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Personal advice from C.S. Lewis

February 5, 2013 in priorities, quotes with 0 Comments

CSLewis

via Brain Pickings

Advice from C.S. Lewis?

Yes please.

Who wouldn’t want some personal advice from C.S. Lewis?

Here’s some personal advice he wrote one little girl in 1949:

“Remember that there are only three kinds of things anyone need ever do. (1) Things we ought to do (2) Things we’ve got to do (3) Things we like doing. I say this because some people seem to spend so much of their time doing things for none of the three reasons, things like reading books they don’t like because other people read them. Things you ought to do are things like doing one’s school work or being nice to people. Things one has got to do are things like dressing and undressing, or household shopping. Things one likes doing — but of course I don’t know what you like.”

So:

  1. What’s on your “ought to do” list?
  2. What’s on your “got to do” list?
  3. What’s on your ”like to do” list?

From my point of view, developing those lists without the help and wisdom of God will only get you so far. You may need to take some time to get quiet and re-evaluate.

I hope you do.

May God richly bless all of your “to dos” – today and every day.

For more advice from C.S. Lewis click here.

The Healing Power of Rest

March 15, 2012 in faith, priorities, Rest with 4 Comments

“People who cannot find time for recreation are obliged sooner or later to find time for illness.” ~ John Wanamaker

John Wanamaker was no stranger to initiative, work ethic and a busy life. At the time of his death in 1922, the self-made philanthropist had amassed a $100million fortune. In today’s economy, he would have been a billionaire. Mr. Wanamaker was no fool. He understood that a busy life of hard work required regular rest. Being a man of faith, he would have likely known about a commanded rest – the Sabbath.

“Work six days. The seventh day is a Sabbath, a day of total and complete rest, a sacred assembly. Don’t do any work. Wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to God.” (Leviticus 23:3 MSG)

The Hebrew word for Sabbath is Shabbat. It comes from a root meaning to cease, to end, or to rest.

There you have it. God intended for us to take one day a week, every week, to rest, enjoy our lives and reset. Sabbath carries the connotation of ceasing from our work, from our normal pace – stopping completely. The Jews in Israel take it very seriously. From Friday sundown to Saturday sundown everything shuts down. You better not need any last minute something from the store or gas in your car. Forget going out to eat, too. It’s just not going to happen. It’s the Sabbath, after all.

They mean it.

Recently in the Washington Post, Daniela Deane described the modern Sabbath like this:

“Shabbat’s spirit is essentially joyful. It’s a day of rest, and freedom from everyday responsibilities. An oasis of calm to spend with family and close friends. A day to get dressed up, eat well (under Jewish law, every Jew must eat three meals on the Sabbath), take a nap, have sex with your spouse, go for a walk, play with the kids. Strolling and playing are encouraged.”

A very experienced minister, Jewish scholar and friend of ours has said that missing Sabbaths is detrimental to the health of our bodies. The lack of rest over time can cause you to become weak, opening the door for illness. You could find yourself flat on your back, unable to leave home. At that point, your only option is to rest. She calls these recovery times “forced Sabbaths.”

Your body will get its rest one way or another.

It’s better to rest God’s way.

It’s better to have regular Sabbaths. God intended for you to have 52 of them each year. Are you taking them? You need them more than you could possibly know.

You really should take a Sabbath this weekend. Plan it now. Set it aside.

Enjoy your rest.

Shabbat Shalom.

Are you spending or investing your time?

March 6, 2012 in priorities, purpose, time with 0 Comments

“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.” ~ Carl Sandburg

Time. We all wish we had more of it.

More time in the day. More time to do what feeds us. More time to complete that project. More time to think.

You get the point.

Time is a commodity. A precious commodity. If you live 100 years, you only get 5,200 Saturdays on planet Earth. If you’re 20 years old you have spent over 1,000 of them already.

We are all in a race with the clock, a war with the calendar. It’s up to us if we win the race. It’s up to us if we’re victorious over the calendar. The key is being aware that it’s a choice. It’s your choice to say “yes” or “no” when someone or something wants some of your time.  What does a win look like? How do we know if we’ve defeated our foe, the calendar?

Let me put it like this. Time is never borrowed – it’s only spent or invested.

Time spent is that which you will never see again. It speaks of regret. Time invested is purposeful and positive. It speaks of a decision made to use some of our limited time for something that hits the target for our life’s purpose and calling.

On your job, you allow your employer to buy some of your time to work on things that are important to that business. Depending on your employer, your job and your calling that time will either go in the spent column or the invested column. The same is true of everything else in our lives. It’s all time spent or time invested.

You are the only one who can do the accounting properly, and you should do that accounting. Not just with your job, but your relationships, your hobbies and progress on your life-goals.

This brings me to the million dollar questions:

Are you in control of your time, or is it out of control?

What, or who is spending your time for you?

What are you willing to change to be able to invest more time in something valuable?

I hope these words today cause you to put more time in the invested column. I hope these thoughts cause you to be more on-purpose with your days. I hope you find the courage to take account. Time is ticking.

Time invested is a win. Every time.

Oh, the possibilities!

January 12, 2012 in priorities, time with 3 Comments

“Forever is composed of nows.”  ~ Emily Dickinson

Now is an elusive commodity. Blink and it’s a new now. That other now just then is no longer the current now. As quickly as one passes, a new one arrives in its place.

Every time you say “now,” it’s now. Now is always now. Now is never past nor future. It’s always the presently present. It’s not a moment, a second or a minute. It is a now.

Now cannot be held, grasped, elongated or measured. However, now can be seized. As a matter of fact, every one of them can be seized.

How many nows are there in a lifetime? On the one hand, you only have one now. On the other hand, our whole lives are filled with them. A paradox, really.

Philosophical musings aside, we have a choice invest our nows, however many we get, in the people and pursuits that mean the most to us. What we do with each one speaks of our priorities, values and world view. Now is treasure. While we can’t measure now, it measures us, looking into the desires of our hearts.

If you’re human, you have likely blown a few of your past nows on things that don’t matter. Let them go, seize new ones and use them to invest in people and pursuits that matter. No sense beating yourself up now for something that happened then.

Every now is a new opportunity. They don’t come around once a day, once a year or once in a lifetime. They come around all the time, each one bringing fresh possibilities.

“It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.” (Matthew 6:21 MSG)

Treasure now like it matters. It does. Oh, and thanks for taking your last few nows to read this. You can redeem them by making a decision to ride the next one.

Go ahead, seize a now.

Make it count.

Then the next one.

And the next.

And don’t look back.

A lifespan is a billion heartbeats?

December 1, 2011 in priorities, time with 4 Comments

 

In a recent article on Discover Magazine Blogs, the author made this astounding statement:

“A lifespan is a billion heartbeats. Complex organisms die. Sad though it is in individual cases, it’s a necessary part of the bigger picture; life pushes out the old to make way for the new. Remarkably, there exist simple scaling laws relating animal metabolism to body mass. Larger animals live longer; but they also metabolize slower, as manifested in slower heart rates…”

I don’t know if this statement can be taken at face value, but…

A billion heartbeats?

What if you really had a billion heartbeats that measured your life?

What would you do with them?

What would you change about your day? Week? Priorities?

 

5 Lessons From My Sabbatical

November 7, 2011 in choices, priorities, Rest with 3 Comments

We went on a short getaway last summer to rest and refresh. I fully intended to take some of that time to write and be creative. I thought we would just take a few days away, and step back into life as usual.

Not so much.

Here we are, five months later, and I am just now writing my first blog since our “little getaway.” It’s not that I forgot I had a blog. I felt it talking to me almost every day, at least in the beginning of my hiatus. It’s not that I didn’t feel the responsibility to this tribe. I thought about you often during the break.

I took a sabbatical from blogging for several reasons. I had run out of things to say. My “day job” as a pastor was demanding more of my attention, thought and prayer life. I was tired. I lacked focus. I needed some time. I needed real refreshing. I wanted more family time.

Five months is a long time to think about stuff, and honestly it took quite a while to even get back to ground zero. I have some takeaways from my sabbatical that I hope will help you.

1. Adrenaline is a powerful drug.

The human body is amazing, giving us the ability to power through situations and sometimes even gain superhuman strength from a hormone called adrenaline. It was meant to help us in times of crisis. I was living on it. Wrong answer.

2. Learn when and how to graciously say “no.”

I am a people pleaser. I want everyone to like me. Added to that, I like helping people. That has led me to seasons of over-commitment and overloading my plate. I can’t do everything. I can’t fix everything. Sometimes “no, thank you” is the right answer. I am learning how and when to pull that card.

3. Pace is more important than I thought.

I want to live a long, healthy life. That will require me to slow down and be more realistic with the tempo of my life. By the end of this year I will have taken more vacation and personal time than in any year previous. I’m embarrassed to say it, but I’ll also be taking my FIRST two-week vacation in my adult life.

4. You can only have a few priorities.

Author and speaker Jim Collins (Good to Great, Built to Last) has said that if you have more than three priorities, you have NO priorities. I have been taking time to pray, think and meditate on what is important to me, and limit my priorities to just a few. I can and should only do my part, and to do it well, I need to be more focused.

5. There’s no place like home.

After my commitment to God, my first and foremost commitment is to my family. Thank God we have a good and healthy one. I want to keep it that way. My family and my home are a shelter and sanctuary for me. I’m more determined than ever to spend quality time with the ones I love the most.

It’s good to have something to say again. It’s good to be with you. It’s good to be back.

Let’s help and learn from one other. Have you had any awakenings this year that will help us? Post a comment and let’s talk!

Pick three. Any three. Only three.

September 7, 2010 in choices, focus, priorities with 0 Comments

Ever feel like you’re spreading yourself a little too thin?

Sure, you have a list to help you keep up with it. Or maybe lists. Or maybe you have a list to help you keep up with your lists. Or maybe those lists are notebooks. Am I getting warmer?

I’m not talking about task lists – we all have those. I’m talking about priorities. Your priorities. I’m saying you probably have too many priorities.

I was watching a 10-minute video of Jim Collins (Good to Great) from Catalyst, and in the midst of the other sage wisdom from those short moments, he hit me between the eyes.

“If you have more than three priorities, you have NO priorities.”

Ouch. Thank you, but ouch.

A few days later, I saw a another 10-minute video interview with Steve Jobs from D8 about the secrets of Apple’s success. I was really enjoying the “inside scoop” when he hit me with a sucker-punch.

“We carefully choose which horses to ride.”

There it is again.

I’m not the most intelligent guy on the planet, but I can notice when a pattern is emerging. This was one of those “pattern is emerging” alerts on the inside. When I get those alerts, I’ve learned to pay attention to them – especially when they come through people that I respect.

“Are you saying God can speak through Steve Jobs?” Yes, go back and read Numbers 22. It’s possible.

So, my friends, it’s time to make some choices. Time to pick your priorities and really make them your priorities. Time to carefully choose which horses to ride and actually ride those horses. This means that the other things on your list(s) must NOT be priorities and are horses that are not to be ridden. And least not now. Don’t let them gradually “cut in line” until they are edging toward the top again.

Choose wisely. Guard your choices.

Pick three. Any three. Only three.

Keeping Our Priorities Straight

April 30, 2010 in decisions, prayer, priorities with 1 Comment

This is an actual picture of the actual windshield of my son’s car yesterday. He’s fine. Thank God! It was a really freak incident and he handled it amazingly well. Debbie and I had been praying over him off and on all day. We witnessed an accident early in the morning that served as a “prayer cue” to cover our children in prayer – especially their vehicles and safety.

Yesterday afternoon his hood came unlatched while he was driving, came back and smashed his windshield. There were no injuries and no accidents. Just a smashed windshield, a very thankful family and a faithful God who daily makes his wisdom available to anyone who will tune in to receive it.

Take this opportunity to cover yourself and your family in prayer. Make a commitment to listen to wisdom when it comes and keep your priorities straight. You will never be sorry for following the goodness and mercy of God.

Psalm 91 (NLT)

Those who live in the shelter of the Most High
  will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
This I declare about the Lord :
He alone is my refuge, my place of safety;
  he is my God, and I trust him.
For he will rescue you from every trap
  and protect you from deadly disease.
He will cover you with his feathers.
  He will shelter you with his wings.
  His faithful promises are your armor and protection.
Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night,
  nor the arrow that flies in the day.
Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness,
  nor the disaster that strikes at midday.
Though a thousand fall at your side,
  though ten thousand are dying around you,
  these evils will not touch you.
Just open your eyes,
  and see how the wicked are punished.

If you make the Lord your refuge,
  if you make the Most High your shelter,
no evil will conquer you;
  no plague will come near your home.
For he will order his angels
  to protect you wherever you go.
They will hold you up with their hands
  so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.
You will trample upon lions and cobras;
  you will crush fierce lions and serpents under your feet!

The Lord says, “I will rescue those who love me.
  I will protect those who trust in my name.
When they call on me, I will answer;
  I will be with them in trouble.
  I will rescue and honor them.
I will reward them with a long life
  and give them my salvation.”