What will you do in the next ten seconds?

If any of us know anything about Jesus of Nazareth, we probably have heard that his reaction to needy people was immediate and scandalous generosity.  Furthermore, Jesus was indisputably clear in how he felt about our modeling this teaching.

But in our busy days, we often see strangers with “needy” signs on street corners at the entrance to Target and we make decisions to ignore at least some of them.  We have to look away because we already gave somewhere else. Our practical minds govern our wallet (and our schedule) because we have our own kids’ mouths to feed and our own problems and why isn’t the guy on the street corner answering the “Help Wanted” sign at the dry cleaner?

How do we manage this daily inner conflict between our desires to control our own resources and bravely acting on a disruptive thought to risk something.

Clare DeGraaf has written a convicting instruction manual on how to deliberately navigate a life that begins to eliminate the conflicts of the rules of the world: the rules we invent, the rules of the culture, or the rules of our family.  Clare has been teaching and mentoring people for decades on what he calls “The 10 Second Rule.”

“In the next ten seconds, just do the next thing you’re reasonably certain Jesus wants you to do.”

The sneaky time-twist on the ancient WWJD idea is exactly where this concept gets meaningful.  In his book, Clare tells dozens of stories of people who face common temptations, opportunities, invitations and interruptions along their self-directed path, who’ve learned the miraculous joy of acting on the impulse to give. His own personal story is fascinating enough to fill a much larger book, but he fills these too-few pages with uplifting examples of lives impacted in pivotal ways – one act at a time. Moments of inspired kindness or daring leaps of faith that have impact on others we could never have imagined… beginning with the God-directed truth of our most important job on earth.

In his book, DeGraaf calls these “generosity nudges:” a crazy notion God plants inside of us because of what He can see. Clare talks about Making God Look Good – what a great thought.  Clare hits the hard stuff with humble honesty, like serving those we don’t really like, or we don’t think deserve the help.  But even more, the book flows like an easy personal conversation with Clare, hanging out casually in a coffee shop, which is most often where you’ll find him living out the call to share his learning.

The endorsements on the book jacket read like a Who’s Who of the global leaders of our faith.  And yet Clare has written a book that’s friendly, encouraging, motivating, and from a heart that admits to struggling – as we all do –  to purposefully and joyfully follow God’s call in each moment.

The beautiful take-away: we too can be this bold.

Explore and Enjoy Clare DeGraaf’s The 10 Second Rule