Redeeming Your Goals course
Free resources to help you practice the principles from the book. More coming soon.
Introduction
I am preparing a brand new teaching on this to coincide with the launch of Redeeming Your Goals in October 2026. But for now, here's my best teaching on this topic from a webinar I hosted with readers in August 2025.Â
Click here to access RYG-GPT, the free AI tool to help you implement the practices from the book
Chapter 1
One night my wife and I were at dinner with a friend who told us they had seen one of our mutual friends post on Instagram about another over-the-top vacation they had taken.
Now, you need to know that few things fuel my soul more than travel and great hotels. But I don’t feel the freedom to spend lavishly on travel in this life, preferring to give my money to orphans, our local church, and community. And so, I’m ashamed to admit, I was white-hot jealous and angry at my friends—and a little upset with God for giving me this conviction.
The next morning, I drove to the airport in Tampa to fly out for a speaking engagement and cried out to God saying, “Lord, some days I want to be like my friends, spending as much time and money as I can galavanting around the world. But I’m taking you at your Word that I’ll have eternity to do that or better and that you will reward me for every sacrifice I make in this life. Please don’t make me out to be a fool!”
Fast forward a few hours. My plane touched down in Southern California and the event organizer was there to pick me up. I forgot to ask which hotel I was staying at, but when we pulled up, I couldn’t believe my eyes. They had booked me at one of the best hotels in North America: the Ritz Carlton on Laguna Beach, in an epic room with a balcony overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
In that moment, I sensed the Lord saying, “You’re not a fool, Jordan. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” It was a beautiful reminder that my bucket list can wait. Because my bucket list is eternal. And whatever’s on my list will be even better than that hotel or the one my friends had social media bragged about staying at.
I am preparing a brand new teaching on this to coincide with the launch of Redeeming Your Goals in October 2026. But for now, here's my best teaching on this topic from the Redeeming Your Time course, which includes video of the personal commentary I'm writing for my daughter.
My friend Roy Tinklenberg is the expert on this topic. Listen to my short podcast episode with Roy to learn more about starting a Christian ERG.
If you started thinking about buying a Honda Pilot today, you would immediately begin seeing that car everywhere. That’s not because the number of Pilots on the road suddenly multiplied. It’s because your brain’s Reticular Activating System kicked in. Once you signal to your brain that something is important, it starts scanning your environment for it, filtering the noise to bring that thing into focus.
Prayer is one way we tell our brains what matters most. When we bring our goals, questions, and challenges before God, we’re not just submitting them to him, we’re also training our minds to stay alert for how he might respond. That means we’re more likely to notice connections, opportunities, and patterns that align with our prayers—whether it’s a line in a sermon, a comment in a meeting, or a book a friend recommends.Â
Of course, unbelievers have a Reticular Activating System too. But here’s the difference: prayer not only sharpens our awareness, it also helps us rightly attribute what we see. When I pray and then spot something related to that prayer, I’m far more likely to recognize it not as coincidence, but as God’s providence, and thus glorify him.
Chapter 2
Five Mere Christians is a collection of binge-worthy biographies of my favorite believers who changed the world without a pulpit: Fred Rogers, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ole Kirk Christiansen, Hannah More, and C.S. Lewis.
I'm giving you the first of those five stories—on the faith and work of Mister Rogers—for free at the links below:
Chapter 4
I’ve been looking for ways to be more valuable to our team, so I did some math. Based on my salary, my effective hourly rate is [X dollars]. There are some tasks I’m doing like [insert low-leverage task] that I suspect someone else could do for far less. If we could reassign those, it would free up a lot more time for me to focus on projects like [insert higher-leverage work], which I think would help us hit our goals faster. What do you think?
I’d LOVE to [insert request]!
But unfortunately, my schedule is fully committed right now (let’s be honest, it’s BEYOND fully committed). I simply can’t say “yes” to you and still make good on the commitments I’ve already made to others.
That said, I’d be more than happy to [insert small alternative].
