DO LESS BETTER

 by STEVE DUNN

I have always  been a person who seems to seek busyness.  I once described myself as a "recovering workaholic" and someone who knew me well quipped, "Relapsed would be more accurate."  My schedule generally has been full and I have had several Facebook friends who have said, "Your Facebook page makes me tired." I tend to be optimistic about how much I can accomplish in a day or week, and my assessment would be accurate if days had 28 hours and weeks had nine days.

There is no Bible verse to proof text this attitude.  "Busyness is not next to godliness" unless you are reading 2nd Imaginations in the latest version of the Apocrypha.  The outcome of extreme busyness is generally not pretty. Whether you rust out or wear out - out is out.

It's taken two bouts with burnout to get me to give serious attention to my busyness addiction; and even now I need to be vigilant about saying "yes" when I need to say "no".  At some point busyness robs you of joy and true productivity.  It's hard to be content and fulfilled when you're exhausted. Some things take time and solid attention. Trying to do too much usually erodes quality or sustainability.

One of the lessons we need to learn to combat this insidious busyness is to claim a new core value:
DO LESS BETTER.

Many of us carry some old tapes that warn against laziness.  "Idle hands are the devil's workshop" has been used many a time to provide a verbal kick in the rear to someone.  Yet sometimes, idling is needed to get warmed up for the journey.

Some of have tapes that say "Measure up!" or "Prove yourself!" or "Always Look Busy!" As a result we press on to produce and take our worth in the quantity we produce rather than the quality of what we produce.

But our self-worth is first tied to who we are. What we do comes next.  And in God's scheme of things, quality always trumps quantity.  "Whatever you do in word or deed, do it as unto the Lord." (Colossians 3:17)

Maybe we find greater joy if we attended to doing what we do well and not worry so much about how much we do.  White Castle and other mass producing hamburger joints can plow out tons of little meaty sqaures fried in onions, but does anyone seriously think they as good as that turkey you ate at Thanksgiving which cooked for hours before it was served?

So here is my counsel, especially as you get ready for the insanity that is the pre-Christmas season in America.  Do yourself a favor. DO LESS BETTER.

(c) 2012 by Stephen L Dunn

SKYE JETHANI ON WHY THE MASS EXIT FROM THE CHURCH

BLAKE COLLINS ON HEARING GOD

Hearing God Speak through the Noise of My Brother

5 05 2011

Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came.  So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”  But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”… Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”  John 20:24-25, 29

The ears and the mind are necessarily connected.  That is because hearing requires much more than just ears.  When we were children, we could hear the wind blowing through a sea shell but we thought we were “hearing the ocean”.  We could hear just fine, but we could not discern very well.  Now, as I get older (alas), I am finding that my ears don’t always hear very well.  I can be sitting with you in a crowded restaurant, trying to hear what you are saying and my “discernment” has to kick in so that I can make up for what my ears cannot hear.  I suppose that balance shifts more and more with time.

Interestingly, our Spiritual hearing works in a similar way.  When we are young (spiritually), we don’t discern all that well.  We may hear God’s voice, but we hear it along with all the noise and may not have the spiritual maturity to discern that which is God and that which is other.  I believe we develop that discernment over time, with the help of the Spirit.  I also believe this spiritual skill is critical to our life together in the church.  Wasn’t that the point of Jesus’ lesson to Thomas in John 20?

Thomas’ brothers came to him, filled anew with the Spirit and sharing testimony of Christ’s appearance, i.e., the transformation which had happened in their lives as a result of the resurrection.  Thomas heard their testimony, but he missed the Spirit in it.  He could not (or would not) hear it.  He wanted to hear it directly from Jesus.

Not surprisingly, Jesus showed him grace despite his disappointment in Thomas.  Here is an important implication of his words to Thomas in v.29: Thomas, you’re going to need to develop spiritual eyes to see the Spirit at work in your brother and spiritual ears to hear God’s voice in him in order to be effective in helping to start this revolution…that is how it will work in my church!

In the church, discerning the voice of God is a sign of spiritual maturity.  When we are spiritual babies, we may hear the wind in the sea shell and believe it is the ocean.  But as we grow older, we really must develop the “spiritual mind” to know the difference.  In order to be effective as leaders among God’s people, we must be getting better and better at discerning the voice of God in His people.  Despite their many flaws and despite the “noise” of their flesh, we must learn to listen and to discern and to recognize the Shepherd’s voice when we hear it…even through the thorniest of relationships with our most difficult brothers/sisters.  Our effectiveness as a leader depends upon this skill.

Will you listen closely today?  What unexpected message will God bring you through a brother today?

© Blake Coffee

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CS LEWIS - WORDS OF TRUTH

"Christ did not die for men because they were intrinsically worth dying for, but because He is intrinsically love, and therefore loves infinitely." -C. S. Lewis,Miracles

"Atheists express their rage against God although in their view He does not exist."


"Satan's masterpiece is not the prostitute or the skid-row bum. It's the self-sufficient person who has made life comfortable, who dreams of no better place to live, who longs only to be a little better than he already is."