Author: Craig

The Sluggard’s Dilemma

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12Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes?

There is more hope for a fool than for him.

13 The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road!

There is a lion in the streets!”

14As a door turns on its hinges,

so does a sluggard on his bed.

15 The sluggard buries his hand in the dish;

it wears him out to bring it back to his mouth.

16The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes

than seven men who can answer sensibly.

Proverbs 26:12-16

 

Habituated incapacitation.

Learned helplessness.

Underdeveloped executive function.

For all of us,

the condition takes hold when courage is crowded out by anxiety.

Lions in the street.

The future does not seem friendly…

AND

we believe we lack the wherewithal to out-do, out-smart, out-battle a lion.

AND

nobody can teach us how outsmart a pride of lions.

I am the sluggard 

when… “I need to go to work but there might be a lion.”

…when “I need to learn something but there might be a lion.”

A disconnect from the urgency of the present or the future.

Sometimes seen as procrastination. But not exactly because

a procrastinator generally is planning to do the battle

when the urgency of what matters demands it.

The sluggard doesn’t feel the urgency anymore.

Some will explore what’s going on in the brain of a sluggard.

But, what’s happening in their soul?

Where is their hope?

Where is their aspiration?

Where is their circle of hope?

The problem grows deeper as teachability decreases.

Time moves slowly for the sluggard and then its gone.

The lions have won.

What are you doing to make peace with your time devouring lions?

What are you doing to raise the urgency of what matters most?

Watch Richard Turere talk about “My invention that made peace with lions.”

 

Me, Success & The Myth of Time Management

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Last I checked only God can manage time. The rest of us are managing ourselves. Thus the Psalmist prays,

“Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.” Psalm 90:12  (NLT)

Literally Moses prays, “teach us to number our days.” Moses reflects on the shortness of our lives in contrast to the immensity of God’s everlasting existence and extraordinary power. Only God could possibly turn back time. Therefore, we must manage ourselves and that requires wisdom. We always give ourselves to something and that requires time. Wisdom is the capacity to choose well in light of greater purposes and a vision of common good.

 

So manage yourself. Reflection on life and the Gospel will lead us into wisdom. Jesus spoke of “dissipation” as a reason some people do not continue in their walk with Him. Thankfully, the Gospel of Jesus brings us into greater purpose for our lives and generates true worship. Jesus rescues from both laziness and workaholism.

 

Why is wisdom required?

Life in a broken world can become perpetually hard.

Little time suckers come so easily and become habits draining us.

We can despair because the energy required to discipline ourselves for the good work God gives us seems too much!

Sometimes we need to gloriously “waste time” by intentionally “not doing” and just “be” with Jesus and with people, or by ourselves.

Sometimes a hard reality in our life today causes us to wonder, “How can I do this for the rest of my life? For Another four years? Another month? Or even another day?”

We need patterns of life that move us from rest to work, from the wait of abiding in Christ to the fruitfulness of abiding in Christ.

 

And so we need to pray, “Oh LORD, establish the work of our hands!” “Yes, Make our efforts successful!”

 

13O Lord, come back to us!

How long will you delay?

Take pity on your servants!

14Satisfy us each morning with your unfailing love,

so we may sing for joy to the end of our lives.

15Give us gladness in proportion to our former misery!

Replace the evil years with good.

16Let us, your servants, see you work again;

let our children see your glory.

17And may the Lord our God show us his approval

and make our efforts successful.

Yes, make our efforts successful!
Psalm 90:13-17

 

Healing ~ Why aren’t we hoping for it?

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24He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. I Peter 2:24-25

 

My wife’s phone is broken. It doesn’t hold a charge. In other places around the world my first response may have been, “Let’s repair it.” But here, I must confess, I just thought, “Oh we should get a new one.” That’s what we do with broken things: we set them aside and get a new one.

 

We have a fear I believe in our consumer culture of admitting we are broken. Problem, most of us don’t value broken things. If its broken we believe it has lost its value. So we throw it out and get another. And that I fear is what we are doing to people as well.

 

And for that matter we are really not sure about “the healing of our souls.”

 

An admission of brokenness is a an admission that we might not to be useful. Its an admission of need. Its an admission of what has been done to us, of what we have done, and even what we just couldn’t seem to fix on our own.

 

We couldn’t fix our anxiety, our pain, our narcissism, our doubt, our jealousy, our envy, our hate, our addiction, our pride, our selfishness, our guilt, our shame, our fear, our drivenness, our laziness, our anger, or our lack of direction and passion for life.

 

Yet, following Jesus is not a self-improvement venture. Following Jesus is about living in the care and governance of the Lord who suffered for our healing. By His grace we can now die to sin and live to righteousness.

 

Broken; you are of immense value to God.

 

The healing; it starts with an admission and a divinely motivated move toward Him.

 

The prayer: “Heal my soul Lord Jesus; be the Shepherd of my soul.”

Washroom Graffiti, Bones, and the Spirit of God

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1 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. 2And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. 3And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” 4Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.” Ezekiel 37:1-6

 

Holy Spirit renewal dynamics begin with a question from God. “Son of man, can these bones live?”

 

Ezekiel’s answer leans back into God. “O Lord God, you know.”

 

Recently I read these words on the washroom wall, “Life on earth is just a death sentence.” That’s a hopeless, desperate sentence.

 

I have a friend who has lived on the edge of violence and semi-functional drunkenness in leather and jewellery always reminding him of death: skulls and wings. I tell him his skulls remind me of Jesus’ Lordship over death and His question, “Son of man, can these bones live.” My friend laughs.  And then I tell him, his wings remind me of the Spirit of God who truly brings life even to the most desperate sack of bones through faith in Christ Jesus. My friend hesitates.

 

That day God reminded Ezekiel of His power in a dramatic vision. I am hearing the question and even asking it of the Lord, “Can these bones live?”

 

Of this I am sure. God is changing lives through the Gospel of Jesus. The Word of God can accomplish the renewal of our souls for we shall hear, we shall be caused to live, and we shall know that He is the Lord.

You are an original… worth dying for.

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10In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  1 John 4:10

This week a new record was set for the most expensive artwork sold at an auction. Tuesday night a 1969 painting by Francis Bacon, “Three Studies of Lucian Freud” sold for 142.4 million. That’s a lot of money for an original!

That’s not spare change! Well to me its not.

You are an original. And to God you are worth dying for. He spared no cost. He sent his Son as the payment of our sins. Who knew our sin could cost such much? They cost a lot because of the immense value God puts on us. He loves us.

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”