The Useful Life
Read to move from chaos to clarity through decisive action? Subscribe to the weekly Useful Life newsletter and join a community of clever people sharpening their thinking, learning practical frameworks, and doing more of what truly matters.
The Useful Life No. 11 — Pros, Prep & Practice
The Useful Life by Jordan Shirkman No. 11 Pros, Prep & Practice Hey there, This week we're talking pros (and why watching them work is amazing), prep (and how we can better prepare to live out of our identity with affirmations) and practice (combining the two and doing the work). ↩ Looking Back It's really fun to watch professionals who have mastered their craft work. Our friends are moving and we were talking about how impressive the movers were. How they pack the boxes. How quickly they...
The Useful Life No. 10 — Gut Reactions, Gut Health & Gutting It Out
The Useful Life by Jordan Shirkman No. 10 Gut Reactions, Gut Health & Gutting It Out Hey there, This week we're talking about gut reactions, gut health, and the grit it takes to gut it out—whether you're following Jesus, improving your health, or just trying to get through a Tuesday without going off the rails. ↩ Looking Back I just finished listening to The Other Half of Church by Jim Wilder and Michel Hendricks. The authors argue that since the Enlightenment, the Church has leaned too...
The Useful Life No. 9 — Ears, Eyes, and Mouths
The Useful Life by Jordan Shirkman No. 9 Ears, Eyes, and Mouths Hey there, This week we're exploring what happens when we open our ears to God, open our eyes to actual constraints, and close our mouths to learn from others. ↩ Looking Back In this season, I've been trying to do a better job of listening to God. I've heard before that "The Bible is how God speaks to us and prayer is how we speak to God." I agree, but I don't think that's the only way God speaks. Scripture is our filter—anything...
The Useful Life No. 8 — Sitting, Waiting, Wishing
The Useful Life by Jordan Shirkman No. 8 Sitting, Waiting, Wishing Hey there, We’re talking about dealing with uncertainty and hopping off particular treadmills, and how those two things might fit together. ↩ Looking Back Lately I’ve been thinking about how incredibly valuable it is to live well in uncertainty. There’s always something we’re waiting on. Test results. A phone call. Money that's been promised. An answer you haven't gotten. A prayer that's remained unanswered. And there’s also a...
The Useful Life No. 7 — Instantaneous, Incarnational, In The Crockpot
The Useful Life by Jordan Shirkman No. 7 Instantaneous, Incarnational, In The Crockpot Hey there, We’re talking about hurrying up (for what?), why you should stop praying for people, and how to start moving forward slowly. ↩ Looking Back Last week I read A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson. The book was first published in 1980, but the wisdom rings even more true today: One aspect of the world that I have been able to identify as harmful to Christians is the assumption...
The Useful Life No. 6 — Reproducibility, Relationships, and Reaching Out
The Useful Life by Jordan Shirkman No. 6 Reproducibility, Relationships, and Reaching Out Hey there, We’re focusing on relationships this week—what we expect (and reproduce) in others, how friendships bring change, and why it’s worth reaching out to repair what’s broken before it’s too late. ↩ Looking Back Last week I listened to 4 Chair Discipling by Dann Spader, a book that illustrates the path of growing into a faithful disciple of Jesus as four chairs of increasing maturity. One simple...
The Useful Life No. 5 — Opting Out, Blasting Off, and Stepping Up
The Useful Life by Jordan Shirkman No. 5 Opting Out, Blasting Off, and Stepping Up Hey there, It's big tech week in the newsletter with quotes from Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, and Jeff Bezos. We're moving slowly, then moving quickly, then bringing it all together. ↩ Looking Back I just finished The Opt-Out Family: How to Give Your Kids What Technology Can't by Erin Loechner (currently only $4 on Kindle!) In my Goodreads review I said, I almost didn't read this book—I'm glad I did. I've read...
The Useful Life No. 4 — Washers, Wisdom, and the Way of Jesus
The Useful Life by Jordan Shirkman No. 4 Washers, Wisdom, and the Way of Jesus Hey there, It's holy week—the week that those who follow Jesus reflect back on his life, death, and resurrection. Naturally, we're doing a bit of that here. But first, a story about a DIY washer repair... ↩ Looking Back Every so often, I have the sanctifying joy of disassembling our Bosch front-loader washer. This isn't one of those joys like building a Lego set where everything clicks into place nicely. It's more...
The Useful Life No. 3 — Systems, Seeds, and Starting Where You Are
The Useful Life by Jordan Shirkman No. 3 Chaos, Craft, and Capturing Ideas Hey there, It's a new week and we're going macro and micro: talking systems and the seeds that bear fruit (or weeds) in our lives. ↩ Looking Back This week, my world was thoroughly rocked by The Path of Least Resistance by Robert Fritz: Many people’s lives are inextricably tied to their problems. The majority of the actions they take are designed to eliminate the problems so that they can be problem-free. But with all...
The Useful Life No. 2 — Chaos, Craft, and Capturing Ideas
The Useful Life by Jordan Shirkman No. 2 Chaos, Craft, and Capturing Ideas Hey there, We’re back at it—and by sending out this newsletter, I’ve officially posted more in the last two weeks than I have in the last five years. Thanks for your patience. ↩️ LOOKING BACK My wife and I are in the thick of parenting five kids between the ages of six months and nine years old. We do our best to bring order to the chaos, but we often get to the end of the day and say to ourselves, “What just...
Read to move from chaos to clarity through decisive action? Subscribe to the weekly Useful Life newsletter and join a community of clever people sharpening their thinking, learning practical frameworks, and doing more of what truly matters.