Growth

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.”

The Tenacity of Faith

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6I said, “Let me remember my song in the night;

let me meditate in my heart.”

Then my spirit made a diligent search:

7“Will the Lord spurn forever,

and never again be favorable?

8Has his steadfast love forever ceased?

Are his promises at an end for all time?

9 Has God forgotten to be gracious?

Has he in anger shut up his compassion?”

Selah
Psalm 77:1-9

 

When we hear these words we need to pause.

 

“Selah”

 

We  join in the psalmist’s search.

 

We remember God’s goodness towards us.

 

Because if we are not now,

 

someday we may find ourselves in the dark,

 

awake and wondering,

 

“Has God forgotten me?”

 

As a follower of Jesus our worship,

 

our declaration of His immense worth,

 

is not based on how good today is,

 

but on how good God is, always.

 

My memory in the difficult days

 

can move me forward to Him in hope

 

as I recollect the stories of His faithfulness

 

from the “good days.”

 

Scripture, the search, and coming to Jesus.

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“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”  John 5:39-40

“There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me, But if you do no believe his writings, how will you believe my words? John 5:45-47

 

Jesus is clear.

The Scriptures, hear Old Testament, testifies about Him.

Moses wrote of Jesus.

Life, eternal life, is to be found in Jesus.

People studying the Scripture have put their faith in it rather than in the One of whom it speaks.

People studying the Scripture have put their faith in its divinely inspired authors rather than in the One who inspired its writers.

The Scripture is a sign, pointing us to Jesus.

 

Perhaps having a relationship with Jesus Christ is more trouble than having a relationship with text. Make no mistake, I cherish the Word of God. I love how God has seen fit to reveal Jesus, our life, throughout its pages. My search though, is to meet the One revealed in the pages of Scripture and to come to Him for life.

 

Free Range Disciples

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“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36

 

When we are running in our lives full-tilt we might not see our slavery.

 

When life is going well we might to sense our slavery.

 

When we are at the top of the pile we cannot see our slavery.

 

“So Jesus said to who had believed in him…”

 

Notice, Jesus said this to the very people who had attached themselves

 

to him.

 

31So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

34Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slaveto sin. 35The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. 38I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”

 

John 8:31-38

 

Sometimes we must have our attachments in this world shaken,

 

so that we will hear the Word of Jesus

 

and be free

 

to abide

 

in Him.

 

Here’s a prayer, Christ has Set Me Free, by Rend Collective: