Welcome back to my interview with author and speaker Randy Alcorn. You can read part one here and part two here.

Randy, what single bit of counsel has made the most significant difference in your effective use of time?

In Charles Hummel’s booklet Tyranny of the Urgent, which I read as a young Christian 35 years ago, he said that what is urgent is often not important, and what is important is typically not urgent. It’s not urgent to spend time with God, talk with your wife, or read to your kids, but it is extremely important. It may be urgent to return someone’s call, go speak at some event, or turn in a manuscript next Thursday, but not important. (The manuscript, for instance, will likely sit in your editor’s inbox three weeks before he has time to open it.)

Years ago I developed a response to the 99% of things I have to decline:

I have to say “no” to many good things, and even some great ones, in order to be able to say “yes” to those very few things God has called me to do.

I live by this, saying “no” unless there’s a compelling reason to say “yes.” My life is very full, but that way I am free to do some things I couldn’t otherwise do (including coaching teenagers, playing with my grandkids, and hanging out with my wife).

What single bit of counsel has made the most significant difference in your leadership?

No one said it in exactly this way, but several men have said what helped me come to this way of thinking: Care about people but don’t live to please them. If you do, you’ll fail your Lord and you’ll fail people too.

As a young pastor I cared too much what people thought. The best cure for this was 20 years ago when I was repeatedly arrested and went to jail for peaceful nonviolent civil disobedience at abortion clinics. I did it because I believed God wanted me to stand up for unborn children. But it was extremely unpopular, to say the least, in Oregon, and even many Christians, including some of our church folk, disapproved. I learned to accept that. We live out our lives before the Audience of One. In the end, his approval is the one that matters. If our goal is to hear others say “Well done,” we won’t do what we need to do to hear him say it.

Where in ministry are you most regularly tempted to discouragement?

When I was a pastor, my discouragements were with people who were going nowhere spiritually, neglecting the basic spiritual disciplines, and living unfruitful lives year after year. Then, of course, there were the always-critical or easily-hurt high-maintenance folk. It was discouraging because I wanted to mentor, disciple, and shepherd, not change diapers and listen to whiners. (You wanted me to be honest, right?)

As a director of a parachurch ministry, I’m seldom discouraged in the ministry, as our staff stays on task, has a Christ-centered work ethic, and gets along well. Because I often have to withdraw in order to do my writing (I have an office behind my home, they are at the ministry office seven miles away, where I come in only once a week for prayer, sharing and lunch), I feel like I let them down by not being available as much as I want to, and used to be.

As a writer, especially on the big books such as Money, Possessions and Eternity; Dominion; Heaven; and this latest one, If God is Good…; there have been nights at 3:00 a.m. when I’m asking God, “Is this really worth it?” I feel like giving up or not going the second mile in research or doing yet another revision and seeking further critique that will create still more work for me. Sometimes the big projects feel like they will never end. But God graciously empowers me and I sense his sweet presence with me in those otherwise lonely hours.

God usually encourages me by time with Nanci, our kids, grandchildren, and our close friends. And often he encourages me with the emails that come in from people who say God used my books to change their lives. Often they come at exactly the right time, causing me to weep and renew my determination to persevere with my current writing.

Join me next time for the fourth and final part of my interview with Randy Alcorn.