Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Biblical Productivity: Morning Routines, Goal Setting & Time Management for Christians

Episode Date: February 17, 2026

Are you being productive for the world's reasons or God's glory? In this episode, Reagan Rose (author of "Redeeming Productivity: Getting More Done for the Glory of God") shares the biblical foundation for Christian productivity and practical steps to steward your time well.This episode is sponsored by The Master's University. To learn more about how you can invest in a college education devoted to Christ & Scripture, visit masters.eduWhat You'll Learn: • The difference between worldly productivity and Christian productivity • 5 pillars of biblical productivity (why we belong to God matters) • How to craft a power morning routine (Prayer, Organization, Word, Exercise, Reading) • Setting goals and tracking commitments God's way • Why Christians should care about being productive • Living your life for the "well done" from JesusResources Mentioned: • Book: "Redeeming Productivity: Getting More Done for the Glory of God" by Reagan Rose • Website: RedeemingProductivity.comConnect with Reagan Rose: 🌐 RedeemingProductivity.com 🎧 Redeeming Productivity Podcast📺 Redeeming Productivity YouTube Channel

Reagan, you've written the book, redeeming productivity, getting more done for the glory of God. I read it yesterday. I love what is included in your book. And maybe people have wondered at this video, this podcast episode, wanting to be productive, but the reason they want to be productive is exactly like the worlds. Yeah, absolutely.

I think it's such a subtle trick, too. From the outside, it's almost difficult to discern. When I picture the day, I feel like it has like a current, like a river. And when you wake up, like if you're just passive, you don't really have to be. have a plan, something's going to carry you along. We ought to be people who we say we're going to do something, we do it, and we say we're not. We don't. And I think tracking your commitments is one way to do that. And that you could call the do list or you could have something more fancy to actually manage that. But in today's crazy, busy world, if you say you're going to do something for a boss

or for a spouse or for a friend, you need some system to write that down so you actually do it. So you're not a liar, right? I said, I'm going to do it. And then, oh, sorry, I forgot. The goal of all goals is the glory of God. And that a goal is a vehicle to help me become more faithful in a specific domain that I've been given to steward. Hey, Reagan. Well, thanks for joining me.

Reagan, you've written the book, redeeming productivity, getting more done for the glory of God. I read it yesterday. And then we reached out. I've never met you in person. But I was like, oh, man, I'd love to have you on. Just to talk about productivity from a biblical and Christian. perspective. I love what is included in your book. And so I wanted to have you on just to talk about Christian productivity, what it is, why it matters, what is the source, what is the power. But maybe as

we begin, give me kind of your heartbeat behind why you wanted to write this book on productivity. You have a ministry that's oriented around redeeming productivity. What was the impetus for kind of like this is what I want to spend my life talking about? Yeah. I mean, it was really personal for me. I was pretty lazy as a young man. And, you know, and the Lord got a hold of me in my college years and started to get serious about life and trying to, you know, use it well. I got really into productivity books, you know, secular productivity, and reading all the websites and trying to figure out how do you do your to-do list

and set goals and all of that. And I found that all really helpful. But at the same time, I was digging into the Word of God. And I was kind of seeing there's a lot of things. themes in secular productivity that really crossed the line from just being, hey, here's some good tips, and into this is the meaning of life type stuff. And so it was when I was in seminary, actually, I ended up thinking through this and said, hey, I want to start writing about it. So about 10 years ago, I started writing a blog on this topic, just exploring what does the scriptures teach about

our productivity and how can we look at that, build a good foundation there, theological, and then build our practices on top of that. So that's really been the passion project. It's really just born out of, I believe in the sufficiency of Scripture. I believe that God's Word has what we need for life and godliness, and that surely then it must tell us something about how we work and how we operate in this world,

and that if we build our life of productivity on what God says, we're in a much better spot. Yeah, maybe just double click on that for a moment regarding kind of all the stuff that you were reading regarding productivity. you're you kind of mentioned in the book and I was thinking about it this morning that the more you kind of dug into like okay I want to live a life of effectiveness but you can end up having like the world's motivation for being productive which as a Christian should be we should be totally distinguished from that like on paper wanting to live a fruitful life or like just an effective life on the surface it doesn't look that different than the world around us that wants to be productive this is one of the best selling you know categories and publishing maybe talk about kind of that you mentioned it to begin to way on your conscience that I was falling into kind of the world's motivation for being productive. And maybe people have wondered at this video, this podcast episode, wanting to be productive, but the reason they want to be productive is exactly like the world's.

Yeah, absolutely. I think it's such a subtle trick, too. It's like, I have a picture, like, you can picture two people sitting at the same job. Maybe they have the same job, same role. And they're both equally productive at like getting stuff done. They're following the same career path, they're getting the same promotions and all of that. And one of them is a Christian operating on biblical principles, and one isn't. From the outside, it's almost difficult to discern, right?

But to God, the motivation makes all the difference, right? You know, Colossians 323 talks about, like, working as unto the Lord. And what I realized from reading these secular books and productivity is it was always implied that the motivation is self-oriented, that it's, basically how do I get richer or make my company flourish or get that six-pack abs and that beach bottle? You know what I mean? It's all about me, me, me, me. But the Christian orientation is about him. Yeah. And the way you've laid it out, I kind of want to shape our episode together. In the book, you kind of go back and forth between the pillars of productivity,

which I kind of take to be like the heartbeat behind it and then specific practices because it's not just there's some tangible, you know, really practice. practical steps to like, okay, this is how you live a productive life. But maybe before we get into those specific practical steps of how we live a productive life, you mention some of these pillars. You talk about the origin of productivity, the purpose of productivity, the source of productivity, the motivation. For me in particular, the ones that stood out are kind of the one, two, four, and five, or one, two, three, and five, meaning you belong to God. That's why you should be productive. Maybe just talk about that for a moment, like, because I think it's helpful to orient our motivation around this fundamental step.

Yeah, I mean, the assumption behind any sort of secular approach to productivity is always going to be not that you belong to God, but you belong to yourself, right? Like, I'm my own person. And so, like, that introduces, I think, two issues. One, if I belong to myself, then productivity is an optional thing. Like, you know, sure, you're into that stuff. That's great. You're trying to do that.

but life's about my own happiness and I find happiness and just kind of veggie out on the couch. So that's not really my thing, right? Yeah. I think the deeper issue, though, is when it's all about me, then I am forgetting the whole reason I even exist, that I actually, by din of being a creature that God made me, I'm not my own. And even more so, and more importantly for the Christian, as we understand, our lives are on our own because we're bought with the blood of Jesus Christ. And so I say, like, that's the origin, that's the place from which the desire for a Christian to be productive should spring,

is I am seeking to please this God to whom I belong, because I was redeemed at the great cost of the blood of Jesus Christ. And so I think that every Christian should care about being productive if they recognize that their life's not theirs. This episode is brought to you by one of our ministry partners, the Masters University. One of the things I love about TMU is their commitment to Christ and Scripture. And not only that, they offer 150 different fields of study, all that are established upon a biblical worldview. This is so important, regardless of the field of study you may be going into. They offer engineering, elementary education, music, business.

Some of you may know that I studied actually accounting and finance, and I'm so thankful for them at today. but I was so grateful to learn finance, business, accounting from a biblical perspective. I would encourage you to check out the Masters University by visiting masters.edu. And when you do, you can even look at our own dial-in page if you go to masters. at edu slash dial-in and see if this would be a good fit for you. And if you use our code dial-in, that'll waive the application fee for you if you're a student or for the student in your life looking to pursue higher education.

Yeah, and I think even in that next chapter you talk about existing to glorify God that we were saved to bear fruit, meaning that like that innate desire that we would have, personally speaking, to be like, okay, I want to accomplish something with my life. That's actually maybe, well, first of all, everybody kind of has that sense, right? Ecclesiastes three, God has put eternity on our hearts. But from a believer's perspective, we're saved by grace. You talked about this in that chapter. We're saved by grace through faith in Christ, but we're saved for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we would walk in them. That's not the, that's not legalism. is just kind of this, okay, because God has bought me with his blood, I'm made in his image.

I want to live a life that mirrors and mimics my maker, and so I want to bring him glory. Maybe just explain it, because I think you touch on it a little bit in the book. When we use kind of Christian ease of like, oh, I want my life to glorify God, what does that mean? You know, from, you know, like as far as living a life that points to him, imitates him, we kind of use that language, and I think sometimes we have no idea what we're even saying. Yeah. Yeah, it's kind of that vague Christianese. You know, I sing it in a worship song, but I couldn't define it on paper kind of thing.

That's definitely one of those terms that we all kind of say it, but it's hard to pin down. Glorifying God, you know, there's several ways to think about it. One of them is magnifying God. One of them is ascribed glory where we, you know, when we praise God, we glorify them. But I think one of the clearest ways to think about it is that we are to imitate God, specifically Christ, right? This is our whole purpose, Genesis 1, 26 through 28. We're made in the image of God. And this comes right on the heels of God showing that he is a creator God, a working God,

who works six days and rests on the seventh. And we're told in Exodus, that's the example for us. And so, like, the context, even of us being image bearers, part of that is we're made the image of a working God. And so I want to imitate him. I want to show what he is like and show his greatness in the things I do, in the way I behave, in how I demonstrate his communicable attributes, even in my life. And so I think this comes out in our works of faith, right? And as you said, like, it's not that our salvation is contingent upon this,

but as we're transformed into more and more the image of Christ, we are more productive, if we're more fruitful in bearing good works that please him, right? And even to tight, was it Titus 2.14, you know, since he redeemed a people for himself who would be zealous for good works. Jesus talks about how this is, that when we do good works, it would be so that others would look on it and give glory not to us, but to our father who's in heaven. And so this fruitfulness in good works, which permeates, ought to permeate all of our life, not just our vocational work, but in the home, in the church, all of that.

That's sort of the content of our productivity, and it is one of the chief ways we can glorify God with our lives. It's not just on Sunday mornings we're praising him. Yes, we should be doing that, but it's in the day-to-day as we seek to look like Christ, and he's working through us by His Holy Spirit. That's good. You know, one of the things you touched on at the end, just kind of this last pillar for productivity before we got to get into the specific practices. You just talk about how we were going to give an account for our life before God.

you know, we're going to stand before, Paul says this in 2 Corinthians, we're all going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. We're going to give an account for not only every idle word, but obviously the moments of our life. And you mentioned in Ephesians 5 that we were to redeem the time. It's not just like moments on a clock. It's the seasons of opportunity, the windows of opportunity that God extends to us. But part of what drives a Christian is we're going to give an account for our life

and we want to be able to hear, you know, well done, good and faithful servant. we want to utilize our life for God's glory, as you're mentioning. But anything else to touch on there regarding kind of living, you know, David Gibson has that book, Living Life Backwards, but kind of one of your motivations for productivity is just having, not in a morbid sense, but on the front of our minds that, okay, one day we're going to give an account for how we stewarded our life. Yeah, I think this is like a missing motivation for a lot of us. And I think it is, it's born out of sort of a natural.

aversion to any hint of like workspace salvation, right? Yeah. Is that we don't talk a ton in the evangelical church today about eternal reward. And it's everywhere. I mean, it was Randy Elkhorn was the one who like really turned me on to this. And I'm like, whoa, it's everywhere in the New Testament that Christ and the apostles hold out eternal reward. the fact that I'm going to stand before Christ and give an account for my works and that there's crowns, there's these, there's these related things that are grace gifts to me somehow this works

in the economy of heaven for that. And like you mentioned, the parable of the talents, you know, well done, good and faithful, servant, you've been faithful over a little, I will set you over much. So there's this whole theme throughout the New Testament of you're just staying before God, you're going to give an account, there's going to be reward for that. And it's held out as a positive motivation. And I think that that is something we shouldn't be ashamed of. It's not in contest with being motivated by love for Christ. It's not contest with faith. I think it's the consummation of it is I love him and I want to serve him. I'm motivated by grace and I understand that even those rewards are a grace gift. But that's what helps us withstand trials is that understanding that we labor and we don't

grow weary because in due season we'll reap a reward. That's positive motivation. That's positive motivation. and that should be one of the big things that makes us want to jump out of bed in the morning and run off and say, what good do you have for me to do today, Lord? How can I work in your power? How can I magnify you and understand that as I do so, and I work in secret, I work with integrity that God sees it all, and he is a faithful God who's promised that he will reward that faithfulness even. Yeah, it's such a, I think, a good way to ground any sort of conversation on productivity

is, again, it's not for our glory, but for God's glory. And you kind of have this as a silver thread throughout your book, but just always making sure that our motivation is something that we find in Scripture. So kind of just regarding, as a recap, those pillars of productivity, we want to be productive because ultimately we belong to the God who made us and bought us with his blood. Our life is not our own. So, okay, if our life is a stewardship, David Gibson says our life is on loan from God, then I want to honor him with the short time that I have.

We exist to glorify him. You talk about our gifting that we're uniquely gifted by God to be able to do this, you know, something in this life. And then the fact that we're going to stand before him gives you like this joyous, you know, kind of burden, right, to like, okay, I want to live my short life well. But let's get into some of these specific practices because I think people are like, okay, I want to, I understand I'm made in the image of God. I understand that, you know, I want to be a good steward.

but how do I actually do that? You start by talking about crafting your morning routine as kind of like this slaying your dragons type of reality for productivity. So just talk about why that's so important. Why did you start here with the morning is very important? Yeah, I think mornings are just a huge leverage point in our day. I heard someone say one time that the morning, the first hour of the morning is the rudder of the day.

Like a little rudder on the ship, it sets the direction. And mornings are really good for several reasons. One, it's the start of the day. So like I'm just saying, like what you do there is going to set the tone. So if you spend some time in the word, you spend some time in prayer, I think it's great to be praying spending time in the word any part of the day. But if you do it there, it's kind of orienting your heart towards Christ, towards the day ahead in a unique way.

It also has the benefits that your mourning is defensible time. If you go to bed a little bit earlier and wake up a little bit earlier, it's easier for most people to make your schedule to avoid interruptions. And so it's just, it's a better time to do habits for most folks just on a practical level. Because, you know, if you try to do those things on your lunch break, you can be interrupted there. If you try to do it in the evening, stuff comes out. People want friends want to do stuff.

Mornings, even historically, a lot of folks Christians have found that spending time, first thing is kind of the best place in your schedule to put habits. And so I start there also because that's the fuel source, right? If I'm going to bear fruit that's going to please Christ, right, apart from him, I can do nothing, John 15, I need to be walking with him. I need to be cultivating that connection to Christ and relying on him and being filled with the spirit. And so if I put that first thing in my day, get that habit down, everything else is sort of downstream from that. Like, you don't even need to, I almost don't need to worry about, like, how do I actually set goals, do all that? Like, forget about that for now. Focus on getting that first part of your day,

correct, getting those habits in place, and the other stuff will come later. Yeah, you talk about power mornings, you know, I think it was, is it prayer? What's the O in that? Organize. Organize. Was it worship? W. Word. Word. Like word, exercise. and reading. Reading and writing. Yeah. So I think one of the things that stood out to me regarding kind of just structuring your morning is,

yeah, there's not as many interruptions. You kind of mentioned something in the book that I think is applicable for me, just in the sense of I would not by nature say that I'm a morning person. You know, I would rather stay up late. But it's easier to waste time at night than it is in the morning.

Like if you set your alarm for 4.30, it's kind of like, why would I wake up? Why would I discipline myself to wake up at 4.30 and scroll my phone? Whereas if you're at 11 p.m., you're going, you know, I don't know. I mean, everybody else in the world is looking at a screen right now. Might as well do that personally.

So I think kind of that early morning kind of pushes you to go to bed, so there's less time you're wasting. But then you begin to kind of prioritize what you need to prioritize. You mention it kind of as the rudder of the entire day. But I think that is important. And one thing you touch on regarding the morning is that I would maybe just want you to kind of expand on, is you mentioned something in the book along the lines of, we wake up in the morning and the first thought isn't that we just start doing.

You know, like we, this is what differentiates Christian productivity from maybe the world's productivity. Like there's a lot of people, you mentioned it, like Elon Musk or Bezos, they wake up at 4 a.m. Warren Buffett, you mentioned, wakes up super early, reads a book. We wake up and not to speed up, you mentioned, but to slow down. Yeah. And maybe just touch on that a little bit because I thought that was like a point that made me, I was on the treadmill. I was walking and I kind of went back 15 seconds to listen to it again

because I thought that was a unique point because I wake up early in the morning and sometimes I'm just, I want to grind, right? Yeah. That's different though than what you were talking about. We don't wake up just to grind. We wake up actually to kind of have some stillness, which has almost been evaporated from our Christian existence in the world in which we live today. Yeah, it's kind of like an intentional pushback against that.

I just think about it. like when I picture the day, I feel like it has like a current, like a river. And when you wake up, like if you're just passive, you don't really have a plan, something's going to carry you along. Like if you're an ambitious person, it's going to be, like you're saying, you're going to wake up and just get to work and start grinding. If you're not, maybe it's just entertainment or scrolling your phone. But like something's going to start pulling you through the day.

And it's like you have to just drop the anchor in the morning and say, no, I'm going to plant my flag here. I'm going to spend some time in fellowship with the God of the universe, right? And I just think it doesn't, it's not something that's going to happen on accident. You don't, you don't just, oh, yeah, I feel, maybe once in a while you feel like that. Like, you're on like a fall retreat or something with church. But like most of the time, unless you're not, unless you're intentional about it, you're not going to, you're not going to cultivate that piece and that slowness with him.

Yeah, and you kind of talk about how productivity isn't doing a lot of things. things. It's getting things done, certain things done. And, but so I think starting, you said, you know, it's not about getting things done fast, right, necessarily. It's about slowing down initially, beginning your morning with prayer. You know, Hudson Taylor said you don't tune your instruments after a concert. You know, you begin your day with God. So prayer, get organized. Maybe talk about that. And again, we're kind of going back to the fact that we're rooting in those pillars that you mentioned. We want to accomplish a lot for the glory of God because we belong to him. And every single day, there's obviously like the elements of our life. You know,

we have bills to pay things like that. We have things to do, places to drive. But you talk about getting organized as kind of like this central practice of every single day. You kind of go, here are my priorities. And then I think Drucker calls them posteriorities. Like, if it's not on that list, then it's not something you have time for. We feel like guilt tripped into doing everything. I think culturally it's hard to say no to things. But you kind of make the point of getting organized so that you can tell people, I actually don't have time for the. that today or, you know, it makes it so that you don't have to decide what you're going to do the rest of the day. You kind of have certain structures. Talk about that, just that organization piece.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it's just making a plan. Like, I think it's just, it's very easy not to do that. But, I mean, if you're, if you have the whole day ahead of you, it feels like a blank canvas, but anybody knows this, like who's just gone through New Year's, like, oh, New Year's about to start. I have all this free time. And then it's all gobbled up in a minute. That's like that every day. And so. the organized piece is just beginning the day, very practically with a plan, what are the priorities today? And I probably stole this from somebody. I don't remember who I heard it from first, but you pick three things that you're like, these are the three things I'm going to try to do today.

You circle one of them and say, as far as it's up to me, I'm going to make sure this one thing gets done out of all these. And you string that together, even if your day is not productive. Otherwise, day after day, you're spending a little bit of time on the highest priority thing. you're going to be miles ahead of where you would be if you just kind of let the current of the day carry along, just the tyranny of the urgent, you know, putting out fires, stuff like that. Yeah, and I think one of the things that you kind of touch on is,

you know, making sure you get organized because it's easy to kind of end up, you can end up being a hard worker in certain categories of your life. You know, you can do the hard work, the things that you actually like doing, you know, meaning like you can be a mentally lazy person but physically disciplined, or you could be mentally disciplined and very physically lazy.

You know, so you kind of set some, structure. So you're going, okay, this is on my calendar. You talk about kind of beginning with, you know, writing those things down. Maybe that would be a pending item, but those pending items begin to add up, make us feel less productive. Okay, so regarding some of those additional practices, you talk about tracking your commitments, you know, writing them down. Why do you feel like it's super, you know, critical to track your own commitments? Maybe to, you know, you talk about setting goals and tracking commitments. I think sometimes there might be like a harmony of the two a little bit,

but why are setting goals, tracking commitments, why do you view that is so critical for like living a productive life as a Christian? Yeah, I mean, tracking commitments is a way to be a person of your word, which I think is really important. You know, when Jesus appeals to this principle at your SBS and your no-be-no, he's, you know, that's obviously the verse about not taking oaths, But the broader principle is appealing to is that we ought to be people who we say we're going to do something, we do it.

And we say we're not. We don't. And I think tracking your commitments is one way to do that. And that you could call the do list or you could have something more fancy to actually manage that. But in today's crazy, busy world, if you say you're going to do something for a boss or for a spouse or for a friend, you need some system to write that down so you actually do it. So you're not a liar, right? I said, I'm going to do it.

And then, oh, sorry, I forgot. And I think something that's overlooked there sometimes is that we, our commitments to ourselves matter as well. And I just think a lot of times we end up training ourselves to drop the ball on stuff when we say, hey, I'm going to do this today. And then we just don't do it. And there's a reason we feel guilty about it. It's because at some character level, we're recognizing, hey, I'm not,

kind of person who follows through. I can't even keep a promise to myself. And so I think, you know, we have, praise God, we're under grace. And like little by little, I think that we can, by his grace, make strides in that direction and say, I'm going to keep track with the things I said I'm going to and I'm going to and be a person of integrity. So that's like the commitment side. And related is goal setting, sort of longer term, where am I aiming, right? I think I say in the book the point of goals isn't, you know, just to, again, it's not to be self-serving. It's to recognize the goal of all goals is the glory of God and that a goal is a vehicle to help me become more faithful in a specific domain that I've been given to steward.

So even like very practical things, like a health goal, like a lot of people have those this time of year. They're like, okay, I have a New Year's resolution. I have a health goal. A health goal is a fine thing. What you can do as a believer is understanding. that in the context of my body's a stewardship. And so this goal is out of a desire to help me to be more faithful in the stewardship of my body. And you pursue it. Again, it's that mindset thing.

It's the motivation. But having systems to track that and watch your progress and see those things change and grow. It's just approaching the Christian life with intentionality. And we're using these little systems and practices, not because they're magic or something, but because they just sort of, their supports. They help us. They help us to do the things that we really do want to do, but we need some structure to enable us to stick with it. Yeah, you know, it's helpful. And some of it, you know, as I was listening and reading your book, some of the things are so basic and yet they're things that we don't do. You know, like, you talk, hey, if you want to have a productive morning, maybe don't have the first thing that you reach for in the morning be your phone.

You know, it's like, of course, that makes sense. But I think it's a lot of things that are easier said than done. Like, okay, if you want to live a life productivity, you have to have some sort of direction that you're shooting, you know, where are you going? Or if you're moving the goal post on a successful day every single day, you have both, you know, day, day commitments, you know, this is what I want to get done today. And then you have those long range windows of like, how do I set myself up to be able to accomplish those objectives over a period of time? time. One of the things I wanted to talk about just as how you conclude the book is you talk about a practice being right, you're well done, meaning kind of like live your life in light of the end. You know, Jesus says in the parable like, you know, well done, good and faithful servant. For every single person, faithfulness is relative to the individual, like the gifts they've received, the opportunities they received, the life they live. But there will be, you know, you mentioned like we will stand before Christ. And we do want to hear well done, but just maybe talk about that a little bit about maybe what drives you to live a productive life and wanting to hear well done and how every single person should go about defining to the degree that they can through reliance upon the spirit of God, what that even means for them personally.

Yeah. Yeah, you know, people are probably familiar with the concept of having like a vision statement or even some books I've read have talked about having like a eulogy, right? where you write like what you'd hope people would say about you when you die. And that sort of can be a north star towards, okay, how close. It was the way I'm living, tending towards that being true when I die. And the concept of a well-done statement is it's just more than anything, it's a creative writing exercise is you're saying, look, success in this life isn't, did I make the most money?

it's not even did I leave the best legacy for that. That sounds like a noble thing. Like, what did my kids think about me? What did they say at my funeral? I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing, but it's not the ultimate thing. Success in this life is, was I faithful to the master? Did I follow him? And so a well done statement is just you saying, okay, if I want to hear well done, good and faithful servant,

what would I hope Christ would say to me specifically about well done in each of these major areas of my life. So I call them domains of stewardship. But you just go down. It's really easy thing to do. It's like, well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over your spiritual domain. You've walked with me daily. You've been in the word. You've sought prayer throughout your days, the physical domain. You steward your body, right? And you just go down the list and you write just a sentence or two about each of these. And all of a sudden, once you're done with that. It doesn't take long. You look at that and now you have sort of a benchmark. And again, we're just using our sanctified imagination. We're not trying to add to God's word or something.

And put words in the mind of Christ or the mouth of Christ. But you look at that and you say, okay, how am I doing in each of these? Is my trajectory now such that I would hear well done with my finances, for example? And you compare that to what you wrote down, which is informed by scripture and you say, wow, not really. Now suddenly you can say there's a great opportunity to create a goal for how I'm going to get that more in line with what I believe Christ would have me to do there to be faithful. That's the big idea. You know, I think, you know, obviously over the long run, the legacy of your life ends up being dictated by kind of the decisions that you make every single day. And one thing that you

did talk about in the book is, you know, bringing to God your first fruits. with our time, with our money, with our gifting. And maybe just highlight that for a moment because, you know, as I was thinking through it, like we, there's nothing wrong with ambition. I think ambition is a good thing. I think it's a good thing to want to be the best, you know, but not for the best sake, but for the glory of God.

But I think people sometimes will view that as, you know, to get ahead, to make a name for themselves. Maybe talk about how productivity should be also anchored in that reality of, like you want to bring to God your best. You want to bring them your all. Our life is a living sacrifice. And so part of that being both the fuel. And if God, if you operate by proverbian wisdom, meaning like if you're a hard worker, you talk about integrity, if you don't lie and you don't steal, you don't have to be a Christian to kind of like reap the benefits of that. Like you can, that's something that the world enjoys. But if you were motivated by a love for God and a desire to

honor him and then you receive the benefits of that from the world around you. You also want to, it almost creates like a cycle of like, I do this for God and then when God blesses that, I also want to bring them back my first fruits. Maybe just talk about that from like our time, our life, our finances, our future, our well done is not so just the we can leave a legacy. Even though Moses does say like, hey, I confirmed the work of my hands, it's so that I think you talk about how living a life that glorifies God just means our life points to God. And I thought that was like a pretty simple way to put it. And I've never heard it just, you know, hey, it pointed to him.

It was about him. Maybe just touch on that for a moment. Yeah. Yeah, I think a lot of it comes down to understanding, what is it, Philippians, it talks about, it's God who works in me both the will and work for his good pleasure, right? Yeah, 2013. There's an understanding that any good that I do in this life is fundamentally going to be attributed to God, right? And so what do you have that you did not receive, right?

And so when you think about first roots, you think about these tangible or maybe I'd say temporal benefits that do derive from a life of being faithful. I love how you're putting that. It's like there is, God has designed the world so that if I live in a wise way, they're often, it's not a guarantee, but often because God has designed the world to work this way, temporal rewards for that. financial blessing, lots of stuff like that does tend to follow. Now, as an understanding that it all belongs to God, I'm bringing him the first and best with the excellence that I'm bringing to that work. And then when it does remunerate to me, even temporally, I bring that to God too.

Because that's what I mean, the principle of first fruits in the Old Testament, that's what it was all about, is I'm bringing God the first of my crop or my sheep or whatever it is I have because it's an acknowledgement that it's all his anyway. And so it is sort of this like virtuous cycle of, God, I'm bringing all of it to every day. And so you can bring that with the rewards of what you do in this life, but also just your day itself is you wake up and you have this mindset

and this this default to, I'm going to act and do everything with excellence. Not because it's all about me, but because I'm this big flashing arrow. Like you said, I'm just pointing at Christ. I'm pointing at him. And so everything I'm doing, I'm going to do it with vigor. I'm going to do it with all of my might, right?

Yeah. Now that's helpful. Well, Reagan, where can people find out more about your ministry? I mean, you spend your life talking about productivity from a biblical perspective. You know, I just kind of got acquainted with your material. I've been familiar with it for a time, but really dove in over the last few days. But where can people find out more about what you do and what you've written and maybe additional resources? Yeah, everything's at redeemingp productivity.com.

You can also find with YouTube channel, we're on a podcast as well. If you want to listen and just search redeeming productivity. And you'll find lots of resources there. Great. Hey, one last question for you. You know, I see that you wrote the book, 2022 or in 2006. In retrospect, is there anything that you would have included now in the book that you didn't include originally, you know, maybe just even like a gilding or a thought, anything that you, as you

continue to talk about productivity from a biblical perspective that you're like, if I had to write a second edition of redeeming productivity, I would add this thought, anything like that? Yeah, that's interesting. You know, maybe on the practical side, one thing I've been thinking a lot about is how we manage our time, how we think about specifically, how that works. My mind, I've developed a lot more on that in the year's sense of this attitude towards time as a gift, and I would probably develop that much, but that'll probably be the next book I do,

actually. It's how that permeates everything when you treat all of your time as a gift, even your downtime and how it changes your perspective and everything. It is a gift. And you heard it here first, the next book. Well, Reagan, thanks so much for your time. I appreciate you having, coming on. And for everyone else, you can check out redeemingproductivity.com and take advantage of the

material he's written in this book has been really helpful for me. So highly commended to you, redeeming product. Reagan, thanks so much, brother. Thanks, Johnny.