(light music)

- 20 books.

That's how many New YorkTimes best selling author,

Mark Batterson, has written.

And before Mark wrotehis first book, get this,

he had already read 3000 books.

Take a look.

- [Narrator] As thebestselling author of 20 books,

then lead pastor of NationalCommunity Church in DC,

Mark Batterson knows a fewthings about achieving goals.

- You have to feed the clouds.

You have to sow today whatyou want to see tomorrow.

- [Narrator] In his brandnew book, Win the Day,

Mark explores seven daily habits

he says will help us stressless and accomplish more.

- Hi Mark.

Welcome back to the 700 Club.

Great to have you with us.

- Thank you, Terry.

Good to be with you.

You know, we're not thatfar past January 1st,

when many of us makeresolutions about things

we want to change or do in our lives,

but most of us have unresolved problems,

unachieved goals, maybe badhabits we'd like to break.

Why is it so hard toaccomplish what we want?

- Well, I think it'sbecause when you think

in one year timelines,it's overwhelming, Terry.

75% of new year's resolutionsfail in the first month,

and so what we need todo is take those goals

and reverse engineerthem into daily habits,

and then we need to askourselves the question,

can you do it for a day?

And I hope that's encouragingto everybody listening.

Anybody can do anything for a day,

and so we've got to live inthese day-tight compartments.

And of course, this isa very biblical idea.

Give us this day our daily bread.

This is the day that the Lord has made.

His mercies are new every morning.

Jesus said, "Don't worry about tomorrow."

And so Win the Day is reallyabout learning to live

in these day-tight compartments

- You know, I've written alittle bit, you've written a lot.

Why did you read 3000 booksbefore you began writing?

- Well, when I was 22, Terry,I felt called to write,

but I took a graduate assessment

that showed a low aptitude for writing.

In other words, whateveryou do, don't write books

and aren't you grateful that God

doesn't call the qualified.

He qualifies the called.

And so, Hey, can I havea little bit of fun?

This is my strong hand.

Everybody has a strong hand

and God wants to use you atyour point of giftedness.

He gave you those gifts, butthis is my week hand, Terry.

And God's power is madeperfect in weakness.

So sometimes God wants to use us

at a place where wearen't naturally gifted

but then God anoints us and he uses us.

So Terry, when I write books,

I take off my shoesbecause it's Holy ground,

and I don't just type on a keyboard.

I feel like I obey God

with the 26 letters ofthe English alphabet.

- In your latest book youdiscuss seven ways to stress less

and achieve more.

I love the titles of your chapters.

One of them is "Kiss at the Wave".

What does that mean?

- Yeah. It's habit number two.

And it's something thatCharles Spurgeon said.

He said, "I have learned to kiss the wave

that throws me against the rock of ages."

You have to learn the lesson.

You have to cultivate the character.

You have to curate the change

during those tough times.

All of us know peoplewho've been following Christ

for 25 years, but they don'thave 25 years of experience.

They have one year ofexperience repeated 25 times.

And so Terry, a couple of years ago,

my wife had a littlebattle with breast cancer.

She's doing great,

but she came across a piece of poetry

that posed a question,

and the question was this,

what have you come to teach me?

And so when you find yourselfin those difficult situations,

the waves of life are crashing into you,

you have to ask that question.

You have to kiss the wave that throws you

against the rock of ages.

- Well, let me jump to another one

that kind of, I hadn'teven read the chapter,

but it just made me go, ew.

What does it mean to eat the frog?

- Well, it's habit number three.

And Mark Twain said, "If youever have to eat a live frog,

do it first thing in the morning,

because then you'll know

that the hardest thing is behind you."

Which is absolutely hilarious,

but is a wonderful principle.

You know, well begun is half done.

And so what I try to doin that part of the book

is help us deconstruct and reconstruct

some of our morning rituals and routines

so that we can eat the frogfirst thing in the morning.

And it gives us momentumfor the rest of the day.

- Talk about seed the clouds.

How do we do that?

- Well, you can't break thelaw of sowing and reaping.

It will make or break you.

There aren't any shortcuts.

There aren't any cheat codes.

And so seeding the clouds is about

making sure that we're sowingwhat we want to see more of,

and Terry, I mean, we findourselves in a place in history,

a cultural moment wherethere's so much racial tension,

political polarization,

this COVID crisis that we're fighting.

Listen, let's make surethat as followers of Christ,

we're standing in the gap as peacemakers,

grace givers, tone setters,

that we are sowing seedsof faith, hope, and love.

Why? Because we're herefor such a time as this.

We are here for such a place as this.

- Well, I love the new book.

It's full of wisdom and friends,

I think you're going to love it too.

You'll want to hear about allseven of Mark's daily habits.

They'll help us all to stressless and accomplish more.

And isn't that what we'd like to do?

So be sure to get a copy of the book.

It's called Win the Day.

It's available wherever books are sold,

and Mark, it's always greatto have you on the program

with us, thank you.

- Thanks Terry.