For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
What gain have the workers from their toil? I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with.
He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; moreover, it is God's gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil.
I know that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; God has done this, so that all should stand in awe before him.
That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already is; and God seeks out what has gone by.
Ecc 3:1-15 – NRSV
Grace and peace,
Ron
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
The urgent and important
What has to be missing from our lives to create issues for us? What, if taken without notice, might even create crisis? If you take away my blood pressure medicine (my issues are mild and age related), then after a couple of days I start to feel the effects. If you take away my Diet Dr. Pepper, well, “Houston, we have a problem.” What, if it were missing from your life, would create issues for you? What, if it were to stop, would create problems for your children or your family?
In the staff meeting yesterday, I asked the team if anything in particular was missing. After a moment, one person piped up and observed that the daily devotionals had been missing for a couple of days. That was the answer for which I was looking. I might add that this particular absence was deliberate on my part. I know what I feel the importance of these devotionals to be, but I needed to see what the importance of these devotionals might be to those who receive them. I also was seeking to see how, as a team, we might handle issues of accountability; but that is a spiritual issue that we’ll discuss another day.
The question that I asked the team members present for the meeting (a lot of us are traveling now) was: “What ministry are you performing right now that would be missed if it were to stop?” It’s a thought-provoking and spiritual question, isn’t it? The gifts of our time, our skill, our education, our experience, and our energy have limits, after all, because of our humanity. We only have so much of any of those things. So we are forced by the inexorable ticking of the clock to make decisions, to prioritize.
Basing his work on biblical thought, Stephen Covey has proposed that we prioritize our time by the urgent/not urgent and important/not important categories.
Quadrant I - urgent and important
Quadrant II - not urgent, but important
Quadrant III - urgent, but not important
Quadrant IV - not urgent or important
Obviously, this is important for our lives. How we use time is a fundamentally spiritual issue. We decide which ministries (if we’re Christians, then what do we do that is not ministry?) are urgent or important, and put other work in other categories. This brings up a lot of questions:
How would God have us use the day that he has given us?
What ministries that we perform would those around us miss most quickly?
Where does our prayer life fit in the midst of this?
How much is prayer bound by time?
What work that we do is of the highest importance, whether or not anyone else thinks it is urgent or not?
For me, one of my answers to this last question has been this series of daily devotional messages. It is not that what I personally have to say is that important; I have shared this space with other voices that are equally valued and important. Even when I have spoken, I have often quoted scripture or the words of spiritual sages who have gone on before. The importance for me is that we spend spiritual time in quadrant II (Important, not urgent). As a consequence, in the course of our day we can use our properly spiritual focus to help us spend more time in quadrant II instead of quadrant III (urgent, but not important) . If our focus is off too much, then even little things can slip into quadrant I (urgent and important).
Jesus resisted quadrant III and IV (not urgent and not important). He spent time in ways that others did not always understand; for example, his withdrawing by himself to pray, even at times when other people had other things they wanted from him. We need to do this, too. The habits that Jesus modeled, we need to emulate. This is because younger or smaller eyes are watching us and deciding whether to mimic us, or to critique us with the particularly prophetic voice of a child. Please spend some of your God-given time today thinking about how you handle your time; it’s not merely a logistical issue – it’s a spiritual issue.
Blessings,
Ron
In the staff meeting yesterday, I asked the team if anything in particular was missing. After a moment, one person piped up and observed that the daily devotionals had been missing for a couple of days. That was the answer for which I was looking. I might add that this particular absence was deliberate on my part. I know what I feel the importance of these devotionals to be, but I needed to see what the importance of these devotionals might be to those who receive them. I also was seeking to see how, as a team, we might handle issues of accountability; but that is a spiritual issue that we’ll discuss another day.
The question that I asked the team members present for the meeting (a lot of us are traveling now) was: “What ministry are you performing right now that would be missed if it were to stop?” It’s a thought-provoking and spiritual question, isn’t it? The gifts of our time, our skill, our education, our experience, and our energy have limits, after all, because of our humanity. We only have so much of any of those things. So we are forced by the inexorable ticking of the clock to make decisions, to prioritize.
Basing his work on biblical thought, Stephen Covey has proposed that we prioritize our time by the urgent/not urgent and important/not important categories.
Quadrant I - urgent and important
Quadrant II - not urgent, but important
Quadrant III - urgent, but not important
Quadrant IV - not urgent or important
Obviously, this is important for our lives. How we use time is a fundamentally spiritual issue. We decide which ministries (if we’re Christians, then what do we do that is not ministry?) are urgent or important, and put other work in other categories. This brings up a lot of questions:
How would God have us use the day that he has given us?
What ministries that we perform would those around us miss most quickly?
Where does our prayer life fit in the midst of this?
How much is prayer bound by time?
What work that we do is of the highest importance, whether or not anyone else thinks it is urgent or not?
For me, one of my answers to this last question has been this series of daily devotional messages. It is not that what I personally have to say is that important; I have shared this space with other voices that are equally valued and important. Even when I have spoken, I have often quoted scripture or the words of spiritual sages who have gone on before. The importance for me is that we spend spiritual time in quadrant II (Important, not urgent). As a consequence, in the course of our day we can use our properly spiritual focus to help us spend more time in quadrant II instead of quadrant III (urgent, but not important) . If our focus is off too much, then even little things can slip into quadrant I (urgent and important).
Jesus resisted quadrant III and IV (not urgent and not important). He spent time in ways that others did not always understand; for example, his withdrawing by himself to pray, even at times when other people had other things they wanted from him. We need to do this, too. The habits that Jesus modeled, we need to emulate. This is because younger or smaller eyes are watching us and deciding whether to mimic us, or to critique us with the particularly prophetic voice of a child. Please spend some of your God-given time today thinking about how you handle your time; it’s not merely a logistical issue – it’s a spiritual issue.
Blessings,
Ron
Monday, September 15, 2008
World-forming speech
Today, a scripture and prayer:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
John 1:1-8 – NRSV
Your world-forming speech
Light from light
Creation from chaos
Life from death
Joy from sorrow
Hope from despair
Peace from hate
All your gifts, all your love, all your power.
All from your word, fresh from your word,
all gifts of your speech.
We give thanks for your world-forming speech.
Thanks as well for our speech back to you,
the speech of mothers and fathers
who dared to speak
in faith and unfaith
in trust and distrust
in grateful memory and in high hurt.
We cherish this speech as we cherish yours.
Listen this day for the groans and yearnings of your world,
listen to our own songs of joy and our drudges of death,
and in the midst of our stammering
speak your clear word of life
in the name of your word come flesh.
Amen
- Walter Brueggemann
Grace and peace,
Ron
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
John 1:1-8 – NRSV
Your world-forming speech
Light from light
Creation from chaos
Life from death
Joy from sorrow
Hope from despair
Peace from hate
All your gifts, all your love, all your power.
All from your word, fresh from your word,
all gifts of your speech.
We give thanks for your world-forming speech.
Thanks as well for our speech back to you,
the speech of mothers and fathers
who dared to speak
in faith and unfaith
in trust and distrust
in grateful memory and in high hurt.
We cherish this speech as we cherish yours.
Listen this day for the groans and yearnings of your world,
listen to our own songs of joy and our drudges of death,
and in the midst of our stammering
speak your clear word of life
in the name of your word come flesh.
Amen
- Walter Brueggemann
Grace and peace,
Ron
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