PastorJustinDean

If you know how to harness your ADHD it can become a super power. Yesterday I wrote a sermon in about 3.5 hours. I taught an OT class to Jr. High students. I recorded a couple podcasts and then after family dinner I researched my ancestry for about 2 hours before working out. I don’t say this to brag in anyway. It’s actually a normal Thursday for me. But my daughter came up to me during my post-dinner deep dive and said, “Dad are you working or are you doing this for fun?” and I realized I was locked in and intensely focused. I’m not an expert on ADHD. I was diagnosed when I was young. My parents were told by a child psychiatrist that kids with my level of ADHD usually end up in prison. They put me on meds. I hated them and they took me off of them after a couple of months. But eventually I learned how to harness my ADHD and become hyper focused to achieve my goals in life. Here’s 4 things that work for me. 1. Build a schedule around your goals that maximizes urgency. I can’t write my sermons a week in advance. I don’t know why. I’ll read and research and think but I can’t write. I write my sermons on Thursday mornings before I preach on Sunday. I usually get them about 90% done and then return to them Saturday night to finish them. This is true of almost everything I do. Until it’s urgent, I procrastinate and do something else, anything else. But when it feels urgent and the pressure builds I can lock in for 3-4 hours at a time. 2. Break up your deep work with physical work. I usually work out over my lunch break. Currently, I work out every day. I mix it up between BJJ, CrossFit, rucking, mountain biking, golfing, and running. When I type that out, I sound crazy. But I’ve got a lot of interests and it keeps me moving without getting bored. 3. Caffeine and Nicotine help me focus. Since I’m 46, I can’t do caffeine after 2 pm if I want to get good sleep. So I do one pour over in the morning before my time with the Lord and usually something after lunch. My post lunch caffeine intake depends on what I’ve got to do. If I don’t have something that requires intense focus I’ll just drink a zevia. If it needs intense focus, an iced coffee or maybe an energy drink. For Nicotine I use Alp 9mg’s and I keep them in about 90 minutes at a time. I use about 5-6 of them a day but occasionally more. 4. I get between 7-8 hours of sleep a night. If I get less, I’ll struggle all day long to focus.

Luke Metz lays the HAMMER on Sam Leavitt 😳

The American people have made their voices heard. The 120th Congress will officially be the GAYEST Congress in history! (that we know of) Let's get to work 🇺🇸🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

California city makes history allowing throuples, foursomes to legally register as partners trib.al/injZnvo

Tomorrow, I'm voting for a straight Republican ticket. Here's why. Nehemiah 4:14 says, "Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes." That's what I'm doing when I vote. I'm fighting for my family's future. In fact, for the rest of my life, I expect to approach every election from an "existential threat" point of view. This is simply where things are these days. The main enemy I'm fighting against is the left. The modern left poses the greatest threat to everything I hold dear, especially my children's future. When I say "the left," I'm referring to a political ideology. It functions as a spiritual stronghold that has infected our society and is tearing us apart (see 2 Cor 10:3-6). Though the primary home of the modern left is the Democratic party, I see it in the Republican party as well. Both parties have the disease, but it's worse with the Democrats. This isn't your father's Democratic Party. These aren't JFK or even Jimmy Carter Democrats. The modern Democrats have been completely overrun by socialists, Marxists, LGBTQ activists, abortionists, Islamists, and the like. It's a weird coalition, but one thing holds them all together: they all hate conservative Christianity. That's why I see this as not merely differences of opinion over policy, it's a spiritual war. And with each election cycle, they get increasingly radical. Don't think I'm some blind shill for the Republicans. They've got their problems too. The biggest problem is their failure to act and govern like true conservatives. They haven't conserved what they needed to conserve. I get frustrated with Republicans because it seems they're headed in the same direction as the Democrats but are just driving in a school zone. In either case, leftism is the disease, and every Christian should fight it with all their might. The gospel of Jesus Christ is our chief weapon against forces of evil. Nevertheless, spiritual battles play out in time and space, and we have political means at our disposal. We must wield them with wisdom and prudence. At present, the most viable political weapon we have to fight the left is the Republican Party. The Republican Party is deeply flawed. The Trump administration has gotten a lot done, but they've also squandered a lot of good will and missed some great opportunities. They're far from perfect. Remember, when you vote for a candidate, you are also voting for a party platform and a governing coalition. And the governing coalition is just as important as the individual leaders who comprise it. The Republicans are the best earthly weapon we've got to fight the left, and we've got to defeat the left for the sake of our children's future. If a soldier has a rifle where the sights are a little off, he doesn't throw away his weapon. No, he fights with the weapon he has, even though he wishes it were better. That's where things are right now. We've got to fight with the best weapon we've got. Some people don't want to vote for Republicans because they've failed us. In many cases that's true. But consider this. Conservatism itself is a higher standard than leftism. Conservatism succeeds only when our leaders have virtue and integrity. Leftism only needs raw power to succeed. The reason is because conservatives are trying to protect something we value, and leftists define success by tearing it down. Leftists want to destroy our society because they see it as racist, sexist, white supremacist, occupying stolen land, or something like that. They think America is an evil nation built by evil Christians. For them, "justice" means destroying our heritage and giving it to others. Need examples? Look at the Limoges Town Hall in France, which was burned by radical leftists a few weeks ago. That building stood for 143 years and survived two world wars. All they needed to destroy it was to find a vulnerable spot and light a match. Closer to home, Virginia votes tomorrow on enshrining a right to “reproductive care” in its Bill of Rights, Virginia Democrats elected an attorney general who texted that a Republican deserved “two bullets to the head,” Minnesota may have lost $9 billion to fraud under Tim Walz, and the second-largest teachers union defended teachers who celebrated Charlie Kirk’s murder. And then there's Islam, which is a political ideology with a religious veneer. It's all about conquest. Whenever Islam gains power in an area, Christians lose their freedom. And Democrats court Muslims as a voting bloc and treat any concern about it as bigotry. The left has one and only one objective: power. They will stop at nothing to get it. And when they have it, they will use it against us. We've heard what the Democrats want to use power to do from their own mouths. Last week Kamala Harris called for a 13-justice Supreme Court and statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico. That would give four more Senators to the Democrats. If Democrats regain power, they'll basically change the rules so they never lose again. The Democrat base doesn't object to that agenda, they celebrate it. We can't let that happen. That’s why I’m voting tomorrow. I’m fighting for my family’s future.

America, more than any other nation in world history, was shaped by the Christian tradition of spreading the gospel unto all nations. Join us in celebrating International Religious Freedom Day.

A French woman who joined the violent protests shouted “This isn’t the cause” as other protesters began looting stores. They pushed her aside, told her to shut up and said they had “urgent shopping” to do.