Break away from
Let’s talk business, or more precisely busyness. We seem to be more and more caught up in the fast pace of this world and have stopped living—we’re just staying in motion.
We are told not to conform ourselves to the pattern of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. Then we will be able to test and approve what God’s will—his good, pleasing, and perfect will for us is.
The problem for many is that we wait for something external to happen to us in order to make a change. In the world of change, one school of thought says that when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of changing, then we will change.
You don’t have to subscribe to the school of pain. We can choose to change. We are self aware creatures with a free will.
For us to change—to get out of the world mode—we not only need to slow down; we need to stop. We need to be still. The psalmist reminds us to, “ Be still, and know that I am God.”
Here is our first make it count moment.
When was the last time you were still?
When was the last time that you turned off the television and just sat quietly for 30 minutes?
When was the last vacation that you had where you did not check email or answer your cell phone?
We try to control our problems. We try to control our world. We try to control other people. We try to control outcomes. We try to control almost everything that comes across our path.
Could the root cause of wanting to control the circumstances of our lives be that we don’t trust God?
Can God really keep a handle on things if I don’t stay logged in 24/7?
Can God handle the 3 hours that I have to turn my cell phone off while the airplane is in the air. What if something comes up?
Can God make it through the day without me updating my Facebook page?
I’m guessing yes to all. Most control that we think we have is illusion. We need to let go of trying to be God and let God live in us. Jesus said live in him and He would live in us. To do this, we have to give up being our own god. We truly are to let God be our strength.
In addition to trying to control everything, we have this nature to compete in everything. Competition has its place. I would not want to watch the Super Bowl with two non competitive teams on the ticket, but I don’t need to be competitive in all I do.
Sometimes we just want what everyone else has, or more. We compare and we covet. If we can’t get what everyone else has, we often fake it. One study from this millennium indicated that over half the people that we see walking and driving around with a cell phone to their ear are faking it. They covet the image of busyness.
The Shooks, among many others, suggest an antidote to this comparison compulsion (or status-symbol syndrome). That antidote is service. This is not just any service, but service to people who can never repay you. This changes the dynamic from comparison to compassion, or in more traditional but less alliterative terminology—to mercy.
Here is the next make it count moment.
Who are you serving who can offer you nothing in return?
Who in your life needs you but may not be able to reciprocate?
What is stopping you from giving of yourself to this person or these people?
Our spiritual restlessness will continue to increase if we are trying to avoid the problems of life just as much as if we are trying to control them. Control is not the answer, but neither is comfort.
If we examined our decision making process, we might be surprised at how many choices we make based upon personal comfort. Jesus, James, Paul, and others have told us that trials will come. It is not a matter of if. If we are alive, we will have trials, tribulations, struggles and all manner of challenges. Welcome to life.
If we try to control them, we move more and more towards frustration. If we try to avoid them for the sake of our own comfort, we become depressed and void of life. But if we set aside our comfort zone and work through whatever difficulties we have resting in the assurance that God is in control, we become stronger. Trials are part of our growth.
Here’s an excerpt from the One Month to Live book. This story has been told thousands of times elsewhere, but I will use the version provided by the Shooks.
A boy found a chrysalis on a branch. It was moving and he saw a butterfly struggling to break through. He felt sorry for the butterfly so he took his pocketknife and cut open the chrysalis and freed the butterfly and held it in his hand expecting it to fly away, but it didn’t move. Within a few minutes, the butterfly was dead.
It needed the struggle of breaking out to strengthen its wings.
How does one become a butterfly? You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar. --Trina Paulus
Our problems help us to change from the inside out. Our trials get us out of our comfort zone and give us a chance to grow. If that is our heart’s desire, we need to make time for God to talk to us, to work in us, and to live in us. We need to make time to be still, renew our minds, and listen to what God’s perfect will for our lives is.
Here are our make it last for life challenges for day 19.
1. Plan ahead this week and make time for one hour alone and uninterrupted. Let others know that you will not be available during this hour. Turn off your cell phone. Log off your computer. Take nothing to read, nothing to jot notes on, and nothing to listen to. Stare out a window or walk in the woods, just make this hour to be alone.
2. In what ways have you recently tried to change by altering your outward appearance or circumstances?
3. Think of one change that you could make in your schedule or lifestyle to give yourself a regular time alone with God.
4. Think about the people in your life right now. Chose one to become a friend to. Make it someone who needs you more than you need them. Look for a way to serve that person.
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