The Time of Your Life: Use it Wisely

February 13-2011

Ephesians 5:15-17

¹⁵ Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, ¹⁶ making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. ¹⁷ Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

Why is it that winter seems to last for ever? In fact, we really only fight through about nine weeks of it out of 52 each year. But come summer time when we hang at the beach, enjoy vacations, enjoy baseball, time goes by like a flash of lightning, when in fact we have about 20 good weeks and good fun and good weather. Time drags when you want it to pass quickly and flies when you need more of it? It's not very cooperative!

Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers from NPR’s Car Talk argued ,

1. Time is money and money is work

2. Money is the root of all evil.

3. So if A=B, and B=C, then C=A, or we can conclude that

4. Work is evil, ... so let's go golfing.

Driving a furniture truck in upstate Vermont, we worked hard for not much money; starting out at 7:00, loading and unloading furniture, navigating back roads and getting home after dark tired and hungry. But we loved it. It was honest work and we met some interesting people.

Once we delivered a mattress to a small, one room apartment made out of a converted motel. We unloaded the mattress, set it up, packed up the old and loaded it into the truck only to find that the truck battery had died and we had to wait for another truck to drive over from the warehouse to give us a jump.

It took about an hour, and in the hour I felt a bit sad visiting with the young, unemployed father, his wife and one year old daughter. During the entire hour, they just sat in their lazy-boy’s watching TV, sort of in a semi-comatose state.

Rather than wasting time or spending time, achievers invest time. They make the most out of each moment.

Last week I mentioned how in an interfaith world Jesus is Buddha: the concepts of Buddha are of Jesus. This makes sense. If Jesus is the Lord of all that is good, then all good should be expected to be part of Jesus. However, Buddha is not Jesus; that is salvation, forgiveness, intimacy with God, personal communion with the Father are not part of Buddhism.

Mindfulness of Buddhist philosophy plays a central role in the teaching of Buddhist meditation, and it is intricately woven into the realities of the living Christ.

Described in Buddhism as a calm awareness of one's body, one’s feelings, the content of one’s consciousness, its discipline results in (... listen to this...) the development of "wisdom." How keenly connected this discipline is with the truth Paul is talking about. Almost is passing he says.

¹⁵ Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise...

Be mindful of every moment.

YOUR TIME IS YOUR LIFE.

Think of it this way: when you give someone money, you've given them something that really is replaceable (a few hours work, another investment trade; it can be replaced). But when you give someone your time, you've given them a part of your life. This means "time management" is really "life management."

The Philips Translation has paraphrased this passage as,

"...Make the best use of your time. Don't be vague, but grasp firmly what you know to be the will of God." (Eph. 5:15-17 Ph)

I'd summarize these verses this way:

1. ANALYZE YOUR LIFESTYLE! “Be mindful of how you live.” (v.15) Be aware of what's going on. Be mindful.

2. UTILIZE THE PRESENT! “Make the most of every opportunity.” (v.17) Make the most of each instance.

3. RECOGNIZE WHAT'S IMPORTANT! “...understand what the will of the Lord’s will.” (v.17) Focus on priorities that last.

A question to consider as you work this week: how much of what I'm doing right now is going to count ten years from now, ...50 years from now, ... or for eternity?"

Your Greatest Weakness is God’s Greatest Platform

February 6, 2011

2 Corinthians 12:7-9

⁷ ...Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. ⁸ Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”⁹...Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Few, if any, will ever know what it feels like to be Chuck Close. Most of us have not idea of who he is. I had not run into his story until this last week. But in his story I do believe all of us have something monumentally important to learn from him.

Chuck Close is portrait artist. Unlike the days of old when portraitures were a paramount part of preserving your legacy, there are not many today who request this talent. Still, Chuck Close seems to have become a rather respected portrait artists of our time. When you look at his work, huge 10’x9’ canvasses, you would think you were looking at massive photographs. But on closer examination you’d notice there is no grain as with film, and no pixilation as with digital formats. They are painting in acrylic, or oil; or pencil sketches done with such detail they stun the senses.

But if you knew his backstory, well that you really give you something to think about.

Close suffers from prosopagnosia. It’s a disability where you can’t remember a face. You meet someone, and five minutes later, you see their face, but you cannot make any recollection about who it is; hear their story, have them mention their family, and then the connections are likely to return and you can remember who you are talking with. But to remember who’s who by the face alone is nearly impossible. In effect, the disability leaves one desperately alienated from the social world.

Faces are his greatest weakness. And yet, Chuck Close creates powerful masterpieces from the very things that are his greatest weakness. His weakness rather than adding to his alienating, becomes the motivation for greatness. To quote Chuck Close, “Everything in my art is driven by my disability.”

His greatest weakness is the source of his greatest strength. The weakness provides that platform where his greatness is elevated.

Few, if any, will ever have a disability like Chuck Close’s, and yet all of us face similar conditions. Who among us does not have to deal with weakness in one shape or another:

• Some of us feel completely inadequate for handling the responsibilities we have and feel like complete failures.
• Some of us feel like we are too callous, heartless, selfish and careless to have a healthy relationship with our spouse..
• Some of us have been so traumatized in our past that we feel paralyzed in the present. ..
• Some of us are overwhelmed by physical ailments and our bodies are eating away at our health.

For every person, there is Good News.

I so much would like to get this News into our world that has dismissed Jesus as just another option. Many see Jesus as just another idea on par with the Buddha, or Mohammad, or a Wiccan who focuses on the energies of the earth. I have been to interfaith chapels where a cross, a Buddha, the star and crescent of Islam and a rock are poignantly displayed on a shelf next to each other symbolizing equity between the faiths. But as I look into the alternative religions, all valid and helpful with truths for wholeness and healing, I’ve realized the Jesus is Buddha. The concepts of suffering and mindfulness are all in Jesus. Jesus is Mohammad. The teaching of justice and discipline in the original revelations of Mohammad are in the revelations of Jesus. Jesus is the earth. The pagan communion with earth are in Jesus, “Who was from the beginning,” and we celebrate in Genesis and Psalm 24. But, and this is a big “but,” Buddha is not Jesus. Mohammad is not Jesus. Wiccans are not Jesus; for Jesus is a reality that embraces all, but not one of which all else embraces. Jesus invites us into a relationship that NO OTHER religion dares embody. Jesus is God embracing weakness, personally; living and breathing in our pain and suffering and, as Paul preaches, lives in the weakness to glorify God’s strength. All other faith systems are valuable and have tremendous wisdom for humanity, and each is in harmony with Jesus, but Jesus is more. In the interfaith chapel I have wanted to gently pick of the cross the put it above the other religious symbols, in only in my mind, to reflect what I do believe is a deeper reality. Jesus is all, but not all is Jesus. He lifts me in my weakness to glorify the Kingdom.

Jesus speaks to Paul, and Paul speaks to us,

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

In weakness, any greatness is not me, but of the One who made me. I become the vessel for glorifying God, if I but let Christ take my life and embrace me in my weakness.

Our greatest weakness may actually be God’s greatest platform for elevating His power and glory in our lives.

Many, many times we find ourselves with loved ones, friends, neighbors - - incapacitated, debilitated, deteriorated, depreciated, decomposed, decayed, putrefied, petrified and calcified. We say, “They have no use.”

Frank had undergone surgery for a heart valve. As they were finishing the procedure and moving him off the ventilator, he aspirated and choked so severely that for 13 minutes no one was able to get air to his lungs. His brian in effect died and Frank was comatose.

His wife, Loretta, took him home, nursed him for seven years, Frank never regaining consciousness, before his died. During those years many would wonder, and some would say, “It would be a blessing if Frank would just die.”

But Loretta pointed out some profound wisdom, right from the revelation of Jesus to Paul, “I know Frank is a burden, but I also have seen how his illness has brought out the heart of compassion in his daughters who have learned through him how to love deeply, and relished every breath God has given them.”

Frank was, by all accounts of our utilitarian value system of a secularized world that see worth only in terms of usefulness, ... Frank was useless. But in the eyes of those who could see, for those who stopped long enough to sit by his bedside, there emerged a deep gratitude and mindfulness for the moment of each instance of life. Live, in the face of Frank’s weakness, because a great value.

In 2 Corinthians 12:9, Jesus tells Paul, and Paul tells us,

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

God’s power is the perfect counterpart to your weakness. It’s more than enough for you and it’s completely available to you. God isn’t scouring the universe looking for a perfect person through whom He can display His power and glory. Remember whom Jesus spent time with. Yes, he spent time with the aristocracy of Jerusalem, but he was more interested in the hated tax-collected, the leper, the widow, the blind, the lame, the outcast: the hurt and weak... people who had no claim to fame, or hope of fame, through whom he could rise them to a glory known only to a God who lives and reigned within.

No matter what you’re going through, no matter how weak you feel right now, God will use the “thorn in your flesh” and raise you on a platform of triumph.

How to Gain Strength in Stress

January 30, 2011

Matthew 11:28

“Come to Me all you that are weary and heavy burdened and I will give you rest.”

Ever have one of those…a bad day? It seems the longer I live, and net number of “bad days” accumulate, it gets easier to become discouraged. William Ward, a British pioneer and Baptist missionary of the 18^th century, wrote:

Discouragement is dissatisfaction with the past, distaste for the present, and distrust of the future.

Discouragement is ingratitude for the blessings of yesterday, indifference to the opportunities of today,and insecurity regarding strength for tomorrow.

Discouragement is unawareness of the presence of beauty, unconcerned for the needs of our [neighbors], and unbelief in the promises of old.

Discouragement is impatience with time, immaturity of thought,and impoliteness to God. -

When we are over-stressed, over-worked, over-taxed and over-run, we fall to the attitudes William Ward depicts; we basically burnout. Moving from burnout to balance involves shifting our orientation of thought. Jesus said in Matthew 11:28, “Come to Me all you that are weary and heavy burdened and I will give you rest.”

Three characteristics of God Jesus is pointing us to in this morning passage.

1) It’s Invitational 2) It’s Personal 3) It’s Mutual

1) It’s Invitational

This is an invitation; a polite invitation. No one is coercing any of us into a relationship with Jesus. The days of the Inquisition and heresy trials were blind to this key character of God . We lost Joan of Arc. We suppressed Galileo Galilei. We beheaded Thomas Moore among countless innocence tortured in the name of orthodoxy and in direct contradiction to Scripture.

My understanding of this characteristic emerged from, off all places, Ephesians 5 during a pre-marriage class. Ephesians 5 deals with marital relationships. For the husband, Paul tells us, “Husbands, love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” Hence, men, we need to ask ourselves what was it that Christ gave up? Nothing less than life itself, and as such our role is sacrificial for the wife.

But then Paul turns to the wife and says, “Wives, love your husbands and submit to them for the husband is head of the wife and Christ is head of the church.” The brakes go on here when ever this is raise. It contradicts our modern family structure.

I mentioned to the class that I didn’t have a clear understanding of this. But a young bride, not schooled in church life or raised in church school, interjected,

“Well wait a minute. I’m wondering if we women need to ask the same question you poised to the men, ‘How is it that Christ is head of the church?’

“It seems to me that Christ is a voluntary association. I choice Christ,because He chose me and in Christ I see all the goodness that I seek to aspire to. So, shouldn’t I also be seeking a husband in whom I see such goodness reflected that I too willingly accept him?”

So it is with Christ. He waits for us in expectation that in Him we will see all such goodness so as all I want to do is voluntarily submit myself to Him. No one coerces me. It is a free invitation. I don’t have to join a club, attend a motivational conference, pass a test, win any election or prove anything. It’s just an invitation.

Just come.

2) It’s Personal

In the Bible people came to Jesus for many different reasons. Some came for forgiveness. Some came for answers. Some people came for healing. Some came for salvation. Some came for eternal life. And too all these Jesus adds, You could come to Me for rest. Rest from the stress, rest from overload.

Jesus says, “Are you weary? Overloaded? Come to Me.” He says “I will give you rest for your souls.” We’ve overloaded in our mind. We’ve overloaded in our emotions. We’ve overloaded in our spirit. We need soul-rest. Release from worry. Release from tension. Release from stress, from guilt, from fear, from bitterness, from anxiety. Soul-rest.

And Jesus says, “If you’re worn out, if you’re tired, overloaded, come to Me and I will give you soul-rest.” Jesus doesn’t say, “Come to my seminar. Come to my house. Come to the movies. Come to Key West.” It isn’t a call, a place, an activity or vacation. It’s personal.

In our Tuesday study we reviewed meditation passages in the bible. The Old Testament is full of the business of meditating. It discusses meditation as the practice of consciously detaching oneself from the daily grind and going about the business of reflecting upon God.

But we also noticed that when we get to the New Testament, the idea of meditation takes a backseat to another activity: prayer. Jesus prays. Peter prays. Paul prayers. We are taught how to pray. Rather than just meditate on the precepts of God, in the New Testament, we are invited to actually talk with God. “It’s not business, Sonny. It’s personal.”

3) It’s Mutual

Oxen work in a team. They are yoked together to share the load. It is a shared burden. Feeling overwhelmed? Orienting your thoughts and priorities to things holy invites a shared distribution of the burden. We don’t have to go at it alone.

You may turn to food when you’re exhausted. You may turn to video games, or prop your feet up and go numb in front of the TV. You may turn to a drink or a pill. But none of these things can help pull the burden, but Jesus can!

It is as if Jesus is declaring the fulfillment of Isaiah has arrived. (Isaiah 40:31 (New King James Version)

³¹ Those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

How?

If you don’t know how, turn to Matthew 6, or Luke 11

⁵ “And when you pray, ...⁶ ... go into your room, ... and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. .. ⁹ In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. ¹⁰ Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. ¹¹ Give us this day our daily bread. ¹² And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. ¹³ And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

That’s all it is. Accept the invitation, know that it’s personal, talk to God and God will share the burden.