Life’s Too Short To…Work All The Time, prt. 2
Life’s Too Short To… 5 of 8
Wildwind Community Church
David Flowers
4/30/05
We’re in the middle of a series of things life’s too short for. Life’s too short to play it safe, to carry a grudge, to work all the time, to live in the past, to worry about the future, to follow the crowd, and to go it alone. Before we finish up Life’s Too Short to Work All The Time this morning, I just want to point out how easy it is to spend our lives doing all those things life’s too short for. It’s easy to play it safe. It’s easy to carry a grudge against someone. It’s easy to work too much, to live in the past with regret pounding in our heads, to worry about the future and live fearfully with our heads in the sand, to follow the crowd and let others determine what our lives will be, and to go it alone, refusing to ever really let someone else get close to us. These are all easy things. We play it safe because it’s hard to take risks. We carry a grudge because it’s hard to forgive others. We wallow in regret because it’s hard to forgive ourselves. We work all the time because it’s hard to live a balanced life. We worry about the future because it’s hard to not be controlled by fear. We follow the crowd because it’s hard to make our own decisions. We go it alone because it’s hard to be vulnerable enough to really enter into community with others.
Any computer people in the room? Computer people are familiar with the idea of a “default value.” Do you know what a default value is? A default value is a number (or sometimes a name or something else) that comes up so often that that it is assumed. For example, if you go to Wildwind’s website there is a form there you can fill out to submit your contact information to the office so we can get you into our directory and stuff. That form asks for your street address and zip code but not for your state. We can safely assume that very nearly everyone filling out this form to get our mailings and be in our directory lives in Michigan. In other words, when Dena is entering data into our church database she doesn’t need to see the state written out, it’s a default value. The state is going to be Michigan, almost every single time. If by some chance a person wanted to get us their contact info, and they were out of state, they’d have to specify that somewhere else on the form because we don’t have a place where they can note what state they’re from. Also in our database, 810 is the default area code. There will be occasional exceptions to this, but again it’s safe to assume the vast majority of people at Wildwind will live in the 810 area code. The church database is set up so that if the area code is 810 you don’t even have to enter it.
Now there are two main things we can learn from default values. First is that default values are so basic, so universal, they apply to nearly everybody. [Almost everybody at Wildwind will live in Michigan and live in the 810 area code.] Second, default values require effort to be changed. If someone lives in the 810 area code, we don’t have to enter their area code. But if they live in the 248 area code, we have to specifically enter those numbers.
The things we’re talking about in this series are default values, folks. I’m using default values because I want you to understand those same two ideas about the messages in this series. It is simply human nature to struggle with these things we are talking about. They are default values – struggles most people will have at some point or another. And if they are going to be changed – if for example we are going to live in real community with others, if we are going to live a life that is fairly balanced and not totally work-absorbed, if we are going to escape the crushing weight of regret on one end and fear of the future on the other – we must exert effort. Guilt and fear and overwork and avoidance of risk and avoidance of community – all these things we are talking about – are default values. They are nearly universal struggles that come somewhat naturally to most (though not all) people, and they require effort to change. If you are not intentional about identifying which of these has you in its grip, and getting a plan together to break free, chances are very good you will remain in the grip of those things.
We talked about temperament a few weeks ago. We all have a time in our life where we assume most other people are like us. Only we don’t know we assume it because we assume it so profoundly we can’t see the assumption. It’s kind of like your eyeballs. Your eyeballs are the lenses through which you see everything, but one thing your eyes can never see is themselves. Your eyes look out, not in. (Yes, you can see your eyes in a mirror, but that’s my point. Unless you make an effort to move in front of the mirror, your eyes will go on seeing, but never being seen.) This is what a deep, profound assumption does. Your deepest assumptions shape what you see in the world, but they themselves are so close to you that they often cannot be seen. At least not by you. (Which, by the way, is one of the reasons we most need community – but I’ll talk more about that in a few weeks). I was saying we all grow up with a basic assumption that others are like us – that they think about the world and see the world in a similar way. I’d venture to say that for some of you, our study on prayer and temperament a few weeks ago was the first time you had ever seriously encountered the idea that your way of thinking about the world is not shared by everyone, and seen the specific ways in which you see things differently than some of your friends or family members.
Back before it ever occurred to me that not everyone is like me, I had one of those assumptions that was so close to me that I didn’t realize I had it. I assumed that every person got a charge out of constantly thinking about where they fall short in life, and coming up with a plan to improve in that area. I assumed all people are driven by a need to learn more, read more, improve more, and conquer their personal demons more every day.
I assumed wrong. In fact as I began to get involved in psychology I came to understand that my assumption could not possibly have been more wrong than it was. The fact is about 80% of people do NOT live with a constant drive to be better. 80% of people, in fact, really have a hard time hearing reasons why they OUGHT to be better! It turns out most people want to just kind of take life as it comes and not spend time looking at their flaws and faults and figuring out how to conquer them. On an average Sunday, 80% of the people in this room are listening to a sermon but listening for ways to discount it if it might require something of them, and if there’s any way they can find to discount it! Most people don’t like change and will do anything possible to avoid it.
And that, my friends, brings me back to our topic and face-to-face with a big problem. Remember we talked about default values and how it requires intentional effort to change default values? Notice I said the word – change. Most people seek to avoid change. You know why? Because change requires risk. Most people want to play it safe and be comfortable, because it’s a default value! I have to make you aware of this this morning, because it’s important for you if you’re one of those 80% of people who naturally look for reasons to avoid change that you be aware that you shouldn’t always count on those reasons. I have the opposite problem. I hate the status quo. I hate status quo of all kinds. If something is a certain way, I want to change it. And I’ve had to learn that I can’t just go running around tinkering with things just because I want them different. There should be a good reason to change something. Sometimes the status quo is working, and when something is really working, I can’t just start messing with it because it’s the status quo. In the same way, if you struggle with perpetual avoidance of change, don’t just assume that every reason you think of to avoid it is a good reason. Sometimes they’ll be good, but sometimes they will just be smokescreens that will serve to keep you from making change you really need to make in order to move to the next level in your life.
Now that we have that out of the way, let’s move into the real meat and potatoes of today’s message. Last week I addressed workaholism, the idea being that working too much will separate a person from his or her family. Today I want to go over four other damaging consequences of working all the time.
First of these is that working all the time will cause you to miss God’s purposes for your life. In our message on Life’s Too Short To Follow The Crowd we’ll hit much more specifically on God’s purposes for your life. Right now I won’t even get specifically into what those purposes are, but will trust that something in you understands that this might not be a good thing to miss.
Psalms 139:16 (NIV)
16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Jeremiah 1:5 (MSG)
5 "Before I shaped you in the womb, I knew all about you. Before you saw the light of day, I had holy plans for you: A prophet to the nations— that’s what I had in mind for you."
Jeremiah 29:11 (NASB)
11 ’For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ’plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
Acts 13:36 (NIV)
36 "For when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his fathers and his body decayed.
This is a catch-22 for most people. I think most people want to believe they are here for a reason. Most want to believe God created them with an overall plan in mind for their existence, but they either don’t want to follow that plan in daily life, or they don’t believe God’s reasons for our lives can be known. In moments of crisis I frequently hear people say things like, “Well, everything happens for a reason,” or “God won’t let anything happen to me that I can’t handle.” I believe those things are basically true, and I happen to believe that God has reasons for all the moments of our lives – not just reasons for the moments of crisis and pain – and that we can find out what those reasons are and live our lives to fulfill those reasons. What a concept, huh?
The person whose life is consumed by work will never have time to seek out and fulfill God’s purposes for his/her life and that’s perhaps one of the greatest human tragedies.
Second, working all the time will cause you to miss fun, play, recreation, and enjoyment – things like that. Is this not a problem? Many people who work all the time say work is enjoyable – they like what they do, so they don’t mind doing it 80, 90, 100 hours a week. I have two thoughts on that. First is that for Christians, working too much, missing out on time to rest, recharge, etc., is sin. What is sin, folks? Sin is whatever drives a wedge between us and God. Think of sin as anything that you can’t hang onto and still receive the life God wants for you.
Let’s get downright old-fashioned for a moment. There’s this ancient code of behavior known as The 10 Commandments. I have pointed out before how the 10 commandments really are God’s baseline standard for human behavior. They’re not really very lofty. Folks, don’t kill each other. Don’t take each others’ stuff. Don’t sleep with each others’ spouses. Don’t lie. Acknowledge God as God and don’t use his name casually. Things like that. There are two of those commandments – those baseline standards for human behavior -- that apply directly to working all the time.
I’ll use the old language for these because some of us recognize them by that old language. The 10th commandment is Thou shalt not covet. We don’t use the word “covet” anymore, but do you know what coveting is? To covet is to spend your life obsessing about things you don’t have – like another person’s house, or that fancy boat you want, or even another person’s wife or husband. My friends, because we live in America – a society that would collapse if it began to disapprove of greed and materialism – we don’t hear much about why it’s important to not covet. But isn’t it interesting that it’s apparently important enough that in God’s baseline standards for human behavior – acknowledged for thousands of years as one of the most profound moral codes ever given to humankind – we are told, “Don’t be obsessed with all that you don’t have.”
And isn’t that one of the reasons people work too much? Because they want what they don’t have? It could be power, it could be a promotion, it could be the approval of associates, it could be a bigger paycheck, it could be anything. Covetousness is the root of greed. Covetousness is obsessing over what we don’t have, and greed is falling in love with the idea of having more and being willing to make senseless sacrifices to get it. So when we work too much, we do it in order to get more of something we don’t have. Now we all work to make money, and we presumably do that because we don’t already HAVE money! I’m not saying the Bible condemns working. Covetousness is not noticing someone has something nice, and covetousness is not even thinking it might be nice to have it for yourself. Covetousness is obsession over what you don’t have. And if overwork isn’t partly a reflection of obsession with things a person doesn’t have, I don’t know what is.
But the commandment that relates most closely to the point about fun and recreation is another oft-overlooked commandment – the fifth. Again, using the old language – the fifth commandment is “remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Translation: one day a week, don’t work at all. Don’t do anything that you might consider “productive” that helps you earn a living. On that one day, celebrate God’s blessings. Remember that all you have comes from God, not from the work of your own hands. Remember on that day that God is the source of all blessings and all good things. Celebrate God on that day. For most people this one day is usually Sunday. For me and for all pastors, it has to be a different day. But Christy can tell you I’m very consistent about taking a “Sabbath” every week, usually on Monday – where I call off the normal business of my life, and just relax. The idea of a Sabbath is that God is saying to us, “Just rest. Relax. Do something fun that doesn’t have any purpose other than to refresh you and relax you. And remember that God is provider and you aren’t. Enjoy yourself!”
And this sets us up well for the last two points today, which I’m going to handle together. Quick review: last week we talked about how when you work all the time it will eventually cost you your family. So far today I’ve said that working all the time causes you to miss God’s purposes for your life, and that working all the time causes you to miss out on fun, recreation, and things like that (which, by the way, are at least part of God’s purposes for your life!).
Finally this morning, working all the time causes you to have a distorted perspective of yourself and of God. If you’ve been to Wildwind more than a few times, you realize that it’s completely core to our teaching that we cannot understand ourselves properly if we do not understand God properly. As we come to know God better we will come to know ourselves better. If we seek to understand ourselves more deeply, and more truly, that will require that we come to understand God in those ways. What if I were to say to you today, “Folks, I’ve decided that from now on I’m going to insist on your knowing me in some way other than what I say and what I do.” That would be confusing wouldn’t it? Although there is more to me than what I say and what I do (such as what I think and what I feel), you can only come to know my thoughts and feelings by listening to my words and observing my behavior. So it would be nonsense for me to ask you that.
I believe in the same way it is nonsense for a person to try to understand himself or herself in any way other than through coming to know God. Your thoughts, perspectives, and beliefs about God have already given shape to the deepest facts about who you are. This is as true for the atheist and skeptic in our midst today as it is for the most radical Jesus-follower. There simply is no issue that cuts deeper to the core of who you are than who you believe God is and what you believe God is up to in the world. Your beliefs about that have already molded you into who you are at this moment.
I believe if God exists, then God is the most deeply real and deeply true thing anywhere in the universe. If God exists, then God and God’s thoughts and feelings matter more than money, more than life, more than death, more than our opinions of ourselves, more than our relationship to our own families, more than anything. So is God real? Is God out there? Has God communicated any of his thoughts and feelings to us? Christians believe He has done so in the person of Jesus Christ and through the words of the Bible. To live our lives for work, or really for anything else other than finding God’s purpose for our lives and fulfilling it – is a waste of time – and heaven knows none of us has much of that.
I get uncomfortable when people try to prioritize God in their lives. It shows how I think of this whole spiritual thing differently than most people – differently certainly than non-Christians, but even quite a bit differently than Christians. Sometimes Christians will say, “Here are my priorities, in order. First, God. Then my spouse. Then my children. Then my job.” And I hear that and I just get the willies. God is not an object to exist on our priority list – not even at the top of it. Then he’s just one more thing we have to “get to.” Instead of God at the top of some list, think of God as being at the center of your world.
Imagine this diagram as your universe. With God properly there in the center of your life, of your universe, everything can and will take its proper place around Him, but only as you allow God to remain in his proper place. You can also think of God not as the being at the top of some list, but think of God as the pen that writes the list in the first place – that all things come from him and by him. Or imagine all the things of this world as being objects you can see. In that scenario, God is not any of those objects – God is the light that shines down that enables you to see all the other things clearly – to know them for what they are. In seeing them for what they are, you can place them where they belong.
That’s why working all the time causes you to see yourself and God in a distorted perspective.
When you work all the time you get work at the center of your life and it just controls everything. When God is in the center, God brings order to the rest of your life. When work is at the center, work gets all bloated and full of itself, and crowds out everything around it as it grows. You’ll see it can only grow so big before it pushes children, family, church, recreation, and God off the page entirely. Last week I told you a story of a person who allowed that to happen.
So that’s how work causes you to lose perspective of yourself and God. I want to close with a brief story Jesus told to illustrate the foolishness and emptiness of the constant pursuit of work, money, and the things money can buy.
Luke 12:13-21 (NLT)
13 Then someone called from the crowd, "Teacher, please tell my brother to divide our father’s estate with me."
14 Jesus replied, "Friend, who made me a judge over you to decide such things as that?"
15 Then he said, "Beware! Don’t be greedy for what you don’t have. Real life is not measured by how much we own."
16 And he gave an illustration: "A rich man had a fertile farm that produced fine crops.
17 In fact, his barns were full to overflowing.
18 So he said, `I know! I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I’ll have room enough to store everything.
19 And I’ll sit back and say to myself, My friend, you have enough stored away for years to come. Now take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!’
20 "But God said to him, `You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get it all?’
21 "Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God."
If I had to summarize the point of this story Jesus told in just eight words, I would choose the words, “Life’s too short to work all the time.”
Let’s pray.
