INTRODUCTION
Many of us are finding it difficult to cope with the 24 hours we have, to carry out all that we have planned for the day. This is true of activities at home as well as at our work places. No wonder loads of work have been done on time management in order for us to be effective or efficient.
The Bible gives us a guide on a number of subjects and I am bold to say on every subject including time management and Jesus- the Way, the Truth and the Light has shown us how to manage our time in this our busy world. This will form the basis of today’s talk, which I have titled: ‘HOW TO MANAGE OUR BUSYNESS’. I mean BUSYNESS and not BUSINESS. A caption I borrowed from an article I read the other day. How can we manage our busyness in this our busy world? - is what I want us to look at.
It is my wish and prayer that at the end of the day, all of us (including myself) will be able to emulate Jesus’ pattern in managing a busy schedule.
UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT FROM A MODERN PERSPECTIVE
I want us to examine the text Mark chapter 1 verses 29 to 39 and I will major on the last 5 verses. My operational verse will be verse 35. The Contemporary English Version (CEV) of the Bible puts it very nicely- ‘Very early the next morning, Jesus got up and went to a place where he could be alone and pray’. Take not of the adverb there- VERY. We shall look at that later.
Let us see if we could capture the various scenes in the text in a vivid way; from the perspective of today’s modern world.
Jesus had just finished conducting for his newly recruited staff of Peter, Andrew, James and John an induction programme, through a practical demonstration, at a synagogue. It was now time for them to have some lunch or dinner. Since there were no ‘take-aways’ or fast food shops, they had to trek down Peter and Andrew’s place.
On arrival, they were welcomed with the sad news that Pet’s mother-in-law was down with fever. No ambulance to take the poor woman the A&E. But thank God there was a doctor on call (the great physician- Jesus). He immediately administered an anti-pyretic by holding her up- her body temperature instantly normalized and she began attending to them.
On their to-do list, Jesus had a healing and deliverance crusade and they got prepared for it; the venue was outside Pet and Andy’s house. It was a jam-packed and break-through crusade and when everything ended, news about the outcome of the crusade spread all over. In the evening newscast that day, the breaking news was the crusade, with the head line- ‘A Carpenter and 4 Fishermen Turned the Town Upside Down with their Signs and Wonder Crusade’.
Jesus believing in the principle and practice of ‘early to bed, early to rise’ left these guys on the sofa where they were reclining and chatting, for his guest room to rest. Pet and others had their one time business colleagues in the fishing industry chatting heartily in the sitting room. One of them saying to Andy that it was good they folded up their company i.e. The Capernaum Fishing Company Ltd, to join Jesus; as many other fishing companies had gone into administration because of the credit crunch.
Jesus’ body clock had got adjusted to getting up early in the morning. So as the cock crowed, he was up from bed, refreshed himself and off to a quiet and isolated place to pray.
Once there he poured his heart to God. He may have been saying:
‘Father, I place into Your hands
The things I cannot do.
Father, I place into Your hands
The things that I’ve been through.
Father, I place into Your hands
The way that I should go,
For I know I always can trust You.’
Words and Music: Jenny Hewer
Whatever were his prayer points, he spent what I believe was a quality time with The Father.
I better stop here so far, as I have added too much to the story. Now let’s see what we can learn from the passage.
APPLYING THE TEXT TO OUR SITUATION
Let us look at Jesus’ typical working day. On his to do list was his usual busy schedule of commuting from place to place. He did not bother to get one of the posh means of travelling; as he was a real community worker (a grass root man), coming down to the level of the ordinary people- where his charity did some social actions. In fact his charity (that was 100% donor driven) could not afford to give him a vehicle all the time for his social action work. But he could only afford a FORD vehicle, i.e. Feet On the Road Direction. He legged it and sometimes using a canoe to cross rivers- going to places on foot to preach, teach (i.e. to do community sensitization work/awareness raising sessions) and other social action jobs among the sick, demon possessed and a host of other people. Despite his usual busy and hard schedule, he chose to get up very early in the morning to talk to The Father. We all know that he was God- ‘God from God, begotten not made and One being with the Father, through Him all things were made…’ as we say in the Creed. His divine nature did not stop him from communing with The Father. He deliberately chose to get up very early in the morning- looked for an isolated place to pray.
Why? I am sure he wants us to learn something from this habit.
So what is the significance of the timing (very early in the morning) and the location (an isolated place)?
1. Because Jesus had a busy schedule, it was wise to start the day earlier. The Bible tells us that he got up ‘very early the next morning…’- emphasizing the degree of the time he got up early that morning. He did not wait for the other activities to cram each other.
Thus in the Gospel we see Jesus having time to carry out each of his planned activities. Jesus was well organised. He plans his activities for each day. In the text we see that he had already planned his set of itinerary for other villages where he could preach. Therefore he did not allow Pet and the others’ plans to spoil the important schedule he had.
2. It was quieter at that time of day- thus ideal to concentrate and converse with The Father.
3. Jesus believed what he preached. He knows that seeking first the Kingdom of God (that is kingdom values); all other things will be added onto you. So he sought the Father first, before all other activities and believed all other things or activities will be taken care of- whether it had to do with the raising of Lazarus from the dead, feeding of multitudes, or preaching, teaching, healing, exorcising demons, wisdom to answer difficult questions; he was convinced that spending quality time with The Father, will enable him to successfully carry out his activities.
4. His physiology and psychology were alert at that time. He had what I believe was a sound and refreshing sleep. Therefore he was physically and mentally in a good frame of mind and body- to plan his day with His Father.
5. The location and timing created a serene atmosphere- free from distraction. I want to believe where he went to pray and the time he got up, the birds were also rising from their nests; whistling praises to their creator with their melodious songs. This gave Jesus an atmosphere that motivated him to indulge in a deep meditation with his Father.
USING JESUS’ PATTERN WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF OUR BUSY SCHEDULE
Now let’s see how we can apply this to our day to day activities in this our busy world- filled with numerous activities; often making us not to manage our time well.
Jesus is saying to us:
1. Start the day early, when you know you have a busy day. This means going to bed early rather than whiling away time endlessly surfing the net, watching the tele or spending hours on the phone.
2. Start the day with morning devotion.
3. Choose a quiet place- isolated from the distractions you are able to control or avoid.
4. Spend quality time with the Lord at that place. How?
(a) A time to praise God with songs (obviously being sensitive to your neighbours).
(b) A time to plan your day with God- listing down the things you want to do.
(c) A time to pray for each planned and unexpected activity.
(d) A time to intercede for others- friends, family, your community, nation and the world.
(e) A time to study God’s Word with a devotional guide of your choice- be it Living Light, Daily Bread or what have you?
I am convinced if we do these we would be able to manage our busyness better this time round.
We often tell ourselves that we don’t have time to pray and study the Bible early in the morning; so we carry on with our make-shift arrangement of using the vehicle we are commuting in to spend time with the Lord in prayer and Bible reading. Something that was just temporary (an exception to the rule) has now become a regular habit in us of being in the bus, train, your car, to say just two, three words for Christ sake (and we say that is a prayer) and glide through your Living Light (or whatever devotional guide you have) to read a verse or two from the Bible (and we call that Bible study). Let us be honest with ourselves- why are we are doing this? A simple analysis of cause and effect, will tell us the cause is we go to bed late and the effect will be getting up late.
We need to discipline our body to respond to spiritual matters- we should forget those prayers of convenience and Bible readings. Rather as mature Christians we should engage ourselves more with prayers of commitment and effective personal Bible studies.
We are all busy people in this day and age. But Jesus was quite busy than any one of us. His day was jam-packed with activities, devoid of modern technologies to make things easier for him. He trekked on foot, no PA system- so he had to raise his voice to be more audible to his mammoth audience. Obviously he would end his day feeling very tired. Yet he found time to get up very early in the morning to pray. You may say because he was God-incarnate. But we must not forget that he was fully human. He humbled himself to take a fully human nature, with all its limitations. He was not more human than you and I. He did what was humanly possible. Therefore we too can do it.
CONCLUSION
People have tried it and have seen great gains in personal devotions. Others who haven’t done it, or done it less qualitatively have regretted it.
David tells us in Psalm 50 verse 4 that: ‘…each morning he awakens me eager to learn his teaching’. He saw great joy in communing with God. Jesus himself made it his usual habit as we see in Luke 22 verse 39 to 41. Luke tells us ‘Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives…’ a reference to his habit of finding a place and time to pray.
I will give two more examples of people who have seen the value of morning devotion; which I sourced from SermonCentral.com
Early African converts to Christianity, saw great value in observing private morning devotions. In the periodic publication of Today in the Word of June 29, 1992; we read that early Christians in Africa will find time to look for an isolated place for morning devotion. Each Christian convert will go regularly to a spot in the bush to pray. With time the spot became down trodden and clear of vegetation. Those neglecting their time of devotion will be easily identified as their spot of prayer will begin to grow grass. Thus African Christians who neglected their time of private devotion would be reminded by their brethren- ‘brother the grass grows on your path.’
The great British statesman (William Wilberforce), who pioneered the abolishment of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, once said "I must secure more time for private devotions. I have been living far too public for me. The shortening of private devotion starves the soul. It grows lean and faint." He also remarked following a failure in Parliament that his problems may have been due to the fact that he spent less and less time in his private devotions in which he could earnestly seek the will of God. He concluded, "God allowed me to stumble.’’
In order to manage our time wisely, we need to find time in the morning to commune with our ‘Father, who art in Heaven’. We need to hallow his Name first thing in the morning. Seeking Him first in the morning, all other things will be added onto you.
May the Holy Spirit enable us that early in the morning our songs shall rise to Him in worship, intercession, supplication and Bible study. AMEN!
