I’m not writing about all of my living ARTFULLY elements, just the ones that might not be obvious. So I’ll skip Loving and go to Life-giving. Here’s the list again:

• Abiding
• Rejoicing 
• Thankful
• Focused
• Unattached
• Loving
• Life-giving
• Yielded

I see Life-giving as what we do when we’re trying to help someone advance in their spiritual life. Jesus presented Paul’s mission that way. Here’s how Paul tells it:

And I said, “Who are you, Lord?” And the Lord said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to…

• open their eyes, so that they
• may turn from darkness to light and
• from the power of Satan to God, that they
• may receive
  • forgiveness of sins and
  • a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” (Acts 26.15 – 18, ESV, bulleted for clarity)

If that’s not life-giving, I don’t know what is!

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. (John 6.35, ESV)

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1.9 – 14, ESV)

I added Unattached to my Artfully Living List…

• Abiding in Christ
• Rejoicing 
• Thankful
• Focused
• Unattached
• Loving
• Life-giving
• Yielded

…because I’ve been working on what Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, called “Indifference.” Since “indifference” doesn’t start with the “u” I needed, I’m calling it “unattached.” Ignatius defined it as:

Being detached enough from things, people, or experiences to be able either to take them up or to leave them aside, depending on whether they help us to “to praise, reverence, and serve God” (Spiritual Exercises 23). 

I like to use the Apostle Paul as an example:

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.  I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.  I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4.11 – 13, ESV)

A friend pointed me to Paul’s counsel to the Corinthians as another example of Unattached:

This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away. (1 Corinthians 7.29 – 31, ESV)

This move has been a good time to practice this discipline. For one of our granddaughters, we’re leaving the only house she’s ever associated with us. She’s making a documentary of her experience with the house, and she asked me, “How do you feel about leaving this house?” I had to tell her, “It’s just a house. We’ll create a home in the next house where you will be welcome.”

When I wrote about giving away MY childhood rocking chair, a blog reader responded, partly in jest because of my advanced age:

I can’t believe you gave away YOUR childhood rocker!! That’s an antique!!!

But it’s not hard to give something away if (1) you don’t need it, (2), you’re unattached to it (our theme), and (3) you have no place to put it!

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6.19 – 21, ESV)

POSIWID?! Bob, is that a typo? No, please recall that I promised yesterday a way to think about what our focus actually is, not what we say it is. POSIWID is a term introduced by Stafford Beer in the early 2000s:

The Purpose Of a System Is What It Does (POSIWID).

Not what we say it does or what we hope it does but what it actually does. Beer wrote:

There is no point in claiming that the purpose of a system is to do what it constantly fails to do. – Wikipedia: The Purpose Of a System Is What It Does

For example, if you observed a church over several weeks, what would you say its purpose is? The church might have a mission statement tucked away in a drawer somewhere, but what would your observations about the church’s activities lead you to believe its mission is?

I posed that question to a leader in a Christian mission, and his immediate response was something like:

To get as many people to attend the Sunday morning performance as possible.

Exactly. What about the average American Christian? Or you and I? Do we live that differently from our neighbors? Another formulation of POSIWID is the familiar adage:

If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. – Wikipedia, DuckTest

Back to focus. What’s yours? What’s mine? Maybe we need to look at our behavior to find out. Jesus said it first:

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. (Matthew 7.15, 16, ESV, emphasis mine)

Back to the acrostic I developed a few years ago for living artfully:

• Abiding in Christ
• Rejoicing 
• Thankful
• Focused
• Unattached
• Loving
• Life-giving
• Yielded

We talked about Abiding on Sunday, then took a break to honor Sara McDaniel, June’s piano teacher, who embodied not only a lifestyle of investing in others but also a life completely focused on music. Faced with the challenge of a single mother raising two boys, she worked hard to put bread on the table: she had a full private studio, she performed, she taught at the college level…all music, all the time. Focused.

Focused: it’s the next practice I want to talk about. The apostle Paul was focused:

But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3.13, 14, NIV)

As the late Navigator Skip Gray used to say:

Paul said, “This one thing I do. Not, these 14 things I dabble in.”

As I was putting books on the shelf in our new home, I noticed The One Thing by Gary Keller. It opens with the proverb:

If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one.

The movie City Slickers with Billy Crystal is worth watching for the one scene between Billy’s character, Mitch, a 40-year-old guy in a midlife crisis, and Curly, the tough cowboy that’s managing the cattle drive Billy and his friends have signed up for.

Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is?

Mitch: No, what?

Curly (holding up one finger): This.

Mitch: Your finger?

Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and everything else don’t mean nothin’. [Sanitized slightly for a Christian blog!]

Mitch: That’s great but, what’s the one thing?

Curly: That’s what you gotta figure out.

What’s your one thing? What’s mine? I’d like to think mine is the motto of The Navigators:

To know Christ, to make him known, and to help others do the same.

But if you watched my life, would you conclude that? Reminds me of something my son Mark shared with me a year or two ago that I haven’t written about yet. I think it’s profound and speaks to this discussion. Stay tuned.

But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD. – Joshua (Joshua 24.15, NIV)

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. – Jesus (Matthew 6.24, NIV)

June and I both studied piano from the age of 8. I quit lessons during my senior year of high school. June still studies! On June 1, her beloved teacher, Sara McDaniel, passed after an 18-month battle with a rare cancer.

Yesterday, we attended her memorial service where the pastor shared the succinct summary of Sara’s life given by his church’s music director, Shazia Ali, one of Sara’s adult students:

Sara made career musicians.

Sara was a concert-level pianist in her own right. During lessons, she would sight-read music it would take her adult students months to learn. She performed regularly with the Colorado Springs Chamber Orchestra and with members of the Colorado Springs Philharmonic, the Air Force Academy Band, and others. You can see a sample here. The playing starts about 1:35 in and goes for nearly 10 minutes.

But her lasting contribution was not in making music herself but in helping others make music.

Sara taught with a rare mix of precision and kindness. She guided her students with care, always encouraging them to find their voice. Her impact rippled through generations of musicians across the state and beyond. Besides teaching privately, she also taught at…Pikes Peak State College (formerly Pikes Peak Community College…. – From the memorial service bulletin

Let me pause here. She could have taught anywhere. She chose to teach at Pikes Peak Community in order to give students from less wealthy backgrounds the same opportunities as those more fortunate. She taught there since 1985. Continuing from yesterday’s bulletin…

After semi-retirement, she began organizing monthly recitals for her advanced older students.

Most of those recitals were for the participants only, but once a year, in December, we spouses could come.

I share all this to inspire all of us to invest in others. Jesus did, Paul did. Our best contribution will be the people who are making a difference after we’re gone. And make no mistake, we will be gone…

The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office. (Hebrews 7.23, ESV)

I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world…For I have given them the words that you gave me…I am praying for them…As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. – Jesus, John 17.6 – 9, 18, ESV

And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Timothy 2.2, NIV)

Yesterday, I offered an acrostic on ARTFULLY as a complement to Sahil Bloom’s blog on Artful Living. The acrostic is something I developed a few years ago to encourage me in a few spiritual disciplines.

• Abiding in Christ
• Rejoicing 
• Thankful
• Focused
• Unattached
• Loving
• Life-giving
• Yielded

Let’s look at “Abide” first, and I don’t think I can do better than what I wrote almost three years ago…

Most of the uses of “abide” are in John 15: the vine and the branches (verses 1 – 16). Here are just a few observations with little comment.

“Abide”

• Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit…unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me (4)
• Whoever abides in me and I in him…bears much fruit. (5)
• If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away (6)
• If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask… (7)
• Abide in my love. (9)
• If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. (10)
• I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide… (16)

“If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away” (6) – best we figure out what abide means and do it!

If I’m not bearing “much fruit,” I’m not abiding. (5) (That’s basic mathematical logic: “IF anyone abides in me and I in him, he bears fruit.” Abiding => Fruit. Therefore, No fruit => No abiding.)

There are promises for those who abide:

• Answered prayer (7, 16)
• Love (9, 10)
• Joy (11)

This “abiding” section includes commands:

• Abide: “Abide in me and I in you…” (4)
• Obey: “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love…” (10)
• Love: “This is my commandment that you love one another…” (12)
• Bear fruit: “I have appointed you to go and bear fruit…” (16)

A rich section. Books, probably libraries, have been written about it. But of all the metaphors Jesus used, this one of abiding as a branch does in a vine seems the most permanent. Jesus is the bread of life, but I can eat bread today and not eat bread tomorrow. He is the living water, and, again, I can take a drink or not. He’s the light, but I can close my eyes or open them. Abiding as a branch in a vine doesn’t seem like something one can turn on or off.

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples… (John 8.31, ESV)

And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. (1 John 2.28, ESV)

Sahil Bloom’s challenge to live artfully (yesterday’s blog) reminded me of an acrostic I had developed to remember my life’s goals. I’m ashamed to say I haven’t reviewed it for a while, but I’m pleased that the acrostic brought the concepts right back to mind. (Such memory techniques work!) Here it is:

I want to live ARTFULLY. What might that look like?

• Abiding in Christ (John 15.4 – 7)
• Rejoicing  (1 Thessalonians 5.16, Philippians 3.1, Philippians 4.4)
• Thankful (1 Thessalonians 5.18)
• Focused (Philippians 1.27, Philippians 3.13, 14)
• Unattached (Philippians 4.11, 12)
• Loving (Philippians 2.1 – 5, John 13.34, 35)
• Life-giving (Philippians 2.14 – 16, Acts 26.18)
• Yielded (Romans 6.12 – 16)

It’s not a bad list. Maybe I’ll unpack some of them over the next few days.

Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table. She has sent out her young women to call from the highest places in the town, “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” To him who lacks sense she says, “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.” (Proverbs 9.1 – 6, ESV – blogged on June 21, 2025)

Sahil Bloom expounded a worthy philosophy of life on July 11, 2025.

He began by quoting the Roman philosopher Seneca:

Ars longa; vita brevis. Art is long, life is short.

Then Sahil went on to say:

It isn’t simply about art, but about an artful life.

To live artfully is to create ripples that extend beyond the self. To shape your very short existence in such a way that its echoes outlast your pulse.

To live artfully is to focus on creation, not consumption. To share your gifts with the world. To share your light.

To live artfully is to embrace curiosity. To learn for the sake of learning. To renew each day the child-like awe with which you used to see the world.

To live artfully is to give with no expectation of return. To center yourself in generosity and kindness.

To live artfully is to live differently. To wake up early. To walk slowly. To listen intently. To stand proudly. To focus deeply.

To live artfully is to treat the ordinary with the sort of reverence typically reserved for the extraordinary.

Ars longa; vita brevis. Art is long, life is short.

So, live artfully.

Good principles, some very Biblical! This piece resonated with me since I had developed an acrostic based on ARTFULLY as a succinct way to remember my life’s goals. I’ll share it tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. (Philippians 2.14, 15, ESV)

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace. (1 Peter 4.10, ESV)

I wrote about “let us go over to the other side” two years ago, but it’s a word we need now.

One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out. (Luke 8.22. ESV)

It’s the story of Jesus falling asleep and then being awakened to still a storm.

Matt Holzman, associate pastor at First Presbyterian Church, Colorado Springs, closed last Sunday’s sermon on Luke 8.22 – 26 with these words:

Verse 26 says, “They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee.” Jesus doesn’t stop the journey. He keeps going. He told them that he wanted to go across the lake, and that’s just what they did together. He brings them to the other side—literally and spiritually.

We’re in the middle of our move – the unpacking phase – about to drown in a sea of boxes. If you’ve moved, you’ve been there. I’m telling people, “We last moved in 2006. Do the math. We’re 19 years older now than we were then.” And I have to remind myself and June that God did not bring us to this new house so we could live in the middle of a mess. He will bring us to the other side!

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1.6, ESV)

I confess…I’m not a great pray-er. Nowhere close to Martin Luther, for example, who started each day with three hours in prayer. Unless it was going to be a busy day. Then he spent four hours. Prayer is a challenge, one aspect of which is, what do we pray for?

Yesterday, my new neighbor and old friend texted and asked if our air conditioning was in yet. I’ve lived in Colorado 36 of the past 41 years and never had a/c, but we are having it installed in the new house. They were supposed to start the day we closed, June 25, and be done by June 30. Today is July 9, and they’re still not done. So yesterday, I texted that maybe we weren’t praying hard enough. After all, we have:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. (Philippians 4.6, ESV, emphasis mine)

Seemed pretty important until we got a text yesterday that my friend Rick in Phoenix has been in ICU with a heart attack since last Thursday. Rick! We met in Technical Instructor Course at Keesler AFB in 1971 and subsequently moved to a house around the corner from theirs. Rick is my age exactly: we were born 8 days apart in December 1946. We’ve stayed in touch all these years, and now he’s touch and go. He’s one of the fittest guys I know, suffering the heart attach while on a bicycle ride. Praying for Rick suddenly seemed WAY more important than praying about the “first-world” problem of a delayed a/c installation.

But the Apostle Paul didn’t seem to spend a lot of time praying about such things even though praying for the sick is certainly Biblical:

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. (James 5.14, 15, ESV)

O LORD my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. (Psalm 30.2, ESV)

Paul prayed for the increased maturity and fruitfulness of people. See, for example:

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1.9 – 11, ESV)

See also Ephesians 1.15 – 23, 3.14 – 21, and Colossians 1.9 – 11.

Paul also prayed for the salvation of entire people groups:

Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. (Romans 10.1, ESV)

He prayed for effectiveness in sharing the gospel:

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. (Colossians 4.2 – 4, ESV)

Dawson Trotman, founder of The Navigators, prayed with a buddy every morning for six weeks, sitting in a canyon near where they lived in Southern California. 100 hours of prayer in six weeks. You can read the story here. Dawson credits the eventual worldwide ministry of The Navigators to that time in prayer. He used to say:

Do you ask The Lord of the Universe for peanuts, toys, and trinkets, or for NATIONS and continents? – Dawson Trotman

Pray without ceasing. (1 Thessalonians 5.17, ESV)

…praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints… (Ephesians 6.18, ESV)

It’s the challenge of prayer. I’m still working on it.

PS God still cares about the little things. The air conditioner installation was finished today around 3:30.