, don't procrastinate and trusting God.
He is faithful.
You know,
Heath Hollensbe (23:25):
I've never put that connection there, like actually procrastinating.
When your trust in Jesus that is, yeah, man, what a good call out there.
So, uh, maybe people are listening and they've been part of these groups orthey've led groups and they're feeling like a bit of conviction, or maybe they
want to change their ways and, and be more intentional to stop procrastinating.
How would you encourage people who've either experienced this procrastination we've talkedabout today and, and beginning to change this and to get unstuck and where they're at?
Caesar Kalinowski (23:52):
Yeah.
Let me, let me kind of break our format slightly today.
Let me address that.
In the big three.
Okay.
Okay.
I think this is really important, so, we'll, you can tell folks what the big three is.
Yeah, sure.
But then I'll answer that question of how to.
You know, I wanna encourage people to, you know, kind of get unstuck
Heath Hollensbe (24:08):
and get going.
Yeah.
So the big three is the three takeaways.
If nothing else from the show that we want you to walk away with this week,and you get 'em as a printable PDF that goes straight to your inbox as,
and they're free as a download by going to everyday disciple.com/big three.
You'll get 'em right now.
Print 'em out, download 'em, put 'em on your wall.
Caesar, what are the big three for this
Caesar Kalinowski (24:26):
week?
Okay, so first is be honest with yourself when it comes to understanding.
If you've ever really intentioned.
To live a lifestyle of discipleship and mission.
Hmm.
It, it may not be procrastination you're suffering from.
It could be that the gospel you understand and live in lightof is too small and is primarily about your personal happiness.
(24:47):
Wow.
Or, or it may be that your Christian faith is focused on your afterlifeand therefore discipleship and mission is kinda optional here.
So it's taken a back seat in your life.
Heath Hollensbe (24:55):
Huh.
I never would've connected that man.
Alright, number two.
So don't miss that.
Okay.
Yeah, that's
Caesar Kalinowski (24:59):
great.
Okay, so, uh, number two, if you're feeling stuck orknow you've been procrastinating is, let me ask you this.
Do you believe that Jesus lived the best life of any human being ever?
Hmm.
Any wants that for you too?
Like, did, did any other human have a better life than Jesus?
It's a perfect God, man.
You know, Nope.
God has immense blessings and benefits in store for us when welive in community with others and trusting his spirit to guide us.
(25:25):
As we make more disciples of Jesus.
Hmm.
So, so we're all getting his life.
Increasingly, our lives are meant to be part of God fulfilling his eternal purpose.
Filling the world with his glory through us.
This is the life you're created for.
It's the most amazing life ever.
It's Jesus life.
Yeah, that's We're one with him now.
And the good news is that there's no condemnation for those of us procrastinators.
(25:48):
Okay.
So if we have been dragging our feet with this, or like kind of hidingbehind a small gospel, but everybody seems to let us get away with it.
Or we know we've been procrastinating in a lot of ways.
I please hear this, there's no condemnation.
God's not going.
I've been telling him, you know, when's he gonna get off his late?
You know?
So that's good news.
So that's good news, right?
Yeah.
And, and then the third of the big three is, I'd say make a list of the things that you have beenprocrastinating in when it comes to your family or community, and living on God's mission together.
(26:16):
If wherever you're at, if it's like, I haven't even gotten started, or I've beenlistening to this show for a while, and I, I realize this is the life, but I'm not
availing myself to learn and attempt or, or we, we do have a community, but we'rekind of stuck, like you said, being more about us and not so much about anybody else.
Sure.
So like, kind of make a list.
This takes a little bit of work and it'll only be for the bold of heart.
That'll take us up on number three here.
(26:37):
Like do you understand the thing behind the thing connectedto each of the things that you're procrastinating around?
Hmm.
I just say repent now.
Allow God to change your mind and to be your strength and, and your new motivation going forward.
So pick one thing that you'll get started on this week.
Put it in your calendar now.
(26:58):
And get started.
Trust God for the results.
Okay.
So like kill that perfectionism thing or, I don't know what I'm doing.
He's perfect.
So you don't have to be So we don't have to be,
Heath Hollensbe (27:07):
yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski (27:07):
All right.
Heath Hollensbe (27:08):
And it's kinda like writing training wheels, right?
Like this gets easier over time once you start, once you start takingthese leaps and seeing that things work and that you're loved and
Caesar Kalinowski (27:15):
it starts seeing the life that God starts to give us when we trust him.
And we walk in the ways of Jesus.
Yeah.
And we help others do the same.
It is.
There's no going back to checking the box once a week, there just isn't difficult.
Yeah.
Heath Hollensbe (27:26):
Hey, next week we're talking about seven secrets to lifelong marriage, unity with your, your Bride.
Caesar Kalinowski (27:32):
Yep.
Tina's gonna join us next week and we're gonna lay some, uh, thingson everybody that we've learned over, uh, [cough] years of marriage.
A really long time.
Yeah.
Heath Hollensbe (27:43):
Oh, such a long time.
But she, uh, she might actually be more interesting than you even next week.
She always shows you up, man.
I'm sure like I love you, but she always won up.
Caesar Kalinowski (27:51):
She's way better.
Heath Hollensbe (27:53):
Thanks for joining us today.
For more information on this show and to get loads offree discipleship resources, visit everyday disciple.com.
And remember, you really can live with a spiritual freedomand relational peace that Jesus promised every day.
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