Daily Links 11-27-13

Things to do before leaving your church, John Piper on Calvinism, benefits of being a boring guy, managing information overload, and more in today's links.

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Thabiti Anyabwile has a useful article on things to consider before leaving your church. Fact is that most people will at some point leave their church. These are some good things to consider prior to departing.

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James Clear on how we consume information:

How much time do you spend consuming information that you have no intention of taking action on or that you don’t care deeply about? 

For example: the nightly news cycle of local crimes, the endless stream of Facebook and Twitter updates, celebrity gossip, reality TV shows, Buzzfeed articles. The list goes on. 

In this age of information overload, your life can be filled with irrelevant or unnecessary information in an instant.

And here’s the main problem: 

After a while, these information sources start to become normal. Pretty soon, you’re logging onto Facebook because of the fear of missing out on “something.” You turn on the news or check CNN, not because you care about a particular topic, but merely out of habit. You watch tonight’s reality TV show because that’s what you always do on Thursdays at 8pm. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for learning and soaking up new information. After all, education is one of the master keys to the universe. And staying up-to-date on important stories can help shape your worldview and make you a good global citizen. 

But it is becoming dangerously easy to consume low quality information and convince yourself that it’s normal and good, when it isn’t helping you live a better life at all.

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Redefining the meaning of being boring. I strive to be boring every day.

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Tim Challies reviews John Piper's new book Five Points: Toward a Deeper Experience of God's Grace. It looks like it's a good read.

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In what order should you read the Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis? Some would argue for chronological order. However, the more sensible plan is to read them in publication order. That's the way we read them as a family and it's the order that makes the most sense.

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Answering the big questions: why you wake up before the alarm goes off.