Category Archives: Bible & Ministry

Urgency: Taking It Slow?

Urgency is one of those words that embody the sense of being in a hurry. It’s something that needs to be done soon, if not now.  It’s something that takes precedence over most everything else. It’s important to focus attention on it.  It’s very similar to being in an emergency.  Yet, not everything falls into the urgent category.  The question for us is: Are the things that we give attention to deserving of our urgency?

The truth is that when things are urgent, we must give less attention to other things, even if just for a little while. The problem comes that when we put so much focus on one thing, we really become ignorant of other things around us. Daniel Kahneman in Thinking Fast and Slow says:

“Intense focusing on a task can make people effectively blind…we can be blind to the obvious, and we are also blind to our blindness.” (p. 23-24).

This is a good thing in some regards, because the more we focus on something, the less effective distractions will be. We can remain focused to the task at hand. But we must be careful that we don’t allow ourselves to overlook other urgent situations going on around us. All of a sudden, we seem to have the “rug pulled out from under our feet” and left saying “I never really saw that coming!” All of a sudden, someone close to us reveals their troubling health issues, deep marriage problems, spiritual struggles, etc.  Now, the tension to manage becomes a problem to solve.

This often happens because we are just so busy. I’ve heard so many people, including pastors and myself, say “sorry, I was busy.” Being busy all the time makes everything an urgent matter; and, in a sense, being busy all the time makes nothing an urgent matter. It’s impossible to make more than a few things an urgent matter. Daniel warns us about the dangers of over-focusing:

“you will perform less well, or not at all, if you are not ready or if your attention is directed inappropriately.” (p. 23)

Jesus tells many parables about the Kingdom of God and about His immanent return being like urgent matters, yet we never really see Jesus being in a rush to go anywhere or do anything. He tells us to constantly be ready for His return and to constantly be busy about God’s business (Matthew 24:42-46). Yet Jesus was cautious when He started His earthly ministry. He was conscience about every opportunity, but quickly retreated from people to spend time in prayer or with only a few people. He loved His friend Lazarus, but waited intentionally days after his death to go heal and provide comfort. If we follow His example, it’s as though we can only accomplish urgent things when we move slowly. Not slowly for the sake of just moving slowly, but for the sake of being intentional and making a lasting impact. Vince Antonucci calls it “the speed of love” in I Became a Christian and All I Got Was This Lousy T-shirt.

“Jesus’ method of caring for people was to focus on the person standing right in front of him…When I do life at 150 miles per hour, I lose life. I have a hurried life of not really loving God or people. I have a life of missed moments. I have a life without plotline, narrative, or dialogue” (p. 122).

We often over-estimate what we can do in a day or a week or even a year. We hurry and rush and work ourselves all over the place, trying to squeeze orange juice out of every minute of the day. Yet, we all know what that really makes? It makes the next day just as the one before: busy. We also often under-estimate what we can do in a week or a month or even a few years. It’s like looking at big debt and we can’t see how we are going to get out of it. But if we can put a few extra dollars towards one bill each month, we can cut it down from 30 years to 15 or even 3 years, depending on the amount.

You have the power to create significance when you daily build on those things you worked on the day before. All things are going to take your focus and your attention. We must work on the things that are urgent. We must make sure that the things that are getting our full focus is deserving of our full urgency. We are going to have to minimize our busyness. We also are going to have to make sure our focus on the urgent things isn’t so focused that we miss and overlook the things that become urgent and important in life as they show us their opportunity.

Cup of Confidence is Good

Two times this past month, I was subject to dizziness and heart racing. It was a strange feeling and I was really unsure what was causing it to happen. After the second time, I decided to go to the hospital. After a night there, it seemed to boil down to dehydration, too much caffeine for my aging body and probably some stress/anxiety.  I never really thought it could be anxiety. I didn’t seem to be stressed. Anxiety is one of those things that can take a hold of you physically that we assume the source of the trouble is only physical.  But what was I anxious about?

Well, I believe it boiled down to not having a pastor job yet and starting the One-to-One. It was like telling people that I am not good enough to get a church to hire me.  It was anticipating a pressure (that really didn’t exist) from friends and other pastors, missionaries and spiritual leaders when I talked about helping people grow in their relationship with Christ outside of the traditional Western church concept.  My over thinking (anxiety) was causing my brain to believe I was under some sort of attack.  My body responded to that alarm. My adrenaline would kick in, my heart was send blood to the muscles, my muscles would tense up…I would be prepared for a battle.  Tie that with already being stimulated with caffeine and I was ready to wrestle the bear.

I needed to do what Peter calls us to do with anxiety and worry. Get a hold of it and toss it to God (1 Peter 5:7). Even if I wasn’t sure how to get a hold of it, I needed to own it, confess it and give it completely up to God .  I needed to stop over thinking things, capture every thought, and make it obedient to God’s truth (1 Corinthians 10:4).  I needed to know that my significance was not found in my place of work.  I needed to know that I was doing exactly what God had placed in my path at this moment (Ephesians 2:10). If I could be sure of these things, there was freedom to let things go, stop thinking about them, and to please no one but God. And if I was doing what God wanted me to do, what was there to fear? Nothing (Romans 8:35-39).

John writes in 1 John 5:14-15

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us–whatever we ask–we know that we have what we asked of him.” (NIV)

There was no need to worry about the future if I remained concerned with pleasing God (Colossians 1:10-14). I might have to expose and confront some seeds of evil desires in my life (James 4:1-8), but I could remain confident in spite of what people might say. I could remain confident that God knows exactly what He was doing (Philippians 1:6).  I could remain confident that God had something in store that would blow my expectations and imagination (Ephesians 3:20).  I could remain confident that God could use my inexperience (1 Timothy 4:12) to affect someone, if only one person.

Getting a hold of the truth and really getting a hold of what my mind is thinking and what my heart is desiring, set the stage for getting rid of anxiety.  It wasn’t like an automatic thing. It’s like taking down a sticky note and then placing it back on the wall and then taking it down again. I would have to rehearse the truth and hide God’s Word in my heart for the times I brought it back up. Eventually, my heart and mind stop trying to put it back on the wall. The note was losing it’s stickiness.

I love how the Bible tells us over and over of how sturdy and confident we can be when we truly live our lives loving God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength. A confidence that exists from trusting God, rather than in our own efforts, ideals, and plans. It’s not even about developing a self-confidence. It’s developing a God-confidence about yourself. And yes, it’s a constant challenge for all of us. Yet the results are good. Having the truth leads to confidence. A cup of confidence is better than a cup of coffee, if you ask me.

“Of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation– whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life– of whom shall I be afraid?
When evil men advance against me to devour my flesh, when my enemies and my foes attack me, they will stumble and fall.
Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then will I be confident.”
(Psalm 27:1-3 NIV)

Use Your Imagination

On the heals of Martin Luther King, Jr. day this week, dreamers and visionaries were given a little encouragement to keep thinking about how the future needs to be different. Watchers of Spongebob may recall a favorite episode when Spongebob explains the use of “imaaaaaagination!” (I know, I know, I may have seemingly minimized Martin Luther with a following reference to Spongebob, but I’m trying to connect with a wider audience.) The point is that great things have happened in the past because men and woman believed that certain wrongs should no longer be in existence.  They believed things were not simply as they saw them. They used their “imaaaaagination” and “had a dream!”

Dreamers, visionaries and people who are creative and innovative have something in common: imagination.  When we think of imagination, we think of children. Children have this amazing ability to turn a box into just about anything. Put a cape on a boy and they are suddenly super-heroes.

Imagination plays into faith as well. Jesus said that we need to have faith like a child (Matthew 18:3). Faith is believing and putting your trust in those things which cannot be seen.  Faith brings hope. Hope is what dreamers and visionaries embrace.  It gives them the energy to see things past the hard times. This is not simply a hope that is based on nothing substantial. That is called a wish. Hope is based on something real, something to experience. Imagination makes it all possible. Imagination doesn’t have to mean fiction or fantasy.  Here are the two main definitions from Merriam-Webster: