I’ve bumped into a few things by Drew Dyck on social media and have been intrigued to learn more. I picked up a few of his books at the end of 2024 and have walked away from each of them encouraged and challenged to grow in my faith. Dyck has an endearing writing voice that invites you into his own walk with the Lord and his desire to lead himself and his family well. I highlighted several things while reading Your Future Self Will Thank You and have posted those notes below…
- Self-control isn’t just one good character trait, a nice addition to the pantheon of virtues. It’s foundational. Not because it’s more important than other virtues, but because the others rely upon it. Page 14
- Whenever you lose control, someone else always finds it.” These were the words of my high school English teacher Mr. Sologar on our first day of class. They didn’t have anything to do with literature or grammar, but I guess he wanted to kick off the class with a life lesson. It was a good one. If we acted up at home, he explained, control of our lives would swiftly transfer to our parents in the form of lost privileges or being grounded. The same was true at school. If we abused our freedom in the classroom or in the hallways—and we did!—we’d find ourselves in the principal’s office or confined to detention. If we got really crazy and decided to break the law, the legal system would step in to curtail our freedom. “No, control is never truly lost,” he repeated in his thick Indian accent. “If you fail to control yourself, others will control you.” Page 16
- Defeating the enemy beyond your walls is hard; subduing the enemy within is harder. Page 17
- It’s easy to imagine your life’s outcome as the product of a few big decisions. We envision a lone hero showing extraordinary courage at a climactic moment. Or a tragic figure losing control at a critical juncture. That might be how things work in the movies. In reality, our destinies are determined in a more mundane manner. As the writer Annie Dillard reminds us, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”5 While we may be tested in dramatic moments, the fabric of life is stitched slowly, through a thousand tiny choices that end up defining our lives. The difference of those accumulated decisions is dramatic. They can add up to a life crippled by sloth and sin or to one characterized by freedom and flourishing. Page 27
- What self-control requires, ultimately, isn’t control but surrender. Page 31
- “The orientation of the heart happens from the bottom up, through the formation of our habits of desire. Learning to love (God) takes practice.” —JAMES K. A. SMITH Page 94
- Habits aren’t confined to mechanical tasks like driving. They influence our moral and spiritual behavior as well. It’s by creating healthy habits that we ultimately rise above the tide of continuous temptations and live virtuously. As theologian N. T. Wright stated, “Virtue is what happens when wise and courageous choices become second nature.” Page 97
- It might seem like Scripture doesn’t say much about habits. After all most English translations of the Bible contain only one use of the word “habit.” In Hebrews 10:25 it says we should “not giv[e] up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing.” But Scripture has plenty to say about practices and patterns of behavior. It urges us to meditate on God’s Word “day and night” (Josh. 1:8), confess our sins (James 5:16), pray consistently (Luke 18:1), seek justice (Isa. 1:17), dwell on “whatever is lovely” (Phil. 4:8), “walk humbly” with God (Mic. 6:8), and “speak the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15 NLT). It also contains hundreds of warnings against destructive patterns of action, including the “practice of sinning” (1 John 3:9 NLT), being “conform[ed] to the pattern of this world” (Rom. 12:2), being “drunk on wine” (Eph. 5:18), and being slack in your work (Prov. 18:9). What are these patterns of vice and virtue if not habits? Page 107
- James K. A. Smith believes that habits aren’t manmade tools for improving our behavior; they’re how God chooses to shape us. We are creatures of habit, that God knows this (since he created us), and thus our gracious, redeeming God meets us where we are by giving us Spirit-empowered, heart-calibrating, habit-forming practices to retrain our loves. This is the means of the Spirit’s transformation, not an alternative to Spirit-shaped sanctification. (You are What You Love) Page 109
- C. S. Lewis wrote about this phenomenon. Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible. (Mere Christianity) Page 110
- In 2017, the founding president of Facebook, Sean Parker, came out with some candid words about the social media giant he helped create. Most people think of Facebook primarily as a vehicle for reconnecting with old friends and family members. Publicly, Facebook speaks in lofty terms about making the world a better place and fostering community. But Parker said that from the outset, the goal was different: “How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?” According to Parker, “exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology” was the way to accomplish this feat. We need to sort of give you a little dopamine hit every once in a while, because someone liked or commented on a photo or a post or whatever. And that’s going to get you to contribute more content, and that’s going to get you … more likes and comments. It’s a social-validation feedback loop … exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with. Page 173
- Wisdom Pyramid by Brett McCracken
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