Wasting time?

There are times when I have to 'hurry' and others when I can just linger, doddle, or sit still. Most of the times when I have to 'hurry' it involves me not planning well, so I find myself trying to 'catch up' or 'get something done' so I can move on like I am supposed to. Hurrying is not the best way to live, though. Unfortunately, it is riddled with all manner of 'oops' moments. The best 'plan' for our day may actually be to stop wasting time in the unimportant stuff and direct our attention fully on the important stuff God has for us right now.

I thought very carefully about my life, and I decided to follow your rules. Without wasting any time, I hurried back to obey your commands. (Psalm 119:59-60)

Without wasting time, I hurried back...

This suggests it is possible for us to have been where we should not have been, been attentive to the wrong stuff, or been too laissez-faire about where we were headed to see how far we drifted from where we wanted to be. Either way, we needed to refocus and 'hurry back' to where God intended for us to be in the first place. This might mean we have to refocus our attention, stop doing something, or just plain start doing something he asked for us to do.

Without wasting time...

When we don't want to do something, we find ways to waste a bit of time, don't we? When we don't know what to do, we spin our wheels perhaps a little too long. When we can't find our way because we allowed ourselves to drift into things we were never to be involved in, we find ways to just 'stay involved' but really aren't all that invested, wasting time on the thing God never intended to us to be involved in at all. Could it be that one of the hardest things to do is stop wasting time as it applies to be obedient to what God asks us to do?

When we make a heart determination to stop 'wasting time' in our walk with Jesus, we find there is a pull toward obedience. When we allow our minds to be renewed by the power of his Word each day, we find our minds drift into 'mindless thought' and more toward what it might be that God intends for our day. Wasting time is really not optional - we need to stop wasting time in our walk with Jesus. The days are short! Just sayin!

Walk in it

And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us. Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us. (I John 3:23-24)

We must believe - there is no other way into a restored relationship with God the Father than through Jesus Christ, his Son. This truth sometimes gets a little tweaked in religious circles - wanting to add some manner of 'works' to the simple belief God requires of us. No amount of us 'doing' will ever measure up to what Christ has already done. Simply believe that Jesus is the Son of God, died on the cross to make us free from the guilt and shame of our sin, and stop adding to the simplicity of grace. Grace is given, never earned. It is based on a finished work - that of Jesus and not on what we will ever be able to do in 'addition' to what has already been done.

Love one another - another very pointed command involves us living at peace with each other, giving of ourselves to one another, and removing the 'obligation' to love us in return. Those who do not have this deep, growing relationship with Jesus have a great deal of difficulty loving in such a manner. Why? There are strings attached to their love. They want something in return. Love as though you have received everything you need in Christ Jesus because you have! We cannot receive more than we have already been given - all we need is found in Christ Jesus. When we love one another, we are just sharing bits and pieces of his grace, goodness, and kindness that has been extended to us.

Remain in fellowship with him - engaging in an ongoing, continually growing relationship with him. As we do, we find loving one another is a 'natural offshoot' of having experienced his tremendous love. Relationship is always a two-way street. We don't just talk to God; we listen to him. We don't just receive from God; we share what we have received. We don't just get to keep; we receive to give out until other lives are overflowing with his grace and love just like ours. Those who 'remain' in fellowship have a special privilege - the Spirit of God lives within them. We no longer 'walk out' our salvation alone because we have God's Spirit to guide our choices and influence our actions. Believe, love, remain - three very specific actions on our part. God's grace and love backs each of these very specific actions. All we do is walk in that grace and love. Just sayin!

A brilliant display indeed

Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle. Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. (Romans 12:9-12)

Integrity and Intensity don't seem to fit together all that well, but they are uniquely interwoven traits which actually complement each other. "Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it." God asks for us to have some intensity (fervor) in how we love (from the center of who we are), but he also expects us to have integrity in our love as he asks us to be real in our love (don't fake it). They are indeed integral to each other. At first, we may only think of integrity as honesty - some adherence to a moral code within. I believe there is a little more to integrity than meets the eye. In the most literal sense, integrity is a state of wholeness - speaking to the "entirety" of something. God is asking us to make our expression (action) of love complete - thorough, lacking nothing, completely undiminished in any way. Nothing stands in its way of expression. We may think of intensity as something which burns hot - has some gusto to it. It is a focusing of energies - what is produced is more powerful than when energies are unfocused. It includes the idea of height and depth - for something with intensity is sharpest when it is focused. For example, take a regular light bulb and put it in a lamp. The light gives a glow to the room. Now, put a spotlight bulb in the same socket and what happens? There is light for the whole room, but the intensity of light is in the direct line of the "focused" light of the bulb. What makes the bulbs different? They add a "mirror" effect to the spotlight bulb to get the light to focus in a direct path. Begin to think of intensity as being focused, intent, and directed.

Intensity and integrity come as we run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. We are repeatedly reminded the importance of focus - running from evil, turning toward what is good. The integrity we must maintain in doing this is as though our entire life depended upon this action. What we run toward determines the outcome of our pursuit; how we run toward it determines how quickly we will attain our pursuit. Are you getting how these two traits are related? Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. We all burn out at some time or another. Why? Maybe the pursuit was not right for us at the time - we were simply running after something, focusing our energies on it, without thought of whether it was the right thing for us, the right timing, or with the right intent. When we do this, we find ourselves kind of running on a hamster wheel - just spinning and spinning, but not really getting anywhere. There is nothing more exhausting than just spinning your wheels. How do we avoid burn-out? In the first place, burn-out is never God's fault - it is ours. We didn't keep the right focus. Being vigilant to consistently evaluate our focus is paramount to avoiding burn-out. When a pilot is going from point A to point B, his eyes are on the gauges - not just the wings of the plane. He could focus intently on the wings, but if he never notices he is nearly out of fuel, he will find those wings do him little good as he is plummeting toward earth! The gauges show him his air speed, the fuel remaining, the altitude he maintains, the pitch of his wings, and his direction. We have some similar "gauges" in our lives we'd do well to watch with diligence!

What gauges do we have? We have the gauge of our time - what are we giving our time toward? Most of us "spend" our time - God's method of operating is to "give" our time. We have the gauge of our emotions - when we find ourselves getting a little frazzled or fraying around the edges, it may just be time to pull back a little. We have the gauge of our inner spirit - giving us a little "check" here and there to remind us that our "prayer" (communication) gauge is a little low. We need to make connection with the one who refuels us - so when our prayer gauge sends off a warning light, we likely need to get connected again! These are just some examples of what we have been given as gauges. You will likely think of others. Let God show you those which often "scream" their warnings in your life the loudest. When you identify them, begin to see how they relate to your focus and your intent. Remember the light bulb? They both serve the purpose of casting light into the room. Each has an effect - but only one does it with intensity. The gauges can help us to focus so our intensity allows for a brilliant display of God's light from within. Just sayin!