In a study on how we use time, Dr. Matthew Sleeth has discovered that in the last twenty years, the amount of time we spend working has increased by 15% and our leisure time has gone down by 33%.
With all of the timesaving devices we use today, shouldn’t we be better off to goof off more? To put it in perspective, during the middle ages, people–in addition to Sundays–had 115 days off a year. and you???
I love to study people and discover a element of greatness that might be in them. Everyone one of us, every human being on this planet, has been given a capacity for greatness from our maker. I’ve also discovered that people use that greatness in differing ways. I usually simplify the differing uses of greatness down to one of two categories:
I read this morning in a William Barclay devotional, about the measure of truly great men and women. It really got me thinking, perhaps it will you too. Here were some of his thoughts on truly great people:
As I’ve matured, I’ve found I’m learning how to take criticism better, and further how I can use it for something positive. For criticism to be healthy for us, we need a few things:
We need humility. To think we could never be wrong is foolish.
We need to love truth at least as much as we love ourselves. Truth and my self-esteem sometimes differ.
We need to love growth more than we do stuntedness. To refuse to listen to criticism is never to move, never to advance, never to improve.
And finally–this is my personal favorite for when criticism is offered in the wrong spirit–We need to occasionally use the delete button! We all have one; both on our computers and in spirit.
Do you think love and hurry could be fundamentally incompatible? Think about this: Love takes time, but hurried people have too little of it [time].
The most obvious sign I’m too hurried is a diminished capacity to love. Ever struggle with this? You come home after a long, hurried day, only to be frustrated and short with those whom need your love and time the most.
I wonder sometimes, are we so over-commited and so entirely over-extended with our time, that hurry is what might lie just beneath much of our frustration. Could we be too tired, too busy, too drained, too pre-occupied, too hurried, to love the people we love the most in the right way? I think, so. What say you?
Each year, April 22 marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement. Earth Day began in 1970 to draw attention to our need as human beings to care for this beautiful earth.
I believe ‘Creation Care’ is something all Christians should care more deeply about. Put in its proper context, being better stewards of what God has given us, could and should be a wonderful way for us to shine a light. It’s also the original mandate given us by God of the creation story found in Genesis.
What convicts me most is this: of all that God’s created, we have the unique distinction to steward and care for everything else God’s created. Do you think we could do a better job of leading the way?
Here’s one final thought: Earth Day is the only event celebrated simultaneously around the globe by people of all backgrounds, faiths and nationalities. More than a half billion people participate in Earth Day Network campaigns every year.
I have a problem when I watch TV. There are so many options I’m constantly thinking about what I might be missing on the other channels. The result: I sometimes spend two hours watching TV only ‘channel surfing’
Because this is a huge problem for me, I guess I can’t expect to resolve it overnight. But I can at least be aware of how it affects me, and I can try not to make it worse by succumbing to the temptation to examine every possibility before making a decision to watch something.
Do you struggle with ‘choice overload’ anywhere in your life? Here’s what I’m learning: to be satisfied with “good enough” instead of always fretting whether I got “the best,” I’m practicing being grateful for what is good in my choices rather than regretful about what is disappointing, and I’m not worrying so much about what I might be missing while trying harder to enjoy the “two” channels I’ve decided to ‘surf’ back and forth on. Trust me, nailing-it-down to only two is a huge accomplishment!
I’m finishing up a book, “The Paradox of Choice: How The Culture of Abundance Robs Us Of Satisfaction.” Essentially, this book is dealing with the overload of choices we are faced with daily and why the freedom to choose seems no longer to liberate but actually debilitates. The author writes:
“There is no denying that choice improves the quality of our lives, yet the fact that SOME choice is good doesn’t necessarily mean that MORE choice is better.
There is a cost to having an overload of choice. As a culture, we are enamored of freedom, self-determination, and variety, and we are reluctant to give up any of our options. But clinging tenaciously to all the choices available to us contributes to bad decisions, to anxiety, stress, and dissatisfaction–even to clinical depression.”
Hmm, resonates with me. Our best choice sometimes is the freedom to simplify. I’ll post more on this tomorrow.
I confess, I have a great desire to do something great which has both positive and negative potential. The negative potential is that of doing something spectacular that would win me great applause. I’m not proud of that, yet it’s always before me. And, I struggle with the tension of doing something great, not for great applause, but rather out of great love.
Mother Teresa said it best: “We can do no great things, just small things with great love. It’s not how much you do, but how much love you put into doing it.”
I’m learning to discipline myself, to resist the temptation to be spectacular, and to immerse myself more fully in the great example Jesus modeled for us in the way of great love and servant leadership. That’s the greatness I desire most!
Read this, this morning and thought I’d pass it on: There are three qualities without which any civilization is bound to disintergrate…
1.) Honesty. Even those who are prepared to put through a dishonest deal themselves, expect other decent, honest, honorable people to hold society together and to make life possible.
2.) The Spirit of Service. Unless there are at least some people who are prepared to live unselfishly, our whole social structure breaks down.
3.) Purity and Fidelity. Not even those who break them would wish to see them destroyed.
Debbie and I are celebrating 18 years of marriage today, and we’ve agreed to “go” another year with the hopes it can still get even better! 
) I often think–in a culture where ‘breaking marriage’ is way too common–why has it seemed to work so well for us? I’m really not sure there is a definite answer, but here is what I believe to be true for us:
Friendship is a major component to real enduring love! Sometimes it’s less glamorous, or even less passionate, but it’s deeper and kind of wiser. At the heart of our relationship is a great friendship.
Unfortunately, much of our culture only knows the erotic piece of love, yet it’s only one part of a larger whole. But when the erotic is joined together with commitment and friendship, it becomes a much higher, bigger, complete, extraordinary kind of love that you just can’t let go of!
Pastor, teacher, thinker, father, and husband who believes the world is more malleable than we think and we can all help bend it into a better shape.
