Spiritually Speaking: The Art of the Tweak

By Tim Bongard

When you find yourself in new or highly competitive situations like what you experience in college, you may feel a change is in order.

Most of us tend to react to this in almost knee-jerk fashion and suddenly change everything. Others feel overwhelmed and do not know where to start.

It took me 50 years to realize a funny dynamic about life and the changes you can make.

The most profound changes in life can be the little ones - the tweaks.

I have the power to make them daily to improve my life and the lives of those around me. In fact, the most effective changes I’ve made were the little tweaks.

I decided to get an extra half hour of sleep each day. I decided to pray for my nut-case boss before he got my temper to a rolling boil. I set aside study time in a library across town to insure some uninterrupted study. I turned the radio off and used my drive time to pray.

All tweaks. All improvements. All important.

Some tweaks have been stickers and keepers. Some tweaks last a season of need. Some fizzle and die after a few days then find their way back into my life later when the time is right. Some tweaks never get out of the gate. They are hopeful, but impractical. Some are rotten ideas that have gladly died a quick death. But the point is that I have the power to think them up and try them out – and if they improve my life, then all the better!

Now, here is the trick of the tweak – When I do this as an exercise with God as my partner in it, the effect and affect is magnified.

I can judge what is good for me, but genuine change comes when I ask God to help me make tweaks to live better and not waste the time He has given me.

That’s a daily devotional in action that I can cling to. It’s the best way to allow God into all the cracks and crevices in our lives – to not only give Him our best face, but the little details where we need Him the most.

Thomas “Tim” Bongard earned a BA in Christian Leadership at GCU and is now a graduate student in the KBCOB and full time Ranger for the Boy Scouts of America in the Pocono region of Pennsylvania. Tim, his wife Maureen, and their two youngest kids live at Camp Acahela where he also serves as Chaplain.