Today, a story with a moral – a story to go with Josh’s story.
Growing up in Duncan, my family and I lived in a house with two large paned windows, stretching from nearly floor to nearly ceiling, in both the front and back of the house. The front window had heavy draperies to help keep out the heat from the westerly sun in the summer. Mom liked to keep the back window open because she liked the view.
Dad, though, had eyes that were sensitive to light and wanted a little relief from the glaring sunlight. Being a thinking man, and not one given to debate, one spring day he drove to Ligon’s Nursery and chose a tree to plant in front of the window. He came home with a seedling (he was too frugal to buy a larger specimen), carefully dug a hole, and planted his little tree. About 25 feet out, in the precise center line of the window, the little tree stood in this vast expanse of grass.
Now, Dad was not given to expend too much effort or expense in landscaping; someone might think of watering the tree occasionally, but no one made a habit of it. Taking care of the yard not Dad’s job; it was the job of my younger brother Bill, and myself. We would take turns mowing. As teenagers, neither one of us was particularly fond of the job as the yard was large, sloped, and terraced. More than once Dad and Bill got into it about the yard, and when they did, Bill would do exactly what he was told: mow the whole yard. In Bill’s mind, this included the tree. Nothing higher than 2 inches was left standing. There are times when one must use precise language, and there are times when one must exercise common sense. Both parties failed.
Yet when Bill entered high school, the tree began to make progress. In those winters, though, that part of the yard looked like a snowman had lost one of his arms while somehow escaping with the other (a fugitive snowman may find this information helpful).
One spring I was laying on my bed reading when I noticed that the light coming in through the window had turned a very particular shade of green. In the same moment, I heard the swelling sound of an approaching freight train. Having grown up in Duncan, Oklahoma, two facts came to mind: (1) there is no 4:00 train that runs through Duncan; and (2) tornados often sound like trains. By the time that I got to the center of the house (moving in the general direction of the bomb shelter – which is another story altogether), I looked out the back window and saw that the entire back fence was missing. So was every leaf on Dad’s tree.
After that, college and married life took me away from Duncan and the tree much of the time. Return visits were designed to catch up with family, not to keep track of Dad’s landscaping efforts. When Ann and I went home to visit one weekend though, I looked out the rear window and was startled. There was green light filtering in through the window. The green was close to, but not exactly the same shade of green that the tornado had brought. This gentle green light was filtering through the branches of a sturdy, mature walnut tree standing outside the window. I had to see. I went outside to get a better look. There, perfectly centered on the rear window of the house was this perfectly symmetrical walnut tree. Its dark green canopy was like a huge, but perfect, umbrella shading the back window of the house. The trunk was scarred but sturdy, something like the mast of a ship. Underneath the tree was a flat roof of limbs about seven feet off the ground, just enough for Dad (6’5”) to walk beneath the tree in comfort. It was one of the most handsome trees I have ever seen.
How many lessons can this tale teach us?
It seems obvious to observe that God is patient, and given enough time, he will bring about his purpose, despite the neglect of the responsible, the sabotage of an adversary, or the interference of nature itself (why do we call those acts of God?). A corollary to this observation is to note that, if we imitate God as we ought, similar patience on our part may bring similar success to our plans. Eventually, success. When we think about how long we must be patient, I think it is important to ask: If we find a tree to be beautiful and complex, just how beautiful and complex are human beings? How long does it take to change us?
A less obvious observation is to note the resilience of life. Despite neglect, sabotage, and storm, this tree sought to become what God intended for it to become. No matter what. This was not some victim tree, puking excuses to the world for its slowness, deficiencies, and failure. This was not a sarcastic tree, spewing bitterness at every good, or different, or taller tree so as to justify its miserable history and failed purpose. This was a victorious tree, scarred by its experience, but all the more beautiful for the story that it had to tell. With trees and people, after all, the beauty of the story is not in the first, second, or third act; the truth and the power is in how the tale ends.
The righteous flourish like the palm tree,
and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
They are planted in the house of the Lord;
they flourish in the courts of our God.
In old age they still produce fruit;
they are always green and full of sap,
showing that the Lord is upright;
he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
Psalm 92:12-15 – NRSV
Grace and peace,
Ron
Showing posts with label time. Show all posts
Showing posts with label time. Show all posts
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Immediately aware ...
We struggle with having enough time:
to see all of the people,
to be all of the places,
to do all of the things
that we need to do, much less
the things that we want to do.
Jesus, being human, felt this, too.
Yet he is in each moment, eye-to-eye
with us, not distracted by things, but
paying deep attention to, and loving,
the people around him.
Listen for this in the gospel:
When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side,
a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by the sea.
Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and,
when he saw him, fell at his feet and begged him repeatedly,
"My little daughter is at the point of death.
Come and lay your hands on her,
so that she may be made well, and live."
So he went with him.
And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him.
Now there was a woman who had been suffering
from hemorrhages for twelve years.
She had endured much under many physicians,
and had spent all that she had;
and she was no better, but rather grew worse.
She had heard about Jesus,
and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak,
for she said, "If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well."
Immediately her hemorrhage stopped;
and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.
Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him,
Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, "Who touched my clothes?"
And his disciples said to him,
"You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say,
'Who touched me?'"
He looked all around to see who had done it.
But the woman, knowing what had happened to her,
came in fear and trembling, fell down before him,
and told him the whole truth.
He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well;
go in peace, and be healed of your disease."
While he was still speaking,
some people came from the leader's house to say,
"Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?"
But overhearing what they said,
Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue,
"Do not fear, only believe."
He allowed no one to follow him
except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.
When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue,
he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly.
When he had entered, he said to them,
"Why do you make a commotion and weep?
The child is not dead but sleeping."
And they laughed at him.
Then he put them all outside,
and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him,
and went in where the child was.
He took her by the hand and said to her,
"Talitha cum," which means, "Little girl, get up!"
And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about
(she was twelve years of age).
At this they were overcome with amazement.
He strictly ordered them that no one should know this,
and told them to give her something to eat.
Blessings,
Ron
Mark 5:21-43 – NRSV
to see all of the people,
to be all of the places,
to do all of the things
that we need to do, much less
the things that we want to do.
Jesus, being human, felt this, too.
Yet he is in each moment, eye-to-eye
with us, not distracted by things, but
paying deep attention to, and loving,
the people around him.
Listen for this in the gospel:
When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side,
a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by the sea.
Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and,
when he saw him, fell at his feet and begged him repeatedly,
"My little daughter is at the point of death.
Come and lay your hands on her,
so that she may be made well, and live."
So he went with him.
And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him.
Now there was a woman who had been suffering
from hemorrhages for twelve years.
She had endured much under many physicians,
and had spent all that she had;
and she was no better, but rather grew worse.
She had heard about Jesus,
and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak,
for she said, "If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well."
Immediately her hemorrhage stopped;
and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.
Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him,
Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, "Who touched my clothes?"
And his disciples said to him,
"You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say,
'Who touched me?'"
He looked all around to see who had done it.
But the woman, knowing what had happened to her,
came in fear and trembling, fell down before him,
and told him the whole truth.
He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well;
go in peace, and be healed of your disease."
While he was still speaking,
some people came from the leader's house to say,
"Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?"
But overhearing what they said,
Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue,
"Do not fear, only believe."
He allowed no one to follow him
except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.
When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue,
he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly.
When he had entered, he said to them,
"Why do you make a commotion and weep?
The child is not dead but sleeping."
And they laughed at him.
Then he put them all outside,
and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him,
and went in where the child was.
He took her by the hand and said to her,
"Talitha cum," which means, "Little girl, get up!"
And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about
(she was twelve years of age).
At this they were overcome with amazement.
He strictly ordered them that no one should know this,
and told them to give her something to eat.
Blessings,
Ron
Mark 5:21-43 – NRSV
Saturday, May 9, 2009
You keep us ...
Prayer of the Iona Community
Leader: Let us pray.
You keep us waiting.
You, the God of all time,
Want us to wait
For the right time in which to discover
Who we are, where we must go,
Who will be with us, and what we must do.
All: So thank you . . . for the waiting time.
Leader: You keep us looking.
You, the God of all space,
Want us to look in the right and wrong places
For signs of hope,
For people who are hopeless,
For visions of a better world which will appear
Among the disappointments of the world we know.
All: So, thank you . . . for the looking time.
Leader: You keep us loving.
You, the God whose name is love,
Want us to be like you –
To love the loveless and the unlovely and the unlovable;
To love without jealousy or design or threat;
And, most difficult of all,
To love ourselves.
All: So, thank you . . . for the loving time.
Leader: And in all this,
You keep us.
Through hard questions with no easy answers;
Through failing where we hoped to succeed
And making an impact when we felt we were useless;
Through the patience and the dreams and the love of others;
And through Jesus Christ and his Spirit,
you keep us.
All: So, thank you . . . for the keeping time,
and for now,
and for ever.
Amen.
Blessings,
Ron
Leader: Let us pray.
You keep us waiting.
You, the God of all time,
Want us to wait
For the right time in which to discover
Who we are, where we must go,
Who will be with us, and what we must do.
All: So thank you . . . for the waiting time.
Leader: You keep us looking.
You, the God of all space,
Want us to look in the right and wrong places
For signs of hope,
For people who are hopeless,
For visions of a better world which will appear
Among the disappointments of the world we know.
All: So, thank you . . . for the looking time.
Leader: You keep us loving.
You, the God whose name is love,
Want us to be like you –
To love the loveless and the unlovely and the unlovable;
To love without jealousy or design or threat;
And, most difficult of all,
To love ourselves.
All: So, thank you . . . for the loving time.
Leader: And in all this,
You keep us.
Through hard questions with no easy answers;
Through failing where we hoped to succeed
And making an impact when we felt we were useless;
Through the patience and the dreams and the love of others;
And through Jesus Christ and his Spirit,
you keep us.
All: So, thank you . . . for the keeping time,
and for now,
and for ever.
Amen.
Blessings,
Ron
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
The hum of fluorescent lights ...
“Solitude molds self-righteous people into gentle, caring, forgiving persons who are so deeply convinced of their own great sinfulness and so fully aware of God’s even greater mercy that their life itself becomes a ministry.” - Henri Nouwen
Waking up every morning and spending time in the Word, time in silence just staring at the steam coming up from my coffee cup, listening to nothing but the refrigerator motor and the hum of the fluorescent lights overhead has been a blessing. You are in that place where you really can feel God there with you. You can feel his presence, and almost hear his voice as you read his Word. You can feel yourself being molded and sharpened for another day.
Then you hear one of the kids wake up. You realize that it is time to go and get the boys up for school. There is a lot to be done before we walk out that door. You just don’t want to get up. You have had such a wonderful time of devotion with your God. You feel like you are changed and are growing, but you have life to live. You know that you are going to face boys who don’t want to wake up, possible fights because of crankiness, chores to make sure get done, animals to feed, noise, busyness, noise, lists, meetings, and more noise. What do you think God is preparing you for?!
“I am the vine and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
John 15:1-5
We have discussed silence, solitude, and meditation. These three will be a part of almost all of the disciplines we look at in the future. You have to be able to sit with God, before you can do the others. You have to be able to put your time with him as the highest priority before you can practice service, study, fasting, and so many others. Remain in Christ and he will remain in you. He longs to pour out of your life. He longs to overflow from your cup and touch every person and situation that you go through in a day.
Yes it’s hard to sit and be still long enough. Yes it is then hard to go out and be in the noise of life, but we are called to take our lives and use them for the glory of our Father. Are we bearing fruit yet? How are people seeing our lives? How is God seeing our lives? Is he getting more and more proud or longing for you to come and be with him? Only you and He know the answer to these questions. Hopefully we are on the right track. Remember, we are together on this journey. Together we overflow into the lives of those around us.
God’s blessings today.
Jason
Waking up every morning and spending time in the Word, time in silence just staring at the steam coming up from my coffee cup, listening to nothing but the refrigerator motor and the hum of the fluorescent lights overhead has been a blessing. You are in that place where you really can feel God there with you. You can feel his presence, and almost hear his voice as you read his Word. You can feel yourself being molded and sharpened for another day.
Then you hear one of the kids wake up. You realize that it is time to go and get the boys up for school. There is a lot to be done before we walk out that door. You just don’t want to get up. You have had such a wonderful time of devotion with your God. You feel like you are changed and are growing, but you have life to live. You know that you are going to face boys who don’t want to wake up, possible fights because of crankiness, chores to make sure get done, animals to feed, noise, busyness, noise, lists, meetings, and more noise. What do you think God is preparing you for?!
“I am the vine and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
John 15:1-5
We have discussed silence, solitude, and meditation. These three will be a part of almost all of the disciplines we look at in the future. You have to be able to sit with God, before you can do the others. You have to be able to put your time with him as the highest priority before you can practice service, study, fasting, and so many others. Remain in Christ and he will remain in you. He longs to pour out of your life. He longs to overflow from your cup and touch every person and situation that you go through in a day.
Yes it’s hard to sit and be still long enough. Yes it is then hard to go out and be in the noise of life, but we are called to take our lives and use them for the glory of our Father. Are we bearing fruit yet? How are people seeing our lives? How is God seeing our lives? Is he getting more and more proud or longing for you to come and be with him? Only you and He know the answer to these questions. Hopefully we are on the right track. Remember, we are together on this journey. Together we overflow into the lives of those around us.
God’s blessings today.
Jason
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Time in the pig pen ...
Today’s devotional comes from Jason's pen:
“Why do I need to spend so much time with my pig?”
“You want to walk your pig don’t you? You want to do well in competition don’t you? The better your relationship with your pig, the better you are going to do.”
Very frustrated and very impatient, he walked into his pig pen. I sat there and watched him pet his pig, hug his pig, and even ride his pig. He kept watching me to see if I saw what he was doing and ever so slowly a smile crept onto his face. He cleaned up his pen, and the pig kept messing it up immediately after he cleaned it. After he cleaned up his pen and played a little while longer he came back to the truck and got in.
“How did it go?” I asked.
“It was okay, I guess.”
We sat there and talked about spending time with the pig, and talked about how much easier walking the pig and guiding the pig will be once that relationship is even stronger.
This reminded me of God’s love. We talked about loving the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength yesterday. I wanted to mention a little more about his love today. We are like the pig. Yes, I am comparing us to pigs. We live in this world and every day we become dirtier and dirtier. We wallow and make a mess of our lives. We mess up things so easily because we want things our way. The pigs make such messes of their pens. You can fill up their food and water and they dump it within minutes. Isn’t that how we are sometimes? Unlike the boy mentioned earlier though, God wants to spend so much time with us. He wants all of us, all the time, not just what we supposedly give him on Sundays. Maybe if we allowed ourselves to spend more time with him, our lives wouldn’t be more like the pig pens.
There was a man in the Bible who was known as a sinner because of his occupation. The story goes like this:
“After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. ‘Follow me,’ Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’ Jesus answered them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.’” Luke 5:27-32
Levi was a pig. He lived in sin. He would take more money than he was supposed to and like other tax collectors was very hated by the community. Jesus went and spent time with him. Jesus continued to spend time with Levi and the other disciples. The more time they spent together, the closer they became. The more the disciples learned, the easier it became for them to live changed lives and to share that life with those around them. They used to be pigs, living like the world, living in the world. Levi never would have become the man he was, had he not spent time with the Savior. He would have died a tax collector, a thief, and a hated man. He would have died, nothing but a pig. He learned how to walk, by walking with the Savior.
Blessings,
Jason
“Why do I need to spend so much time with my pig?”
“You want to walk your pig don’t you? You want to do well in competition don’t you? The better your relationship with your pig, the better you are going to do.”
Very frustrated and very impatient, he walked into his pig pen. I sat there and watched him pet his pig, hug his pig, and even ride his pig. He kept watching me to see if I saw what he was doing and ever so slowly a smile crept onto his face. He cleaned up his pen, and the pig kept messing it up immediately after he cleaned it. After he cleaned up his pen and played a little while longer he came back to the truck and got in.
“How did it go?” I asked.
“It was okay, I guess.”
We sat there and talked about spending time with the pig, and talked about how much easier walking the pig and guiding the pig will be once that relationship is even stronger.
This reminded me of God’s love. We talked about loving the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength yesterday. I wanted to mention a little more about his love today. We are like the pig. Yes, I am comparing us to pigs. We live in this world and every day we become dirtier and dirtier. We wallow and make a mess of our lives. We mess up things so easily because we want things our way. The pigs make such messes of their pens. You can fill up their food and water and they dump it within minutes. Isn’t that how we are sometimes? Unlike the boy mentioned earlier though, God wants to spend so much time with us. He wants all of us, all the time, not just what we supposedly give him on Sundays. Maybe if we allowed ourselves to spend more time with him, our lives wouldn’t be more like the pig pens.
There was a man in the Bible who was known as a sinner because of his occupation. The story goes like this:
“After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. ‘Follow me,’ Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’ Jesus answered them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.’” Luke 5:27-32
Levi was a pig. He lived in sin. He would take more money than he was supposed to and like other tax collectors was very hated by the community. Jesus went and spent time with him. Jesus continued to spend time with Levi and the other disciples. The more time they spent together, the closer they became. The more the disciples learned, the easier it became for them to live changed lives and to share that life with those around them. They used to be pigs, living like the world, living in the world. Levi never would have become the man he was, had he not spent time with the Savior. He would have died a tax collector, a thief, and a hated man. He would have died, nothing but a pig. He learned how to walk, by walking with the Savior.
Blessings,
Jason
Saturday, September 20, 2008
God and time
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
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
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
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