How many of you remember the movie speed? Keanu Reeves, Sanda Bullock, Dennis Hopper? Dennis Hopper plays this bad guy that has rigged a bus with a bomb. If the bus falls below 50 miles an hour, it explodes. if they try to get anyone of the bus, it will explode... Keanu plays the cop who is trying to figure out how to save the day - it’s a fast paced action movie on adrenaline - you have to keep moving, keep going, or you die... Funny thing is that many of identify with that movie - our lives though are at 90 miles an hour instead of 50!
The truth is though, that I am sort of an adrenaline junky. There are a bunch of days where it feels like if I slow down, I’ll explode, I know that living frantic isn’t good for me, but truthfully, life in the slow lane is really boring... One thing I’ve noticed though, it’s real hard to make sure the important things get done if I’m busy - If I hurry I often miss the important stuff.
We’ve been talking in this series about losing the fake stuff, losing the t-shirt, and getting to something real. Well tonight we look at allowing God to focus us on what really matters. Allowing God to interrupt us...so that we really learn to live.
In Luke 10, this guy comes up to Jesus and asks , What do I need to do to have eternal life... Jesus turns the conversation back on him and says, well, what do you think? He says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself - ...and Jesus says, “Do this and you will live.”
You think about it for a second. How many of us really live? Love God? Love others? When do I have time for that?? When you live life at 90 - or 150 - it’s almost impossible to love God and love people...
But you know, if you look at the life of Jesus - you see this modeled. You think about it. Jesus was probably the most alive guy there ever was - but one thing you never see is Jesus in a hurry! As a matter of fact, you never even see Jesus rushed. He had a very pressing schedule, but he always had time for someone, and often the very people everyone else missed, Jesus saw...
Theologian Kosuke Koyama, (read quote from page 115)
3 miles per hour... Maybe that’s why we have such a problem getting to know God, we are moving at 90, and he is moving at 3 miles an hour...
A few weeks ago we did a lesson on slowing down, and as part of that study, we almost made a video of “a day in the life of Charles” I thought it would be funny to video me racing to work, racing to accomplish my meetings and get stuff done, racing to eat for lunch (by the way, our staff went to lunch last week in 33 minutes from driveway to the restaurant back to the office) racing home, racing to soccer practice, racing through practice, racing through dinner, racing through TV - I fast-forward if it gets too slow...
A few years ago though, I was with some friends of mine as they got some news that changed their lives. Pam and brent called me from the hospital when they found out she had a very advanced form of pancreatic cancer. Walking into that hospital room, was like time stopping... I watched over the next months as Pam went through surgery and treatment and eventually died. It seemed to pass so quickly. The final week of Pam’s life Brent stayed by the bedside of Pam. i would go over there every day and spend a few minutes... One of the days Brent walked outside with me and I asked how he was doing - he just said I want to spend every moment with her. This has brought us closer than we have ever been... Sometimes life has to slow down before you really live...
Some of you guys know I am a cyclist. A few years ago, some friends and I went to Iowa and did a 7 day ride across the state. It may have been the best vacation I’ve ever had... Every morning we would wake up, put away our tent, throw our bags on the truck, and ride 70 miles to the next stop. Then we would hang out and do it all over the next day... the friends that I went on that trip with were casual friends, but now we are old friends - we lived together and ate together and went searching for coffee together... You can really grow close if you spend time with someone!
So how do we learn to live at God’s speed... How do we learn to live at 3 miles an hour when everything else around us is pushing us to go faster? I have a couple suggestions.
First, I’d suggest that you learn the meaning of Sabbath. A Sabbath is a day devoted to God. You can find it all over the Bible. It’s one of the ten commandments. You see, I think God knew our tendency to speed through life I think he knew what we’d end up doing so he said, “Take one day, slow down, focus on me, and keep it holy.” It’s designed to be a day where we rev the engine way down....
Over time my understanding of sabbath has changed - I remember thinking it was a day to go to church - so if I checked that off my list, I was golden... but no. Then I started thing of Sabbath as a day off. Since I work Sundays I started taking Monday as my sabbath...but just taking the day off really doesn’t help me to focus on God. It ends up being a day focusing on me...
Vince, in the book, talks about beginning to think of Sabbath as a person. he talks about his sabbath understanding changing when he began to realize that Jesus was the sabbath lived out - he calls it sabbath in Sandals - Jesus never rushed. He stayed on target, so what if I spend my sabbath trying to walk at his pace...
Jesus had a bunch more demands on his day than I do on mine. He had people constantly in his business. He had people trying to get healed. He had teaching to do. He had serious time issues...but he always stayed focused. he always seemed to stay right in the center of God’s sweet spot.
In fact Jesus tells us how to do this... Look with me at one more passage of scripture Matthew 11:28-30 “Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
Most of us read this passage and say, huh? Well, it makes more sense when you understand what a yoke is... A yoke was this big wooden contraption that would tie two huge oxen together. The farmer would want to plow a straight line in the field, but with two oxen, how do you keep them going in the right direction? You yoke them together.
Jesus gets it, he says, hey you want to learn to walk at God’s pace? You want to learn to dance at my speed? yoke yourself to me? You’ll slow down and find what it means to live in the sweet spot...
The truth is that we are rhythmically challenged. We want to move fast... I have an image I want you to think of as we close up... It’s an image of a jr. high dance. Do you remember your first few jr. high dances? I am and have always been an awkward dancer. I liked the fast dances, because they were easy to fake. I could shimmy and shake and sort of look like I wasn’t a complete goof ball - but when it really got interesting was when I would slow dance... Do you remember that? A new song would come on? You’d go from throwing yourself around, to looking at your dance partner. If she nodded, you’d move in. She’d put her hands on your shoulders. You’d slide yours along her mid section. And everything slowed down... All the sudden you could smell her perfume (and her breath) - all the sudden your heart was beating so loud everyone could hear it... It was as if time stood still. ...and that’s what made the dance perfect. That moment.
Some of you are trying so hard to live, but you’re flying through life. Jesus says if you really want to live, you have to learn to allow God to interrupt you. You have to learn to slow dance with him at 3 miles an hour... I’ll be honest, it’s rough at first, but its where real living occurs. Those moments are what makes me really alive.
