To Do Or Not To Do

Modern life, particularly in America, is often perceived as a series of goals to achieve: go to school, graduate, get a job, get married, have a family, help them reach their goals, retire, relax, the end. It seems like we treat spiritual life the same way: get saved, be baptized, go to church, learn a bit, die and go to heaven, the end. But that’s not how it’s supposed to work. Jillian Willis says of the walk of faith, “It is a journey, not a destination. Do not feel you have to be perfect in it” (Sing Over Me: A Women’s Devotional through the Psalms).

This goal-oriented way of thinking presents a problem when our goals aren’t being met on our schedule or the schedule we think God has in mind. In school we’re told that if we put in the hard work and apply ourselves to learning we’ll receive rewards in the form of scholarships or better jobs, resulting in higher earnings and a more affluent lifestyle. So we try to apply the same logic to spiritual growth: “If I put time and effort into all the spiritual disciplines, I’ll be happier, more productive, and be blessed with many rewards.” While there is some truth to that, the elements of cause and effect are not that clear in Scripture. Both internal and external circumstances can interfere, such as unemployment, the sins of ourselves or others, health problems, and so on.

Willis brings it down to the daily level, “I feel the need to be ‘productive’ every day. In my mind productivity doesn’t include relationships, it includes checking off items on my ‘to do’ list.” I can identify with that. My office calendar has items to check off each day or week. If a day has many items listed, I feel pressured to make sure I get them all done before I go home. But if the day has nothing listed, I feel like I’m wasting time that could be better spent somehow. The worst days are the ones with many scheduled tasks that get interrupted by unscheduled tasks.

It is convicting to realize that Jesus never hurried to get something done, and He didn’t bypass relationships because He had something else to do. However, He knew His priorities and sometimes had to state them clearly: “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out” (Mark 1:38 ESV). “Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish My course… for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem” (Luke 13:32-33). Where our agendas include tasks, His agenda is people. If the agenda is to do a job, we need to know what, how, when, and where. But if the agenda is relationships, all we need to know is who.

Some days I just need the reminder that it’s not all about my lists. God may have someone or something that’s not on my schedule for today, or some life destination that isn’t on my map. He has a tendency to take His disciples through Samaria and through valleys we might otherwise choose to avoid. His agenda is to draw people close so that He can carry us through.

“You have seen how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place” (Deuteronomy 1:31).

© 2015 Dawn Rutan

Just Rest

I recently finished the Bible study based on John Piper’s book Don’t Waste Your Life. It’s a good book and worthwhile study, but I came away with a vague feeling that I should be doing more. I don’t think that was Piper’s intent as he says “Enjoying God supremely is one way to glorify him. Enjoying God makes him look supremely valuable” (p. 28). Somewhere between the beginning of the book and the end, I lost sight of the fact that the reason we serve God is because we enjoy Him, not just because we “should” do it.

At the same time, I started reading Addicted to Busy: Recovery for the Rushed Soul, by Brady Boyd. He shares a great example from his own life of the recurring tendency to do more and more and thus lose the joy in Christ that should be the center of our purpose and motivation. I think that is the enemy’s intent to keep us distracted from what really matters. Although I don’t consider myself as a workaholic, some of his comments hit home for me, especially in light of Piper’s book. Some of us are easily guilted into doing things we don’t really want to do just because we think we should. That little word “No” keeps morphing into “No problem” for some reason. We overschedule ourselves and society is teaching our children to do the same.

The crazy thing is that God even commanded us to take a Sabbath rest, and yet that’s the one thing we repeatedly fail to do. The prophet Isaiah said: “If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth…” (58:13-14). The order of this passage is interesting—if you enjoy the Sabbath, then you will delight in the Lord. That’s counterintuitive. I’m sure there is a cyclical pattern, but it starts with observing the Sabbath.

Boyd says, “The more rested you are, the less you are driven by what others think of you. The more rested you are, the more you are driven by what God, alone, believes to be true. This is a magnificent place to be, because Scripture is clear that God’s thoughts toward us are good” (74). Rest not only refreshes and strengthens the physical body, but it clears the mind of distractions. The discipline of scheduling necessary rest forces us to prioritize what really needs to be done and what can wait or be dropped altogether. That’s where it gets difficult, particularly in the church context. Many of us think, “If I don’t do this, then who will?” But maybe there’s someone else who can do it but doesn’t realize there is a need. Or maybe it just doesn’t need to be done.

As we started a sermon series from 1 Corinthians recently, I took particular note of 1:7, “so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift,” and I realized that Paul was talking to the church, not just to individuals. No single person has every spiritual gift, but working together we are equipped with whatever we need to do what God has called us to do. So that means that every person has a role, and some of the overly responsible people need to step back and let others do what they are gifted to do. Some people need more rest than others, but every one of us needs to be adequately rested to fulfill our roles to the best of our ability.

Going back to Piper’s book, a wasted life is one in which God’s gifts are hidden away and not used for His glory. That doesn’t mean that we have to accept every request that comes along or that we can’t take time to rest and enjoy God’s creation. If we take Isaiah’s words literally, failure to rest and observe the Sabbath will actually keep us from delighting in God. Busyness for God may actually dishonor Him if it’s not led by Him and is violating His Sabbath. “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

I’ll probably need this reminder again before too long, but at least for now I’m not going to feel guilty about sleeping as long as I need to, declining invitations to events I don’t want to join, or saying no to tasks that don’t interest me or aren’t directly related to my job. Enjoying vacations and entertainment won’t bring the world crashing down around me.

Mark Buchanan writes in The Rest of God (as quoted by Boyd): “The rest of God… is not a reward for finishing. It’s not a bonus for work well done. It’s sheer gift.”