One Necessary Thing During the Holidays

In the spirit of slimming down that to-do list and making time for the one necessary thing during the holidays, here are ideas from Mary DeMuth and Crosswalk.com for slowing down this season: Five Tips to Slow Down and Simplify the Holidays.

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work myself? Tell her to help me! " "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." Luke 10:38-42

When Your To-Do List is Too Long

Elisabeth Elliot on our to-do lists:

One reason we are so harried and hurried is that we make yesterday and tomorrow our business, when all that legitimately concerns us is today. If we really have too much to do, there are some items on the agenda which God did not put there. Let us submit the list to Him and ask Him to indicate which items we must delete. There is always time to do the will of God. If we are too busy to do that, we are too busy.

Lord, help me to take your yoke on my shoulder, not a yoke of my own making. May I learn from You to be gentle and humblehearted. May I find that your load is light.

From A Lamp for My Feet by Elisabeth Elliot

Creative Procrastination: Moving God up on your list by moving other stuff down

Back to that time management program I was talking about last week…

Brian Tracey recommends a technique for getting important stuff done (in the context of work) that I think might help you and me move God up to a higher priority on our to-do lists.

Tracey recommends “creative procrastination” or “setting posteriorities.” In other words, take a look at everything on your to-do list today and decide what you can put off ‘til last. What is least important? What won’t matter if you don’t get to it today? After examing your to-do list, do this exercise again with your daily routine--you know, the stuff that doesn’t even make the to-do list--like folding the laundry, reading emails and watching American Idol. What can be put off until everything that is more important has been done?

I’ve been having fun with this. There are lots of things I would like to put off for a bit. It is kind of nice to say to myself, “I won’t fold that load of laundry now. I’ll take 20 minutes to read about the events of Easter week in my Bible.” Or “I don’t have to respond to that annoying email this second. I can take a few minutes to pray about my priorities for the day.” And you know what, the “oh-so-necessary” things like laundry and business emails still get done. They just take a slightly lower priority--more like where they should have been in the first place.

“...let us throw off everything that hinders...and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Hebrews 12:1

P.S. If you are interested in time management techniques, setting priorities and goal accomplishment in the business context, check out Brian Tracey’s blog. I find many of his suggestions helpful toward running my spiritual race as well.

New Year's Clean-Up

For me, the first few weeks of January are all about cleaning up. As soon as New Year’s Day fades, the Christmas stuff must be cleared away. Each year, I notice that the Christmas stuff with which I deal falls roughly into three categories:

• There are things that will rot, spoil and become downright dangerous if left unattended. Things like that last piece of cheesecake I pushed to the back of the fridge or the dried up Christmas tree dangerously close to the fireplace.

• Then there are things that if not immediately tossed will lead me in the opposite direction of where I want to head. Half eaten boxes of nuts, candy canes and leftover Christmas cookies.

• And finally, there are things that, while appropriate for Christmas, begin to be somewhat inconvenient by mid-January. There’s nothing really wrong with them-- but maintaining them interferes with moving on to other things. The Christmas cards on the mantle keep me from dusting and distract me as I reread each one. The wreath on the front door drops needles that must be swept up every time I step out the door. And, of course, the outdoor lights are beginning to look a little silly.

I tackled all these things wholeheartedly the first couple weeks of January, determined to get my house in order. But it occurs to me that my life could use some determined post-Christmas New Year's clean-up too. Afterall, my life is post Christmas--Christ has entered my life just as He once entered the world--and it is now not just a new year but a whole new life. So what needs to be tossed out so I can move on?

• What is the truly dangerous stuff that must go immediately? Are there sins that I toy with? Certain daydreams? A tendency to lie? To gossip?

• And what are the things that, while not inherently sinful, always seem to head me off in the wrong direction and prevent me from growing? A particular set of friends? Some of the books and magazines I read?

• Finally, what are the things that still hang on from an old way of life? Things that slow me down and aren’t really becoming to a new blood-bought life? The amount of money I spend on clothes? The amount of time I spend obsessing about my body? A goal at work?

Got your list? I’ve got mine. Here’s to the New Year!

Keeping Priorities Straight When Life's Little Disasters Strike

Last Thursday morning I was in the kitchen—the start of a normal day I thought—when I heard an ominous sound. It sounded like water dripping in the family room. Sure enough, water was dripping fast through the first floor family room ceiling from a shower on the floor above.

And so began a home repair odyssey that has not yet ended. I rushed upstairs only to discover that when the previous homeowners had installed shelving in the linen closet they had screwed it into the access panel to the shower. The entire shelving system had to come out of the closet—and ultimately a hole larger than the access panel had to be cut into the closet wall in order to get to the problem. That meant a lot of Thursday was chewed up getting ready for the plumber and triaging to save the family room ceiling. Then I spent five hours on Friday dealing with the plumber. Saturday and Sunday the wall had to be repaired and spackled. While we were at it, we figured we might as well spackle numerous holes in the closet apparently left by homeowners past. Monday I repainted the closet. Now some sort of shelving needs to be reinstalled and the linen closet contents, strewn about the spare bedroom, put away. Basically a week of disruption and unexpected chores, one thing leading to another as always seems to happen.

And the scary part is, this is just one example of how time dissolves. My life is filled with similar examples. A couple months ago the IRS told us we owed them more taxes. We spent two full days unearthing three-year-old papers to explain why we did not. When the IRS later wrote us a sunny letter telling us that, oh yes, we were right after all, I felt like asking for a refund of my two days.

I know your life is the same as mine. We all deal with these unexpected, time sucking problems and, if we are not careful, we move from crisis to crisis until we wake up one day and realize weeks and months have gone by and we haven’t done anything we really wanted or set out to do. It’s a sobering thought--especially today, November 1, when we realize the year is fast waning and the next two months will be especially busy with holiday preparations and celebrations.

Keeping our spiritual lives as a priority amidst busy days is not some new problem. The book of Haggai tells us God's people got side-tracked for 14 years by home improvement projects. God told them to carefully consider the way they were spending their days and get their priorities back in line. Hebrews tells us to deal with this problem aggressively by "throwing off" everything that hinders us and running the spiritual race with perseverance lest we kind of just drift off course.

Take some time today to think about how you can keep God at the top of your to-do list when life’s tiny crises hit and the busy-ness of the holidays begins. Personally, I’ve discovered that rock solid habits are the only way I can do it. I actually write a list every single day: “Read Bible. Pray. Exercise. Shower.” Then I add other things to the list like “repaint linen closet” or “look for tax papers.” And I do the reading and praying first so that, hopefully, it will already be done when the family room ceiling caves in. This, plus weaving little layers of God time in throughout the day (like listening to a sermon on tape while I repair the closet!) helps keep my priorities focused and, as the author of Hebrews would say, my eyes fixed on Jesus.

...Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus.... Hebrews 12:1-2

Showing Up to Learn

Several of my blogs lately have reflected something that I have been learning: that we grow not through our own self-effort but through the Holy Spirit’s effort in our lives. Yet as soon as I think I have grasped that truth, I am bombarded with teaching about how we need to work at our spiritual growth. Elisabeth Elliot’s devotional and Keswick’s Victory Call today both hammered home the work-at-it idea. Even the book I am reading, Mike Flynn’s How To Be Good Without Really Trying, despite its title, starts out with a longish discussion about how Christian faith is about doing and not just hearing!

So what am I to think? I come back to the idea that spiritual growth is about putting forth the effort necessary to put ourselves in the place that God can do the work in us (i.e., making sure we remain attached to the vine so the sap can flow and walking through the door into the room where God is working). I looked around for a way to explain this more fully to myself and God brought the following example to mind.

This time last year the school district told us that our daughter could start Algebra I in the fall if we were willing. Saying yes took a scary leap of faith since it would mean Callie would skip a year of math instruction—the Pre-Algebra year—that her soon-to-be classmates had already had. Although she had been a decent math student, she is clearly not a natural whiz at the subject. She could fail miserably. But we went ahead and in the fall I spoke to the Algebra teacher about our concerns that Callie did not have the necessary background to keep up with the class. The teacher told me to relax. “If she comes to class and does the homework, I will fill in any gaps. I am aware of her current level of understanding and I will keep an eye on her. If she has any problems, she can come to me during recess or after school. I am always available to her. I will make sure she gets through this class if she wants to.” At the time I remember feeling surprised that the teacher took on so much of the responsibility for Callie's learning the subject--and that she was so confident Callie would succeed--so long as Callie demonstrated a willing attitude.

And so began a year in which Callie demonstrated her willingness. She did the homework everyday. If she didn’t understand something, she went in during recess. I would estimate that she monopolized the teacher’s lunch hour at least twice a week all year long. She spent many hours over the course of the year alone with the teacher.

Callie not only passed the class, she got an A. Did she teach herself Algebra this year through the strength of her own efforts? No, there is no way she could have learned this material on her own or by natural instinct—she just doesn’t have that level of ability. But she deliberately put herself in the position that the teacher could teach her Algebra. Slowly, she was transformed from a person who didn’t even know Pre-Algebra to a competent Algebra problem solver--all she had to do was put herself into the hands of that teacher.

You get the point right? What God wants for us is to become Christ-like, but we don’t have the ability to achieve this transformation on our own. Our inability is not a problem because He is the one who is going to transform us--but He can only do so if we put ourselves in a position where He can do it. We have to make ourselves available to be taught.

This month, evaluate how fully you are putting yourself in a position to be transformed. Are you showing up to class everyday? Are you doing the assignments? Are you referring to the textbook frequently? Are you asking the teacher for individual help? How often? Use the Algebra example as a guide to asses whether the level of your efforts truly demonstrates a willingness to learn. I can't tell you how much effort is "enough" for you--it really is more a matter of how willing you are and how you translate that willingness into determined action that overcomes natural laziness and your desire to do other stuff like watch TV, etc. If Callie had shown up to class only half the time and opened her book only once or twice a week, what would the teacher have thought of her efforts? Would the teacher have made herself so available to help a student who skipped homework assignments because she was too busy IMing or watching American Idol? Callie probably would have ended the year knowing more about Algebra than when she started but I doubt she would have developed the cooperative and dynamic relationship with the teacher that enabled her to really triumph in the class.

We’ve got an incredibly competent and available teacher, but we have to show up in order to learn.