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The Sin of Overwork


“I would warn you against the sin of overwork. Many of you seem to think it is right to misuse the strength God gives you. The result of such misuse is that you break down and cause great hindrance to God’s work, wasting the talent He has entrusted to you. Overwork among conscientious souls is a far more real and frequent sin than laziness, and we ought to be more ready to suspect it and guard against it than we are. You need eight hours in bed and one day a week free from work if you are to give God your best service. Are you securing this amount of rest? If you are not, there ought to be a very serious questioning of your conscience in the matter.” (Morgan, Edmund R. Reginald Somerset Ward: His Life and Letters. London: A. R. Mowbray & Co., Ltd, 1963, p. 81-82.)

I agree with Ward here, and think that his counsel is especially fitting for Orange county Christians and a lot of ministry leaders I’ve met. We’re more tempted by overwork than by laziness. Overwork is doing more than what Jesus is giving me. Overwork is adding to the easy yoke Jesus invites me to bear. It is actually a variety of pride. And usually overwork is not especially fruitful work. In my case, it tends to be busy work.

I must take Ward’s counsel as it relates to eight hours of sleep and one day a week free of work. I’ve figured out that I function at my best with seven-and-a-half hours of sleep. And even though I frequently give a presentation on Sabbath and have a chapter on the theme in An Unhurried Life, I have not always been good at the practice. Either I believe this is for me or I do not. If I do not, I haven’t much business proclaiming the virtues of a practice I have not incorporated myself. Thank you, Jesus, for ways you are mentoring me and stretching me into healthier ways to live and work. (I wrote a bit more about overwork in the post: “Overwork Hardens the Heart.”

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The Real Value of Relationships


In writing An Unhurried Life, I found Kosuke Koyama’s book Three Mile An Hour God very helpful. I’ve posted other insights from him here in “Unhurried: Is Jesus Too Slow?” and “Living Life at the Pace of Love.” I think you’ll appreciate what he has to say here about the real costs of technology and the real value of human relationships:

“Our technological resourcefulness is making our life expensive and lonely. Technology is ambiguous. It can enrich and impoverish our life. Technology is like fire; it can cook rice for our enjoyment and nutrition and it can also reduce our house to ashes.

Can we bring about an inexpensive yet resourceful life style? One way—perhaps the only way—to do this would be to cultivate, increase and deepen human relationship. Human relationship is inexpensive yet resourceful. This is grace indeed. The biblical God is the God of a covenant relationship with man. This means that the whole biblical teaching is rooted in relationship. Money has ultimate meaning only if it enhances human relationship. The salvation the Bible is talking about is ‘inexpensive yet resourceful’. If salvation is expensive in terms of hard-cash, then something is wrong with that kind of salvation.” (p. 121.)

“For Peter ‘I have no silver and gold’ means ‘I always look at silver and gold under the overwhelming sense of gratitude to God’. Or ‘what God has provided is abundant for me. I have no need for more. And I say this joyously’. This is the apostolic secret. ‘I have no silver and gold’ he said. Yet he healed the man. The secret of Peter is ‘gratitude’ and ‘Jesus’. These two combined bring healing, hope and resurrection.” (p. 141.)

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More Fruits of Solitude (Pt 2)


I’ve mentioned in this blog that I lead quite a few days of solitude and silence for Christian leaders every month. It is my most favorite and fruitful ministry. Sometimes these days are for an unrelated group who gather for a single day together. Sometimes it’s a leadership team from a particular Christian ministry. I’ve often said that one of the greatest “fringe benefits” of my ministry is that I have days like these regularly because my work is to provide them for others. When I lead these days, I often write in my journal during the time alone and quiet before God. Below are a few scattered notes from such a day a while back.

On distraction. I’ve discovered I haven’t much power over whether or not I will be distracted in these days alone with God. Noises or interruptions will come from outside of me. Thoughts or feelings will arise from within me. I don’t know how to stop this. What I do have some control over is how I respond or react to these involuntary distractions. I can choose to get wrapped up in solving, wrestling with or otherwise engaging them, or I can decide not to bite the bait and simply let them pass. It’s not as easy as it sounds, but it’s good work when I do it.

On the creative benefits of solitude with God. What have been some of the practical fruits of this regular practice of time alone and quiet before God? What good things have come for me or for others in them?

  • Creativity – drawings, poems, prose, songs.
  • Wisdom, insight and perspective.
  • Peace and rest.
  • A greater and simpler awareness of God with me.
  • A sense of fresh encounter with God
  • A sense of being loved and favored by God.
  • A heart at restful attention with God.
  • When shared with others, a deeper sense of community and unity, even with others who are very different from me.

On the Benedictine vow of stability. This vow is simply a way of saying that there is usually great virtue in staying put, rather than moving on. Do we need to hear this in our dramatically mobile culture? How many marriages have been abandoned that could instead now be much more fruitful through perseverance and willing work? How many have stepped away from one church fellowship just when conflict or challenge could have resulted in new places of rootedness in and reliance on Jesus?

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More Fruits of Solitude


Bethlehem, Church of the NativityOne of my favorite ministry opportunities is providing what a mentor, Wayne Anderson, called “EPC”s (Extended Personal Communion with God). I wrote about this in chapter 10 of An Unhurried Life. Recently, I led a day like this with a group of leaders. After a few hours alone and quiet with God, we came back together to debrief our experiences.

As I was listening to the creative and unique ways that God had been present to each one, I realized that what I enjoy far more than being a speaker or presenter is being a facilitator of vital encounters with Jesus. This skill is not so much about putting words together in a way that is entertaining, interesting or captivating. (I won’t discount that God often gives me a one-liner that seems to help others, but I enjoy those more when they come in an interactive moment rather than in a one-way lecture).

I really feel I’m at my best in those interactive moments like a debrief. Someone shares a story of their encounter with God, and a thought comes that seems to help put that encounter into some context, or helps others identify with and enter into it. It is these encounters and this interaction that seems to be a catalyst for people actually practicing the presence of Jesus rather than talking about his practice.

I like having unhurried time and space like a retreat where people open more to God, then I can come along and help them more deeply understand and appreciate those encounters.

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Here’s a practical insight that came during this particular debrief. One of the participants shared that they felt drawn to begin fasting. I shared that when we practice disciplines of “not doing” something, like solitude (no company), silence (no conversation), fasting (no eating), secrecy (no seeking recognition for our good ) or simplicity (no unnecessary spending), it causes our desires to become focused. When the desire for conversation inevitably surfaces in the midst of silence, I can say, “I do want conversation, but I want Jesus more.” Or in solitude, I can say, “I do want company, but I want Jesus more.”

In fasting, this is where I learn deeply that we do not live only by the bread we eat, but by everything God communicates to us. “I do want food, but I want Jesus more.” Disciplines of abstinence bring focus to our desires. When I find my desires scattered here and there, it may be good to ask which disciplines of disengagement is Jesus inviting me to practice to bring focus to my desires.

 

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Praying for a Lifetime


www.gemhelen.com“I do not find as life goes on that the principle of putting prayer first in daily life becomes any easier to keep. It is true that long habit makes it natural to keep the Rule of Prayer, but, on the other hand, decreasing vitality makes it harder to use times which were formerly easy. I have had, like many others, to use the early morning because the struggle against wandering thoughts was too hard in the evening. I feel sure that the constant warfare which is necessary to keep prayer in the first place must go on as long as life lasts.” (Morgan, Edmund R. Reginald Somerset Ward: His Life and Letters. London: A. R. Mowbray & Co., Ltd, 1963, p. 78.)

Beginning with prayer did not somehow become easy as Ward aged. It isn’t happening that way for me either. He actually found that the diminished energy of aging made it harder to engage in a regular habit of prayer. But harder isn’t impossible. Harder is just harder.

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A Tribute to Dallas Willard


You may or may not have heard that this morning, Dallas Willard lost his ongoing battle with cancer but won the realization of the eternal life in Jesus he so beautifully described and embodied. I cannot find words to express how deeply our lives and our work at The Leadership Institute have been touched by his.

In February, I was grateful to attend the “Knowing Christ” conference held in Santa Barbara. Dallas and John Ortberg shared the teaching role. It was such a powerful experience. I ended up with twenty posts of my notes and reflections from those days. I gathered up all the links and put them on one page. I offer them to you as a tribute from us at The Leadership Institute to Dallas’ life and work.

As a starting point, the most read of those twenty posts was Dallas’s “Eternal Life Begins Now.” It was the opening presentation and I broke my notes from that one into four parts. It is so very rich and insightful.

On behalf of the team here at The Leadership Institute, grace be with you.

Alan

P.S. – An Unhurried Life is preparing to ship from Amazon, but the Kindle version is live now. I share in the first few pages that a couple of insights from Dallas Willard served as catalysts for this project. (It is possible now to purchase other ebook formats at ivpress.com).

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The Power of a Deeply Transformed Life


Nymphalidae_-_Danaus_plexippus_Chrysalis-1I love this insight from the letters of Reginald Somerset Ward, an Anglican spiritual director from the last century:

“What is needed above all for God’s kingdom on earth is quality. Quantity will take care of itself if we take care of quality. The most powerful instrument for the conversion of the world is the converted individual. Those who have a real desire and passion to help others must, of necessity, first attack their own lives and find in them the tool they can use to help others. The missionary spirit without the spiritual life is helpless. The failure to grasp this is responsible for the small return we perceive for such great activity. There is no lack of the power needed to convert the world–power and more than abundant power is waiting to be used–but the instruments which will give it free play are too few.” (Morgan, Edmund R. Reginald Somerset Ward: His Life and Letters. London: A. R. Mowbray & Co., Ltd, 1963, p. 77.)

On this quantity/quality question, we lean towards emphasizing quantity in our North American contexts. We seem happy to let quality take care of itself instead, but it really never does. Or, we measure quality in programmatic ways but not in “way of life.”

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