Restoring Balance to our Hurried Lives. Part #1
SLOWING DOWN
Daniel 1:8-17.
A. We don’t Take time to smell the flowers.
I had no time to care for myself…” Song of Solomon 1:6.
B. We don’t see the fun in life anymore.
My days go by faster than a runner; they fly away without my seeing any joy. Job 9:25.
C. Our hurried lifestyle can cause us to become less productive.
Careful planning puts you ahead in the long run; hurry and scurry puts you further behind. Prov. 21:5.
A person in a hurry makes mistakes.” Prov. 19:2b.
D. A hurried lifestyle stops us from hearing God.
Be sill, and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10.
1. If we are serious about restoring balance to our over loaded lives then we need to begin by examining our motivations.
It is better to have only a little, with peace of mind, than be busy all the time. Eccl. 4:6.
A relaxed attitude lengthens a man’s life; jealousy rots it away.” Prov. 14:30.
2. I need to Learn to say No.
An impulsive vow is a trap; later you’ll wish you could get out of it. Prov. 20:25.
3. I must practice obeying the fourth commandment. You have six days in which to do your work, but the seventh day is a day of rest dedicated to Me.” Ex. 20:9-10.
It’s useless to rise early and go to bed late, and work your worried fingers to the bone. Don’t you know God enjoys giving rest to those He loves?” Psalm 127:2.
4. I must learn to Wait for God’s timing. God does everything just right and on time. But people can never completely understand what He is doing. Eccl. 3:11.
These things I plan won’t happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed. Hab. 2:3.
God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my mind. Psalm 51:10
Restoring Balance to our Hurried Lives.
SLOWING DOWN
Daniel 1: 8-17.
Since Christmas in coming up real quick I would like to look at a few messages on the theme of Restoring balance to our Hurried Lives. I love the Christmas season but for some reason this time of the year is filled with twice as much stress as any other time of the year. There was a mailer that was sent out advertizing home delivery of groceries. The mailer was addressed to the Time Pressed Family. I believe we all know that it is obvious that the pace of life is getting faster and faster. Some of the fast food restaurants are coming up with what they are calling Fast Track concept which allows you to get your burgers faster. Though this new concept will get you your food faster there is no mention of the quality of the meal you may be getting. Here is how this is supposed to work. You will sign up for a credit account with the particular restaurant and they’ll give you a little transponder so that when you go through the checkout it automatically bills your account and it shaves eight to ten seconds off getting your burger. Now you and I may not see that as a big saving but on Monday I was setting in the bank of N.S. parking lot and I watched as business people parked in the handicap area so they could get into the bank faster. People are willing to risk life and limb just to save a few precious seconds. Everybody’s seems to be in running somewhere for one reason or another and in the process of trying to get where ever they are going they are trying to do five tasks at one time. The producers of frozen juices did a survey to figure out why sales were down and they found out that in most major cities in the U.S. sales were declining because people don’t have the time to wait for it to thaw out so they could make their juice. If you happen to look in the frozen food section at Wal-Mart in the states you will find a large section has been given to foods that you can microwave in a couple of minutes. Now I think that is great because when I am at work we have our meal while we are working. That is the nature of the position and I am ok with it. We live in a world where everyone wants what they want yesterday. Listen to this article that was in USA Today. Today people are souped-up, stressed-out, and overscheduled. In this brave new world boundaries between work and family are disappearing. Everyone is mobile and every moment of the day is scheduled with daycare, school, after school activities and ten to twelve hour work days. This new pressure cooker lifestyle is now the source of many studies to see if they can predict how it is going to affect our physical, emotional, and spiritual health. We have experience at one time or another what can happen to our lives because of life goes faster and faster. The thing is that most people don’t take time to think about it because they are so caught up in a fast pace lifestyle. One of the main side effects is that we are stressed. Companies are struggling to deal with employees who are off work because of stress yet because we live in a modern world with all the latest electronic devices it is felt that we shouldn’t have any stress.
When a company has 100 employees and they down size to 75 employees they still need the same amount of work down with the 75 employees as they were having down with 100 employees. The effect on the 75 employees is stress from being over worked and having unrealistic expectation put upon their lives.
Part of the blame for our situation must fall on the business community because they are not willing to accept what is happening. Part of the blame must also fall upon us for allowing ourselves to be caught up in this rat race. I don’t see the business community changing so I want to offer some suggestion that will enable us to deal with new pace of life.
THE EFFECTS OF A HURRIED LIFESTYLE ARE:
A. We don’t Take time to smell the flowers. The Song of Solomon tells us one of the reasons we feel more and more stress because of our lifestyle. Song of Solomon 1:6 “I had no time to care for myself. When you don’t have any time to take care of yourself and what going on in your life and your home the result will be stress. When we allow ever minute to be filled it is then that up the dishes pile up and the only time your car gets washed is when it’s raining. Have you noticed that we always seem to be going somewhere and we can come up with a good number of reasons for going and doing where ever we think we need to be involved with?
B. We don’t see the fun in life anymore.
Because we are living in a fast pace life style we seem to do more complaining about life than we do of enjoying life. One of the TV commercial that I enjoy is the R.V one about a family that is running around like they are lost and then they remember how simple life was when they went camping. My thing is why can’t we enjoy every day now instead of waiting until we go camping.
The faster you move in life the less time you have to enjoy the life that God has given to you. Job 9:25. My days go by faster than a runner. They fly away without my seeing any joy. When was the last time you really enjoyed a day and you weren’t camping? Sometimes we’re so serious about life we don’t take time to enjoy life. I know some people say things like we shouldn’t rest because the devil never takes time to rest. Here is the thing we are suppose to model our life after Jesus not Satan. God took time to rest. God took time to enjoy what He made and the Lord teaches us to enjoy the things that He’s made. C. Our hurried lifestyle can cause us to become less productive.
Did you know that people think the faster they go the more they will get done but the truth is the faster you go the less productive we actually are. Here is the problem. While we are doing a particulate task we are actually focusing on two or three different thing at the same time. The result is we are unable to produce top quality product. If you run too fast it’s the law of diminishing returns. You can’t think anymore. You can’t create anymore. Proverbs 21:5 says “Careful planning puts you ahead in the long run. Hurry and scurry puts you further behind. Do you ever feel like the faster you go the further behind you get? Many people feel that way because that is what their lifestyle has become. God didn’t make you to be the energizer bunny where you keep on going and going and going. He made you to be the kind of person who needs that recharging time in life. You cannot keep charging without recharging. Psalms 19:2 “A person in a hurry makes mistakes. One of the sign that you are rushing is that you will find yourself making more and more mistakes? Another sign is that you will be less and less productive all because you’re in a hurry.
D. A hurried lifestyle stops us from hearing God. Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God. It isn’t that you have suddenly lost you ability to hear the Lord it is just that there is so much stuff in our lives that we just don’t have the time to stop and listen. Maybe I should restate that. We have the time but we think if we stop that we won’t get everything done. Think of what the Psalmist is saying. We are to be still. Sometimes God’s trying to get a message through to us but all the circuits are busy and we can’t hear it. We can be so busy that we can’t hear the most important person that we need to hear. A couple asked their friend if they would like to go to church with them. The friends replied that they are never in one place long enough to go anywhere. Now that is a life that is just too busy. The question isn’t how do we make sure that we don’t get caught up in the race; the question is how do we start slowing our pace down so we can enjoy what the Lord has given to us? 1. If we are serious about restoring balance to our over loaded lives then we need to begin by examining our motivations.
We start the process by dealing honestly with our motivations and our values. In order to do that we need to look take an internal look at is driving us. Everything else is superficial until we deal with our motives and our values. What is it that drives people to constantly keep pushing for more? Why do we think that we always have more achievement to reach in our career to give us more money in our bank with more activities in our schedule to get us more experiences and thrills and pleasures? What is it that drives our generation to have more and more? That is the question we need to ask. Now we may not want to ask it but to deal with our lifestyle we need to ask it because what we’re talking about here is ambition. There’s nothing wrong with ambition. It’s how everything gets done in the world. Everything, whether good or bad, had somebody with some ambition behind it, and God has gives you ambition. God wires you up to be ambitious in certain areas.
But not all ambition is good. Ambition is out of control when there are no boundaries and when it is being done for the wrong motivations or values. Ambition like this is probably the most destructive thing in the universe. It destroys lives, it destroys families, and it destroys marriage. Not everybody who is a high achiever should be admired. They may be achieving for all kinds of unhealthy or wrong motives. Ambition can be driven by guilt, by resentment, by fear, by revenge, by ego and by pride. It has been discovered that the primary motivation behind high achievers is insecurity. High achievers are often the most insecure people because they feel like they have to prove themselves so that people will accept them. Their thought process goes like this; if I just do a little more work I’ll achieve more and I’ll get more in the bank account, then everybody will like me and love me. We try to prove our worth by what we do. Here is the problem people are confusing their worth with their work and the result is that there are going to be stressed out. When we confuse worth and work people will always be trying to do more, always trying to prove more, always be in a hurry, always be frantic and you’ll never be satisfied. The starting point in slowing down the pace of our life isn’t to clear our schedule. That’s a superficial band aide approach because you can always find replacement activities very quickly. We can go home today and clear the next three months of all the activities but our schedule would just fill up again. It’ll come right back because people haven’t dealt with the root issue of why they are so driven. When we take on more than we really need to take on in life it’s harming us emotionally and physically and spiritually?
Ecclesiastes 4:6. It is better to have only a little with peace of mind than be busy all the time.
Here is a question one can ask? Will having more and doing more make me happier? If we are not happy with what we have today we’re not going to be happy with what we’ll get tomorrow because what we are striving for today we didn’t reach. I find that most people are striving for stuff today that they were trying to get yesterday.
Another key is to stop comparing ourselves with everyone else. Every time you compare yourself to somebody else you become discontent. Comparing and contentment are mortal enemies of each other. You look around and think, “Look what they’ve got. Look what they’re doing. Look what that guy has.” You look at people in your own profession and say, “Look at what they’ve achieved,” and on and on. Comparing ruins contentment.
On the other hand, when you’re content you don’t compare. Proverbs 14:30. A relaxed attitude lengthens a man’s life; jealousy rots it away. You cannot be relaxed and jealous at the same time. You cannot be relaxed and envious. You cannot be relaxed and be in a comparing mode and a competitive mode at the same time.
2. I need to Learn to say No.
I love that country song that came out a few years ago that goes like this.
What part of no don't you understand
To put it plain and simple
I'll be glad to explain it
If it's too hard to comprehend
So tell me what part of no
Don't you understand.
In today’s world that is a ten thousand-dollar time management seminar. A lot of people are addicted to speed. I don’t mean the drug, I mean a lifestyle. We’re addicted to the lifestyle of going faster and faster. I have had people who actually brag to me about how busy they are because it makes them feel important. It’s difficult for many people to say no to others when they bring their requests. The number one reason our lives get overloaded is we are saying yes too many times to too many request from people to do too many things that are important to them and it isn’t long until our schedules are overburdened.
Proverbs 20:25 “An impulsive vow is a trap. Later you wish you could get out of it. Maybe you have said yes to someone and after you have said yes you asked yourself why did I say yes to that or why am I doing this? Do you remember that last week I mention that we need to reflect before we speak well we shouldn’t promise without pondering? Don’t decide without deliberating. One of the ways that people get us to say yes is for then to be worked up emotional when they come to ask us to do something for them. It’s always easier to get in than it is to get out. It’s always easier to get into debt than it is to get out of debt. It is always easier to get into a relationship than to get out of a relationship. It’s always easier to get into trouble than to get out of trouble. It’s always easier to gain weigh well let’s not talk about that! It’s always easier to fill up your schedule than it is to empty your schedule. Here is something for you to think about; just because I could do it doesn’t mean I should do it.
I think that one of the reasons we have a difficult time saying no is that we don’t want to admit to ourselves that we have limits and we don’t want people to think that we can’t do the task. If you’re going to add anything else to your life, something’s going to have to go. You’re going to have to say no to something somewhere. Have you ever walked in the grocery store and you walk by the shopping baskets with this though I don’t need one of those and you begin to shop. Do you know what I have learned? Well it isn’t long until my arms are full with things and I am trying to stack the stuff I have so I can pick up more items. It’s the parable of our lives. We’re trying to make it through life by stacking stuff because we don’t have another basket. There’s only so much we can carry; so if you’re going to pick something else up you’re going to have to set something else down. Our lives are filled with good things band I'm not talking about setting down bad things. Good things are going to have to be said “no” to in order to slow down in life.
Here are some helpful hints. We all know about diets well how about considering an activity diet. In an activity diet you intentionally limit your intake of activities.
Try taking off your watch for a full 24-hours or not answering our email/texts say for an hour to start and increase the amount of time every week until you reach a goal of going one whole work day. When you go to the grocery store try parking the furthest distance away in the parking lot and take your time walking to the store. Then after you get all your groceries choose the longest line.
3. I must practice obeying the fourth commandment.
The Bible is filled with principles and insights that will help us live according to the Lord purpose. When the Lord gives a command, God expects you and I to obey that command. We should look at the Bible as our owner’s manual for life. If we obey it, our life gets blessed. If we ignore it we’re only hurting ourselves. When God puts a command in the Bible He doesn’t do it because He wants to make our lives miserable. God puts a principle in the Bible because He knows it’ll save us a lot of heartaches and it’ll save us from having to deal with a lot of problems. When you follow the owner’s manual we will find that life is a whole lot easier and a whole lot less stressful. When you go against the flow of the way we’re wired, the way we’re made then we’re headed for trouble and the only person we can blame is ourselves. Of all the commands in the Bible, the most famous are the Ten Commandments. One of God’s Ten Commandments you’re supposed to obey is about rest. Exodus 20:9-10 “You have six days in which to do your work but the seventh day is a day of rest dedicated to Me. To have rest in your life is so important that God even set an example for us to follow. He says every seven days you take a day off. That’s how important He considers rest.
Every week you take one day off a week to recharge. This is called a Sabbath. Sabbath simply means a day of rest. You’ve heard about professors taking a sabbatical. That means an extended period of rest. When should you take your Sabbath? Jesus said it didn’t matter. Colossians says one day is as good as the other. What matters is you take one off every week. Sunday is no Sabbath for me. I have to take my Sabbath some other day of the week. You may too. What are you supposed to do on your Sabbath? What should you do on your weekly day off? What we usually do is play catch up on all the work we didn’t get done. We’ve got our “Honey Do” list and we have all our errands to catch up on. What we end up doing on our day off is trying to cram all work in that we didn’t get done. That is not taking a day off. That is violating the spirit of one of the Ten Commandments. You should use your day off, your weekly Sabbath, for three things:
1) God wants you on your Sabbath to rest your body. Physical rest. We’re not wired to go 24-7, with no relaxation and no break. Our brain and our body are not built for that. We’re wired to take a weekly day off to rest our body. You may discovered that if you don’t take time off, your body will make you take time off? It will shut down. During the French Revolution they actually outlawed Sunday as a day of rest. They wanted people to work. A few years later they had to reinstate it because the health of the nation had totally collapsed. They had to re-institute Sunday as the day of rest. You need to rest your body on your Sabbath, on your weekly day off.
2) Use the day to recharge your emotions. You can’t keep giving and giving without recharging because when we drain the battery dead there is nothing left for you. Quietness recharges emotions. Solitude recharges emotions. When was the last time you were just sitting still? Being with people you love is recharging emotionally. Relationships that are encouraging and strengthening is something we ought to do that on our Sabbath. Get with people who recharge you. A recreation that is rejuvenating is a good thing to do on your Sabbath, on your day off. We live in a very competitive society and we need to do something when we’re relaxing that is non-competitive. You’re not really relaxing if you’re still in the same mode you are in all week.
3) Use the Sabbath to refocus our spirit on the Lord. We do a spiritual tune-up by refocus our spirit. There’s a word for that in the Bible. It’s called worship. Worship is another word for refocusing my spirit on God. It’s reconnecting to God. One of the benefits of worship is it helps get you a better perspective on your problems. You can have a problem and it can starts to overwhelm you. When that happen our life becomes smaller and smaller and it starts caving it. When you go to worship and think about how big God is then all of a sudden the problem isn’t so big anymore when compared to God.
Nothing else in life can give you that kind of perspective like worship does. You can’t go to a ballgame and get perspective on life. You can’t watch TV and get perspective on your problems. It’s only at worship, only as you get in touch with God. We need private time alone with God. If you are too busy for God, you’re too busy. You’re missing the very purpose for which you were created, to get to know God. The more time you spend alone with God, the more relaxed you’re going to be. If you’re upset and stressed out you’re not spending any time with God alone. The more time you spend alone, reading the Bible, letting God talk to you, praying, talking to God, the more your blood pressure goes down, the more you relax.
Psalm 127:2. It is useless to rise up early and go to bed late and work your worried fingers to the bone. Don’t you know that God enjoys giving rest to those He loves?
One of the real tragic things about today lifestyle is that the way we live is damaging children in ways we don’t even imagine. Recently a story in magazine article said that when parents feel stressed out at work it hurts their children. The magazine asked kids if you were granted one wish to change one thing about your mom or your dad and their work what would that wish be. Parents were then asked to predict how their children would respond to that question. Most of the parents got it wrong. In fact 98% of the parents got it wrong. Nearly 56% percent of parents assumed that the top choice would be to spend more time together. But in fact only 10% of the kids surveyed said they’d like more time with their mothers and only 15½ % said the same thing about their fathers.
By contrast 34% of kids said what they wanted most for their parents is to be less stressed and less tired because of their work. I wish Mom wasn’t so tired all the time… I wish Dad wasn’t so tired all the time…” Astonishingly just 2% of parents guessed that this would be their children’s highest priority. I say astonishing because stress and fatigue are familiar experiences to every working parent. What parents seem to be unaware of (or in denial about) is the effect that their pressured lives are having on their children.
4. I must learn to Wait for God’s timing. If discontent is one of the causes of hurry then impatience is the twin sister. The reason we get in a hurry is we’re impatient and impatience is basically a lack of trust in God. The reason we get impatient is we really don’t believe God has our best interest at heart. We don’t really think God knows what’s best for us. We think we know better about our life. We think we know what will make us happy, not God. So we get in a hurry and we strive and we struggle and we sweat for things that God intended to give us in the first place. You got impatient because you didn’t trust God. You need to wait on God’s timing.
Here is the question of the day; is faster always better? The answer is absolutely no. You’re not going to mature if you don’t slow down. You need to wait on God’s timing. The Bible’s very clear that God has a plan – a unique plan – for your life. The rub is He never tells us His timetable. I don’t know of one person who is absolutely overjoyed with that concept. Our prayer is that the Lord God would show us everything He is going to do in my life! The Lord answer is that He’s not going to tell you what he’s going to do and He’s not going to tell you when He’s going to do it.” He doesn’t tell us. Ecclesiastes 3:11 “God does everything just right and on time [circle “just right” and “on time”] but people can never completely understand what He’s doing.
That gets a little frustrating. Why won’t God tell us His plan in advance? Why doesn’t God give us His timetable for our life?
Because He wants you to trust Him. Can we say God, I don’t know what You’re going to do or when You’re going to do it, but I trust You with my life. If you knew it all in advance there’s no faith involved. There’s no trust involved. In the book of Acts the disciples asked Jesus, When are You coming back? He said, “It’s none of your business. It’s in the Father’s timing. Timing is the Father’s business.” Any minute spent trying to figure out when Jesus is going to come back is a minute wasted. Jesus said it’s not for you to know the times and the seasons so put away your charts and maps and figure out He’ll come back when He’s good and ready. Trust God’s timing. If you’re serious about slowing the pace of your life you need to trust that God has a plan for your life. And part of that is getting to know Him personally through Christ and He’s going to fulfill it on His timetable in His way. What do you do in the meantime with all those dreams and plans and goals? You trust and you hold on to the promise of Habakkuk 2:3. God says, “These things I plan won’t happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow wait patiently for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed. Circle “wait patiently”. If you’re going to slow the pace of your life you’ve got to learn to wait on God’s timing. Have you ever seen the pace car at a race? It’s setting the pace. You need a pace car for your life. The greatest pacesetter of life is Jesus Christ. You need to trust Him to select the pace in your life.
I want to read you a little prayer called “Slow me down, Lord.”
Slow me down, Lord. Ease the pounding of my heart by the quieting of my mind. Steady my hurried pace with the vision of the eternal reach of time. Give me amidst the confusion of my days the calmness of the everlasting hills. Break the tension of my nerves with the soothing music of the singing streams that live in my memory. Help me to know the restoring power of sleep. Teach me the art of taking minute vacations of slowing down, to look at a flower, pat a stray dog, to chat with an old friend or make a new one, to watch a spider build a web or smile at a child or to read a few lines from a good book. Remind me each day that the race is not always to the swift. And that there’s more to life than increasing its speed. Let me look upwards through the branches of a towering oak and know that it grew great and strong because it grew slowly and well. Slow me down, Lord.
Over the next few weeks as the Lord leads I want to invite you on a journey as we look at ways to restore balance to our hurried Lives. I want to challenge you today as we get started.
Let me share Psalm 51:10 and encourage you to make it your prayer this week. This is from the message.
God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
