In Michael’s Words:

In 2002, after completing 44 years salaried employment, I took early retirement at age 61 to volunteer with various Christian charities. I had experienced a life and death struggle in hospital early in 2001 with severe pancreatitis, so I intended to limit my volunteer activities to daytime Monday through Friday, so that I would have the evenings and weekends free for our church and my family. I tell people that I am not retired, but refocused.

Well, over these last ten years my charity and church volunteer involvement has become deeper. Not only that, but God has given us seven young grandchildren, all in Calgary. As the only grandparent available during the day on those occasions when child care is needed, I am finding myself at the computer in the evenings and on weekends, trying to keep up with my charity commitments. My wife frequently reminds me that I am getting as busy now as when I was employed.

Are We Too Busy?

Lately, though, I have started to notice that emails coming in from some friends and coworkers are being sent late at night. Two weeks ago a friend who is a chaplain sent us his weekly prayer requests at 1:05 am Pacific Time. Then another friend whom I volunteer for, on the same day sends me an email at 1:11 am Calgary time! This is not unusual for these people. Just this summer, I have noticed that some of you have been sending me emails late at night or on weekends. So my devotional topic today is “Are We Too Busy?“

Biblical People Who Were Too Busy

Moses

The next day, Moses took his place to judge the people. People were standing before him all day long, from morning to night. When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, Jethro said, “What’s going on here? Why are you doing all this, and all by yourself, letting everybody line up before you from morning to night?” Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me with questions about God. When something comes up, they come to me. I judge between a man and his neighbor, and teach them God’s laws and instructions.”

Moses’ father-in-law said, “This is no way to go about it. You’ll burn out, and the people right along with you. This is way too much for you—you can’t do this alone. Now listen to me. Let me tell you how to do this, so that God will be in this with you.”
Exodus 18:12-23 The Message

Moses’ problem seems so easy to see.

Martha

It’s also pretty easy for us to play the part of Jethro and criticize Martha’s reaction to her sister Mary’s attention to Jesus:

As they continued their travel, Jesus entered a village. A woman by the name of Martha welcomed him, and made him feel quite at home. She had a sister, Mary, who sat before the Master, hanging onto every word he said. But Martha was pulled away by all she had to do in the kitchen. Later, she stepped in, interrupting them. “Master, don’t you care that my sister has abandoned the kitchen to me? Tell her to lend me a hand.” The Master said, “Martha, dear Martha, you’re fussing far too much, and getting yourself worked up over nothing. One thing only is essential, and Mary has chosen it—it’s the main course, and it won’t be taken from her.”
Luke 10:38-42 The Message

Jesus Had It Right

We can learn a lot from Jesus, and how he cared for his disciples when they had a busy period:

Then, because so many people were coming and going, that they did not even have a chance to eat, Jesus said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place, and get some rest.”
Mark 6:31 TNIV

How appealing are his words, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place, and get some rest.”

Was Jesus Ever Too Busy?

Just a few chapters before he recommended rest for the disciples, Jesus himself appeared to be too busy:

Jesus came home and, as usual, a crowd gathered—so many making demands on him, that there wasn’t even time to eat. His friends heard what was going on, and went to rescue him, by force if necessary. They suspected he was getting carried away with himself.
Mark 3:20-21

That’s Chapter 3. Obviously by chapter 6 Jesus has learned his lesson.

The Challenge

So, my question of you, and me, is “When are we going to learn the lesson of our need for adequate rest – for a more balanced life?”

Is This You?

I have a dear friend who is a youth worker in the United Kingdom. He is one of those amazing people who think big, and whom God uses to accomplish great things. When he ministered here in Canada he wasn’t satisfied with taking a van load of teens to build houses in Mexico. He would take two charter bus loads! Now he is responsible for the oversight and development of twelve youth ministries in the UK. But at the same time, he is also raising funds for and building a new fully-equipped Youth Camp. In addition, each year he and his wife take large groups of teens and adults to South Africa, where he is converting large used shipping containers into homes and a school in a major city slum area. My friend is a workaholic. The only way he slows down is when God puts him in hospital, or lays him flat on his back at home. That is where he is right now – in bed. This is the message his supporters received just last week:

Since coming back from Camp Sept 2nd, I have not been able to get out of bed in any way shape or form, as I have pinched a sciatic nerve. Though I am enjoying the rest to a degree, it is becoming very difficult to finalize the Africa Mission Trip for the 3rd week in October. Please pray that I get mobility back soon, as I am not sure how to do life on my back…..

Do You Only Rest When God Forces You To?

I am not going to tell you this morning how best to discipline yourself to work more reasonable hours. The only person who got all his work done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe! You have to make that decision to be more disciplined in your work habits. You know your commitments, and the time available. Personally, I think workaholics become their own god, and I was one in my employment years. (An aside from John: My post on the slippery slope to loss of integrity reports research that shows that workaholism is a key leading indicator of an upcoming loss of integrity.)

A Solution to Workaholism

I believe one solution is having the right attitude toward our Lord Jesus. Is Jesus really your Lord? If so, you may be CEO for your ministry, but if Jesus is your Lord, He is your real boss. I need to remind myself constantly, “Am I acting as Jesus’ servant?” The work standards for a servant are set by the master – the task, the place, the time. Jesus said in John 12:26 (TNIV) “Whoever serves Me must follow Me, and where I am My servant also will be. My Father will honour the one who serves Me.”

This is the same Lord who says to you:

Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me, and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with Me, and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.
Matthew 11:28-30 (The Message)

Your Lord and Master also says He is your Shepherd. He, not you, is in charge of the flock. Psalm 23 (TNIV) assures us that:

The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
He leads me beside quiet waters,
He refreshes my soul.

He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil, for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

As a servant of the Living God, remember daily these words:

I will show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me, and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me, and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.
Matthew 11:29-30 The Message

Remember that the work standards for a servant are set by the master – the task, the quality, the place, the time. Jesus said “Whoever serves Me must follow Me, and where I am My servant also will be. My Father will honour the one who serves Me.” (TNIV)

God honours those who put His Son’s wishes first. He will honour us when you and I do this.

Let Jesus Plan Your Day

So, throughout each day, I suggest that you submit your developing schedule to the Lord. It will make a difference to the quality of your work, and of your life that day. Let me share something with you that since September 13 is helping me. I stop often and say, “Lord, this is what I still have to do today. Is this OK with you?” I wait briefly, and if a different plan comes to mind, I adjust — otherwise I continue with the schedule.

During these last ten days, in addition to my usual daily volunteer work, I have had to prepare documentation for four board meetings, and work with our church’s lawyer on updating its incorporation, plus five child care assignments. But my evening and weekend time spent on this charity work has significantly reduced, and I feel much less pressure. I feel good!

Now, I am not going to claim that this schedule referral to Jesus will solve your problems. All I want to do today is to encourage you to let Jesus be Lord of your daily schedule – to check with Him throughout each day what He wants you to accomplish this day.

Whoever serves Me must follow Me, and where I am My servant also will be. My Father will honour the one who serves Me.
John 12;26 TNIV

God honours those who put His Son’s wishes first. He will honour us when you and I do this.

Amen!

The post Are We Too Busy? appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

I remember 28 years ago now driving home from our cottage and the highway was stopped dead. No problem. I had a map  showing a side road that went all the way down past the slow area. It went through a few tiny towns and over a river, but it sure looked good as an alternate route. So off my wife and I went. Maybe I should have been concerned that no one else had the same brilliant idea.

We drove along a two lane paved road that became a two lane gravel road. Hmm. We went through a tiny town that reminded me uncomfortably of the scene where Dueling Banjos was made famous in Deliverance. Hmm again. But on we went, and the gravel road became a single lane. Eternally optimistic, I knew we were close to getting back on the highway and whizzing home. But, fixated on my goal, we drove obliviously through miles of forest with no sideroads and no driveways until it became a cow path, two ruts with high grass in the middle. It didn’t help that my wife said repeatedly that she was enjoying the drive and seeing places she’d never otherwise see! However, by this time even I was thinking, “Something’s not right here.”

According to the map we were almost at the river and all we had to do was cross over it and we’d be back in civilization, but it was looking doubtful. And then a hill arose in front of us, and we climbed up it slowly driving on smooth boulders poking through the earth, finally stopping when we came to outright rocks. Climbing up the rocks I had a glorious view of the river below, a paved road on the other side, and absolutely no bridge at all! The map showed a bridge, but there obviously had never been a bridge here. I had to back up for miles before I could turn around!

I wish when I first turned on to the gravel road I had realized that the roads were  deteriorating in quality and unlikely to be through roads. At that point I could easily have turned around and got back on course with no significant loss of time. In the same way, when people make those first choices that set them on a questionable course, before they lose their integrity, surely at that early point if a person recognized the significance of  the present choice in terms of how it can lead to lost integrity, they would gratefully make a different choice and preserve their integrity. I thought someone should research that, and I discovered accidentally while perusing a bookstore this week that someone has. (I did my usual checking out of the book before deciding to buy it.)

The Earliest Warning Signs

Every person in Christian ministry should read this (secular) book called Integrity: Doing the Right Thing for the Right Reason. I’ll warn you though, it is a frightening read because the author, a clinical psychologist in Toronto, found that the earliest warning signals are things that I think every person already has to a degree in their psychological make-up: the desire to perform well. In fact, society honours and rewards those who exhibit the related behaviours of producing good quality work and having a good work ethic, even as we say we want to avoid their logical extremes, perfectionism and workaholism. The author, Barbara Killinger, says the problem is that these two behaviours are really just socially acceptable diseases.

For example, workaholics are overly responsible idealists who have compulsively competitive natures and they seek fulfillment in work. Being responsible is good.  Having ideals is good. Being competitive is good (it leads to better value for your ‘clients’). Finding fulfillment in your work is good too. But there can be too much of these good things. You can feel so much responsibility on your shoulders that you feel only you are carrying the weight of the ministry and you become resentful and curmudgeonly, as though the ministry owed you something. You can be so idealistic you will continually be frustrated with the reality of the world around you, so you become angry and bitter. You can become ruthless in your competitive race to win. If you find fulfillment only in your work, you have an unbalanced life and incredible stress as pressures mount in other areas. Workaholism leads sequentially to chronic fatigue and no longer being able to relax or play, guilt over the parts of your life that are falling apart, loss of feeling which means loss of compassion and purpose, and finally character change as you become self-absorbed while leading a dead life of declining physical health. The workaholic is now primed and ready for loss of integrity. Yet employers unconsciously (at least I sure hope it is not conscious) are complicit in their employees’ slides down the slippery slope because they give them laptops and smart phones so they can work 24 hours a day. These are good tools, but need to be used responsibly.

Perfectionists have their own issues. They believe they are highly intelligent, superior people. Their feeling of specialness, Killinger says, can foster arrogance or a feeling of entitlement, that they are the exception to the rule and are exempt from community standards. The perfectionist who reaches this point has the attitudes that will support loss of integrity.

Perfectionism and workaholism are particularly insidious because they are related to the key threat to integrity: obsession. Killinger says that “If I had to make an educated guess about who might eventually lose his or her integrity, it would likely be an individual who has become obsessively fixated on a thought, idea, or action.” So what are the pre-conditions that lead to obsessive thinking? It turns out that all the pre-conditions are related to the choices we make about how we think about things.

The Slippery Slope!

If the choice was between stealing or not stealing, that would be an easy decision. Will you cheat on your spouse? “No, of course not!” you say. But that is now.  How does someone get to the place where they can say “Yes”? They get to that point when they have no empathy or compassion left for their spouse, when their intuition has become negative so that it is slow to speak up and the person becomes bored, impatient and impulsive. You get to this stage through more innocent choices you make, such as the choice a perfectionist makes as to how to handle self-doubt. The choice a person with chronic fatigue makes about whether to press on with work or give in to sleep. The choice a creative person makes about whether or not to be concerned when it takes 12 hours to do what it usually took 8 hours to do.

These are among the many conditions that Killinger says are pre-cursors to loss of integrity. And that is what makes this book so scary. We associate loss of integrity with the obviously bad choices people make, and we say “So I won’t do that!” But the road to lost integrity starts with nothing so obvious. It starts with apparently benign and unrelated symptoms that we choose to ignore because we don’t appreciate their true significance. The choices we should be concerned about are not what we choose to do at the end of the road, but what we choose to think at the beginning of the road. It is at this point that we can most easily avert what Killinger calls “the predictable breakdown syndrome.” But even if you have started to slide, it is still possible to grab on to a branch and keep from sliding all the way down.

Integrity Means Doing What You Say

Here’s an important point about integrity. Integrity means being consistent and predictable, acting in ways that are consistent with what you say you believe. Moral failure such as cheating on your spouse is one form of lost integrity, assuming you say you believe in faithfulness to your spouse. That is an obvious sin. But we must remember that any behaviour that is not consistent with our Christian view of life would also be a loss of integrity. Skipping church. Treating staff as objective resources rather than as humans made in God’s image. Staying silent and insensitive to injustice. You might not fail in obvious sin such as adultery, but you could still lose your integrity as a follower of Christ.

A Solution

The solution is relatively straight-forward. Killinger says we need compassion and a deliberate surfacing of the positive aspects of the personality traits that we have least of. For example, thinkers need the emotional side to come out while emotional types need the rational thinking side to come out. The point is to have a holistic view of the situation and make a decision that takes into account the needs of other people who would be affected. She says, “Discerning integrity, I believe, requires a compassionate eye. Informed decisions based on hard facts and figures, or stringent rules and regulations, rarely represent the whole story. Our moral choices must also show a genuine concern for the welfare of others. This is not to downplay the role of thinking in formulating opinions, but wise moral choices are made when intelligence, compassion, and maturity come together to guide our judgments.”

This post is closely related to another post, The private life of a Christian leader, in which I wrote about how compartmentalizing life creates a condition in which moral failure is rationalized away. It turns out that Killinger says the same thing.

I think the upshot of this is that everyone should have an accountability partner to whom they disclose what they are thinking and feeling. This is a lot more important than disclosing what they are doing, because they won’t be doing anything questionable until long after they have been thinking and feeling that they are alienated, hard-done-by, or any of the other pre-cursor attitudes that Killinger identifies. Accountability relationships should be focused on our attitudes and feelings.

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
Philippians 4:8

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