Recovering Your Life
Life Management 101, part 3
Wildwind Community Church
David Flowers
July 2, 2006
Do you spend your time, or do you invest it? Okay, not a fair question. How do you use MOST of your time? Would you say you spend or invest most of your time? What’s the difference? When you use time in a way that aligns with your deepest values and aspirations for who you want to be and what you want your life to accomplish in this world, you have invested it. When you use time in a way that does not, you have spent it. Example: Most of us value our children and have dreams for how they will grow up. Thus time with our children is never spent, it is invested. On the other hand, most of us will never earn money or prestige from watching television, nor will it do anything but make us fat (since we nearly always eat when we watch). Add to that the fact that watching television often keeps us from paying attention to those we love, and you’ve got a massive time-spending activity there.
So how do you use your time? A couple weeks ago I talked to you about sharpening the saw, about making sure that the physical, social, mental, and spiritual areas of your life are not neglected. But that presents us with a struggle, doesn’t it? After all, it often seems like we just don’t have time to go to the gym. We don’t have time to read. We don’t have time to go out with friends. We don’t have time to read our Bibles and pray. We say that all the time, don’t we?
Ephesians 4:15 (NIV)
15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.
We will in all things grow up. All things. We will grow up in the way we approach relationships. We will grow up in the way we approach our use of language. We’ll grow up in the way we approach the church. We will grow up in the way we approach prayer. We will grow up in the way we use our money. And we will grow up in the way we use the time that has been given to us.
Does it sound terrible for me to say we need to grow up in the way we think about our time? I don’t mean for that to sound bad, after all, that’s what every sermon is for, isn’t it? To help us grow up into Christ – to help us take the next baby step – to help us become more mature believers if in fact we are a believer, and more authentic seekers if we’re at the seeking stage.
Friends I have one primary goal in this message today. I want to change the way you think and the way you speak about time. I want you to begin to deal with your time the way Jesus dealt with his time. I want to encourage you to see yourself the way God sees you – as a manager of all God has given you. Here’s a measurable goal. I want to influence enough of you about the way you think of time that it nearly puts an end to people at Wildwind uttering the phrase, “I don’t have time.” What if you decided today to stop saying that? You’d be forced to learn to think of time in a different way, wouldn’t you? And I think that’s what we need.
See the truth is that you do have time. You have all the time in the world. You have all the time your highly successful neighbor has. You have all the time Martha Stewart and Oprah have. Twenty-four hours a day. I don’t like the passive language we use with regard to time, folks, because it’s just a way of us not having to be responsible for what we do with our time. It’s easier to say I don’t have time than it is to admit that we really don’t value some of the things we have committed to doing for ourselves and others. It’s easier to allow others to make decisions for us about what to do with our time than to take the bull by the horns and be the decision-makers. After all, if we let others decide what we do with our time, we get to blame them later when we get too busy. “I’d love to be home with my family but the boss has me working late again.” “I wish I could take my spouse away for the weekend, but AYSO scheduled games this weekend. “I know there’s only one shot this year to catch my daughter’s dance recital, but what can I say? I have to go to this meeting.” And on and on we go, living our lives that way, and then we wonder why we’re burned out and unhappy. As the rock band Switchfoot sings, “We were meant to live for so much more – have we lost ourselves? Somewhere we live inside.” Have you lost track of your life somewhere? Is your real life buried someplace under all the obligations you’ve taken on? It’s time to recover your life.
Matthew 11:28 (MSG)
28 "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest.
Do you want to recover your life? Many of us say we want to recover our life, but what we really want is for God to show us how we can be more successful in the world that is stealing it from us, how we can get more done in less time. The last thing we want is to actually get away. Now I want you to stop right now. When I say “get away” I don’t want you to think of those words in some abstract metaphorical terms. “Yes, Pastor Dave in this sense uses ‘get away’ to refer to some supernaturally-derived ability to remain fully engaged in this blood-sucking world and yet continue to maintain a direct line to the divine.” Forget that. I’m not talking about that, I’m asking you if you are prepared to actually GET AWAY. I’m asking if you are ready to realize that if you want things to change in your life, your life will have to change. I’m asking that when I say the words “Get away,” you will hear them exactly as I say them. I’m asking you to realize that getting away with Jesus will impose on your schedule, your expectations, your ideas of productivity, your insecurity-driven needs to be a producer. In other words, getting away with Jesus will effectively remove you out from under the authority of this world when it comes to the management of your life, and will move you under the authority of Jesus. For the Christian, that IS Life Management 101.
Jesus says, “Come away with me and I’ll show you how to recover your life.” We say, “Lord, just help me get more done.” Jesus says, “Come away with me and I’ll help you recover your life.” We say, “Lord, just help me manage stress.” Jesus says, “Come away with me and I’ll help you recover your life.” We say, “Lord, just help me get through soccer season.” And we never stop to consider that all this stuff we’re doing isn’t what Jesus promised to help us recover, that there’s a life beneath and beyond all that – a life that we choke to death by our busyness, by our refusal to come away with Jesus. We never consider that whatever it is that Jesus wants to help us recover simply can’t be found if we don’t get away with him. That may be a walk in the woods for you. It may be a decision to skip a soccer game and stay home and rest and spend part of that time with God. It may be a commitment to truly obey and follow the 4th commandment and not do any work at all on Sunday from now on, including mowing your lawn, cleaning your pool, or washing or folding your laundry. (I will talk to you more some other time about the 4th commandment, because most of us live in flagrant violation of it and then can’t figure out why we never get a moment’s rest.)
What if we could come to link the phrase, “I’m just so busy I can hardly stand it” to the phrase, “I’m living out of sync with God’s will for my life.” What if we realized that to say one is to say the other? Instead of “check out how busy I am” and then listing a bunch of stuff, what if we realized what that really means is, “Check out how much I’m not living my life like Jesus, even though I claim to follow him.” Or “check out how much I live by the values and standards of a world system Christ has called me out of.”
I want to observe a few general things about time, and then we’ll get into looking at the way Jesus managed his time and see how we can imitate him. By the way, if you claim to be a Jesus-follower, “a Christian,” then a lifelong pattern of imitating Jesus is what you are in for.
Some observations about time.
1. Your life now is exactly, precisely, as you have scheduled it (or guys, allowed your wife to). Every obligation currently on your schedule is something that you either put there personally, or gave someone else permission to put there for you. Don’t start in with the “have-to’s” here either. Don’t say, “But my boss required me,” and “My spouse said I have to,” and “I had to if I was going to get that promotion,” and “But we really need a new car and this is the only way we could get it,” and “The kids have to do their social things in order to grow up healthy, and I have to be the driver,” etc. etc. Don’t do that. Don’t talk as if life kicks you around. Tell yourself the truth. Admit that your life now is exactly as you have scheduled it. You agreed to take your kids to soccer. You agreed to work the job you work. You agreed to attend the church you attend and serve in the ministry you serve in. You agreed to go to that wedding next weekend. Your life is exactly as you scheduled it.
Second observation about time, if you’re unhappy with your use of time, the change you need to make probably won’t be easy to make. How do I know? Because if it were easy you’d have made it already.
Third, if you don’t change your life, it will stay the same. That sounds like common sense, but since so many of us are blaming other people, or outside factors, for our time-crunched lives, we’re also – by logical extension, sitting around waiting for circumstances to change. Do you know why they never change? Because the problem isn’t out there, it has been in here (the heart) all along. If you don’t change your life, it will stay the same.
My question for you is do you need to recover your life? Do you need to make a change? If you’re ready for a change, if you’re prepared to stop making excuses, if you’re ready to stop telling me you have to do this and have to do that, then I can show you a different path. We will recover our lives as we get away with Jesus as we watch the way he lived and learn to live that way too. So let’s take a look at his life.
First off, when we look at the life of Jesus, we see that Jesus was frequently busy, but never in a hurry. Now in just the gospel of Matthew, I counted 20 instances of the phrase, “the crowds” in relation to Jesus. A couple of these referred to the same incident, but most of them were different. Jesus was constantly being pressed on by the public. Jesus lived a life considerably more in the public eye than you or I can imagine. Matthew 5:1 says Jesus saw the crowds so he went up on a mountain side to teach them. Matthew 13:2 has so many people pressing in on Jesus that he gets in a boat and teaches the people as they stand on the beach! Read the gospels sometime and be watching how Jesus was constantly followed around by people – and we’re talking big huge groups of people. Yet there’s not one place where Jesus loses his cool, where the pressure gets to him, where he indicates that he’s pressed for time. Jesus was surrounded by sick, desperate, hurting people who were literally clamoring for this attention – reaching out to touch his clothes hoping it would heal them – being lowered through rooftops on stretchers – anything to get close to him. And yet patiently, day by day, Jesus did his work.
What allowed Jesus to deal with throngs of people day after day and yet never get frantic? It takes us to our next point.
Jesus understood the importance of sharpening the saw in his own life. Jesus was probably in great physical condition. He was a carpenter growing up, and then in adulthood he walked miles and miles in his healing and preaching ministry. Jesus had a sharp mind, as evidenced by not only his brilliant parables and teachings, but on one occasion he rebuked the religious leaders, saying,
Matthew 22:29 (NIV)
29 Jesus replied, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.
Jesus constantly quoted from the Jewish scriptures – the man knew the Word! He had a rich social/emotional life, traveling with a group of close friends and investing his life in them. And the scriptures record again and again that Jesus was constantly going off by himself to pray – his spiritual life was broad and deep.
Mark 1:35 (GW)
35 In the morning, long before sunrise, Jesus went to a place where he could be alone to pray.
So Jesus was always busy but never in a hurry – never frantic. This springs from the fact that he kept his saw sharp.
Next we see that Jesus was focused on his mission. He knew what his life was about and did not allow himself to get distracted. One time Jesus went into a town to heal his friend Simon’s mother-in-law. Look what happened.
Mark 1:32-33 (GW)
32 In the evening, when the sun had set, people brought to him everyone who was sick and those possessed by demons.
33 The whole city had gathered at his door.
Remember, medicine wasn’t very advanced back then – I would imagine there were tons of sick people in every city. But let’s see what happened next in that town:
Mark 1:33-38 (GW)
33 The whole city had gathered at his door.
34 He cured many who were sick with various diseases and forced many demons out of people. However, he would not allow the demons to speak. After all, they knew who he was.
35 In the morning, long before sunrise, Jesus went to a place where he could be alone to pray.
36 Simon and his friends searched for him.
37 When they found him, they told him, “Everyone is looking for you.”
38 Jesus said to them, “Let’s go somewhere else, to the small towns that are nearby. I have to spread {the Good News} in them also. This is why I have come.”
So Jesus heals this one woman. Soon the whole town is at the door wanting healing. So he cures “many” who were sick. The next morning he gets up early to go be alone and pray – to sharpen his saw. Simon (the guy whose mom-in-law he healed) gets some friends and they go out looking for Jesus. They find him and say, “What’s up? Everyone’s looking for you!” Why? I’m sure because there were more miracles to be done.
Jesus had success here. He could have stuck around, thinking, “Dang, they love me here.” He was popular and successful in that town. He was doing good things. But what did he say? Jesus said to them, “Let’s go somewhere else, to the small towns that are nearby. I have to spread {the Good News} in them also. This is why I have come.”
He knew it wasn’t about being popular, or being successful in the eyes of one community, or even his disciples. He knew it wasn’t just about doing good things. It was about living the life God had given him and doing what he was uniquely called to do. He didn’t sit around whining about how busy he was in that town, or how everyone expected him to stay so he “had to” stay. If anyone could ever have lived a “have to” life it’s Jesus. You know that people aren’t just people, they are demands. The more people you have around you, the more demands are pressing on you. Jesus could have griped about his lack of privacy, his schedule, the constant demands of people, etc. But he didn’t. You know what he did do? He took control of his life. He maintained focus by making a priority of solitude and prayer. And he didn’t allow popularity, success, or other people to set his schedule for him.
The next thing I observed about Jesus is that Jesus never used busyness as an excuse for not attending to his inner life. In fact Jesus’ outer life sprang directly from his inner life and that’s supposed to be true for those of us who claim to be his followers as well. Jesus lived a life infinitely busier than any of us, yet his outer life sprang from his inner life. You never hear Jesus going, “Is it just me, Peter, or were there way more demons to cast out today than usual? I’m beat. Don’t wake me up tomorrow until at least 11.” We never hear him say, “I wish I had more time to pray and worship God,” or “I know I should pray, I just don’t have time,” or “Things are just crazy.” Think how lame those things sound coming from the mouth of Jesus. They sound even more lame coming from you and me.
Now you might be thinking, “Of course Jesus had time to pray and read the scriptures – he didn’t have a spouse or kids!” That goes back to what I said earlier. You have a spouse and kids because you chose to have a spouse and kids. Remember, people aren’t just people – they are demands!
So don’t talk about how Jesus, or any other individual – has it easy compared to you – that’s more of the excuse-making we decided we weren’t going to do. The question isn’t about other people’s lives, the question is about your own. What is your purpose? How can you structure your life around the reason you are sucking air on this planet? How can you focus on your priorities and invest your life in them, not spend it doing what everybody else wants you to do?
I’m serious. What is your purpose? If you don’t know the purpose of your life, if you don’t know the primary reason God is allowing you to take up space on earth, then I believe you should make it your first priority to find it in the coming weeks and months. What can you do that no one else can do? Why are you here? If you don’t know why you’re here, I would strongly suggest you do two things:
1. Get a copy of Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose-Driven Life.
2. Sign up to take Discovery when it starts up again in the fall.
Don’t spend another year of your life drifting. You can’t take control of your life if you don’t know what your life is for. Jesus knew the purpose of his life and that’s where his focus came from. You must know the purpose of yours.
Finally, if we are going to model our lives after Jesus, then we must begin by using our time the way he used his time. I say we invest much more of our time, and spend much less. That’s what Jesus did.
If you’re struggling to model your use of time after Christ, I would just invite you to begin praying this prayer whenever it comes to your mind – “Jesus, help me care about valuing what you valued and living the way you lived.”
