A world without clocks

“What would we do without clocks?”

That was the question I asked myself after reading Ann Voskamp’s wonderful post over at Holy Experience.

And then I mused, "What could I gain if I weren’t in such a hurry? What am I missing in life by rushing?" 

A friend  wrote about her need for programmed rest -- taking time away from electronics, shopping, cleaning and work.

Another friend took time off from 'social networking,' putting down the PDA, blog and twitter for a season.

How about a day with absolutely nothing planned?

God had a similar idea. He called it, “the Sabbath.”

The concept, institutionalized in the 10th commandment, was that one day of the week would be given to family, rest and worship. No fields could be worked. No horses could be saddled. Even women running households were given a day of rest.

In our modern world, the mere idea of planned rest comes across as a quant and even unreasonable concept. The earlier colonialists subscribed to the concept of rest and established “Blue Laws,” restricting certain business and leisure activities on Sundays. Even today, in many states, you cannot sell a car or buy liquor on Sunday. Various Sabbath prohibitions exist around the world.

By practice, many businesses close on Sunday. Whether they recognize the need to follow God’s imperative to rest is probably in doubt, but they still recognize the law written on their hearts to have a rest. In the Supreme Court Case, McGowan vs. Maryland, the court let stand Blue Laws, because they promote the values of "health, safety, recreation, and general well-being" through a common day of rest.

One of the last bastions of societal Sabbath is found in Bergen County, NJ. Nearly every retail establishment is closed on Sundays. Yet, the Paramus district within the County has more sales than any other ZIP Code in the United States. Obviously, taking a day off doesn’t hurt the bottom line.

And the Chick-Fil-A fast-food chain famously closes on Sundays. Their locations are darkened on Sundays, yet they are still beacons of light to the world. They have honored God through this since 1946. And the company still makes plenty of money, with more than $2 billion in sales.

My friend has decided to observe the Sabbath for a month and see how it improves her life. “It will be interesting to see if my job performance and relationships improve.”

Admittedly, I don't do well in this area. There is always an article to write, a book to plan, a class to teach, a friend to call, a letter to pen. Every time God says, "chill," I ignore Him.

I have much to learn.

What about you? Comment here.

The upside of down

Pick up the newspaper, listen to the talk at any coffee shop, look at the faces in the crowd, and you'll know that times are tough. It seems that nearly every industry has taken a hit, dragging investments, housing and basic security into the dark pit of uncertainty.

We're scared.

And the personal toll has been huge. We all know people who have been laid off, fired or whose jobs have disappeared altogether. For millions, months have now turned into years of unemployment or under-employment. Maybe this is you.

I’m one of the blessed ones, with a period of continuous employment through this whole mess, but not so for my friend John.

John was a sales representative for one of the nation’s largest drug companies, with a solid 23 plus years behind him. To be "fair," the company didn’t lay off by seniority – rather they used a lottery system and his number was pulled.

With a wife and children at home, he could have, he should have got angry. But his very first reaction was of expectancy. "I don’t like it. I don’t understand it. But I look forward to seeing the hand of God in our lives," he wrote in his journal on the day he was laid off.

Read the rest of this story over at today's featured High Calling post.  Click here.

Photo Courtesy Kirsten Michelle Photography

"I lost my job, but I found my life"

The boss was probably making several calls that night. The company was downsizing, and a random lottery chose those who would be fired. But the reaction to one of those calls was probably was a complete surprise.”

“I told him I wasn’t mad at him,” my friend John said. “I told him that God has bigger plans. It’ll be okay.”
And it he meant it.

Photo Courtesy Kirsten Michelle Photography

As a drug representative for a major drug company, he was one of their top performers. For 23 years he had helped match the right drugs with the doctors and patients. He was the number one salesman in the district and in the top 15 percent in the nation. But still, he and 300 others drew the short end.

But from the start, he was believing it wasn’t just bad luck – that is was Providence.

Then reality hit in. “Would I lose my house? Would I lose what we had? How would I feed my family?” he asked.

“A first there were lots of tears – and fears. But as a family, we decided early on that there was something that there was great gain through this experience,” John said.

He was particularly challenged by the Max Lucado book, "Fearless."

A repeating question in the book was this: “What would do if you were not afraid?”

“It caused me to really test what I was made of. Could I have everything stripped of me, and still not be afraid?” he asked.

Unemployment is a real test of faith. “I always measured my faith year-to-year, comparing my growth as I aged. But as unemployment weighed on me it went from month-to-month, then day-to-day, and then, minute-by-minute,” he said.

Through his unemployment, John wanted his children to see his character. He knew financially they might experience hard times. Maybe the car would have to be downsized or they would have to move. But those were temporary.

“I wanted to show them that I would trust God first – and everything else would follow.”

His whole experience was one of “Lost and Found". He said this:

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  • I lost my hope but found my future
  • I lost my footing, but found a foundation
  • I lost my fear, but found faith
  • I lost my grip, but found God’s hands
  • I lost my vision, but found insight
  • I lost my plans, but found my future
  • I lost my balance but found a place to stand
  • I lost my job, but I found life!

Have you been unemployed?
What did the experience teach you?
Have you known someone who lost their job?
How have you been blessed by them?

Comment here.

  

It's never too late

Bob Buford’s book, Half Time, is directed at those of us in the throes of mid-life. It suggests that take some time to examine the purpose of our work life and make sure the second part of our life is less about survival and success and more about purpose.

Regardless of your age, it makes perfect sense to consider the question, “what is the reason for my work?"

For many, the answer is simple: work puts food on the table and provides a roof over head.

For others, the answer might be more complex or even elude us entirely. If you’re in the former category and you’re content with your work life, I suspect you are right where God wants you! If you are in the latter category, it might be worth some prayer time to ask God to help you discover His will for your work.

The concept of a “career” is a modern day phenomenon. Throughout most of modern history work was just a survival mechanism. Today, many of us put great stock in this notion of having a career – which I might define as the pursuit and progression of job development and growth in a field of discipline – such as business, medicine, law, politics, ministry, etc.

If you are stuck in a career, are you really making a difference? We aren't advocating chucking it all to the wind -- but then again, it might just be the right thing to do.

If you don't have a clear understanding of how God fits into your work, then it might be prime time to take that deep breath, stop running on the treadmill and pray for some clarity.

Read more about Halftime here. And tell us your struggles to find meaning in your work by clicking on the comment tab below.

I give up

It's amazing how much time I spend trying to defending my territory, holding on to what I think I've earned. Like an ancient warrior, I patrol what I've conquered and repel all those who might challenge it.

The American founders gave us rights -- and they called then unalienable, presumptively from God. But this twists the Almighty's arm, forcing Him to conform to me.

It just doesn't work that way. The Bible is really all about surrender.

These words pierce through my self importance:
"Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Purpose Driven Photography, by permission

I need to learn to give up.

I need to give up the need for justice.

I need to give up the need to be right.

I need to give up the chase.

I need to give up the need to be important.

I need to give up my need for self-preservation

"Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you."  1 Peter 5:7

I give up.

Letting our hair down

Normally this blog is reserved for serious, weighty matters. There's plenty to contemplate, to resolve, and to do. We are all works in progress.

But frankly, I'm ready for a good laugh, and hope you are too.

Here are a couple of jokes to bring a smile to your face.

•  Two antennas met on a roof, fell in love and got married. The ceremony wasn't much, but the reception was excellent.

• A jumper cable walks into a bar. The bartender says, "I'll serve you, but don't start anything." 

• Two cannibals are eating a clown. One says to the other: "Does this taste funny to you?"

• An invisible man marries an invisible woman. The kids were nothing to look at either.

Got a joke or something funny to share? Click here.

I'm no accident

I have spent many days wandering the mountains, lakes and streams of the Rocky Mountains. I used to have a job where I actually got to fly fish on my lunch hour -- I should have never left that one. But even now, working in a concrete metropolis, all it takes is a casual walk outdoors and I am met with the “wonder of it all.”

Telluride, CO, Photo by David Rupert

Creation screams, “I’m no accident.”

C.S. Lewis reasons, as only he can, “If the solar system was brought about by an accidental collision, then the appearance of organic life on this planet was also an accident, and the whole evolution of Man was an accident too.”

This is precisely the logic of evolution. No order. No plan. Just an accident. And thus, man is no more than a “cosmic oops.”

But catch Lewis’ next reasoned step.

“If so, then all our present thoughts are mere accidents–the accidental by-product of the movement of atoms. And this holds for the thoughts of the materialists and astronomers as well as for anyone else’s."

If man is an accident, then so are his reasons and his thoughts. Just outcroppings of atomic evolution.

“But if their thoughts -- i.e. of materialism and astronomy -- are merely accidental by-products, why should we believe them to be true? I see no reason for believing that one accident should be able to give me a correct account of all the other accidents.”

If we are just mere evolutionary collections of cellular trial-and-error, then we really are nothing more than whispers on the winds of time.

Lewis concludes:
“It’s like expecting that the accidental shape taken by the splash when you upset a milk jug should give you a correct account of how the jug was made and why it was upset.”

What do you think about this? Do you ever feel like an accident? Or is there purpose and design to the world around? Comment here.

The unbeliever in me

I have always been shocked at how atheists function in a world so rich and full of life and wonder.

Look at the unspoken sadness of modern-day atheists like Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and Sam Harris. How do they shake the haunting emptiness in their soul? When they look at the stars at night, do they ever wonder "what is at the edge of space?" When they contemplate the bookends of our existence, do they ever think "when did time begin? And "when will it end?" Do they ever wonder, "Who am I?"

What do they fill it with? Learning? Materialism? Humanism? Hedonism? Selfishness?

But I must admit, there are times I no better than them. My world is filled with documented moments of doubt. I cannot escape this shadow that dogs my every step. There is an unbeliever lurking in me. I make a decision that there is no God, not by my words, but by my actions.

Those times when I ignore the souls of those around me and absorb myself in my own cares and pursuit, I am an unbeliever.

Those times when I ignore the very clear clarion call of God. I act just like an unbeliever, for the God I claim,I do not believe enough to obey.

When I make decisions without regard to His purpose, then I act as an unbeliver.

Those times when I act as if there is only me and I pursue my own ends without regard to His purpose, then I act as an unbeliever.

I remember the anguish of the Disciple Thomas. "I believe, but God, help my unbelief!"

May my life reflect my heart!

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Information is no substitute for communication

The heralded arrival of the Information Age is upon us, and has been for a number of years. It's filled with high-tech devices and satellite images and instant communications. Data fills our desktops, our airwaves, our cable systems and our telephones. Routers and processors and motherboards all silently work to make the world a smaller place.

Few can argue the influence of the Internet and the proliferation of the silicon chip, but they are nothing without the syntax and sentences of the information that they proliferate. Without ideas, the bits and bytes of computers are empty carriers of energy. We still need the power of words. And then there is the use of those words. We may be wasting them.

Despite having every technological advantage -- Twitter, Facebook, iPads, iPhone, etc. -- we suffer from simple communication.

We have fallen into the trap that information is a adequate substitute for communication. It is not, as we are seeing before our own eyes. Marriages, friendships, communities, and nations continue to be in struggle. We just aren't communicating.

It starts at the most personal level. If I update my "status," does anybody really care? If I update my "page," are my deepest longings met? If I text or tweet or e-mail, can I find meaning? While I appreciate my cyber-relationships, there's nothing like the real thing. We still need relationship. We still need other. Come on over. Have a glass of tea. Laugh with me. Cry with me. Be with me.

Do you have real relationships and cyber-relationships? Are they different in nature? Which one is better? Comment here.

Related articles:

• Communication Fracture... (teachstreet.com)
• A breakdown in relationships

Bless the work of our hands

If our perspective of work life is blurry, then the Church has not helped clear up our vision. The Church has done a wonderful job teaching us all about spiritual gifts and fellowship and holiness – all precious tenets of the Christian faith – but rarely have we been taught about our ministry in the marketplace.

Instead we hear stories about those special few who were called into full-time ministry, blessedly drawn away from the worldly marketplace.

Many churches lay hands on newly-called missionaries as they prepare to leave for their missions in Ghana or the Philippines or Guatemala. They commission young men going to seminary and new pastors who take on new responsibilities. New deacons and elders are prayed over and sent out. But when is the last time you have witnessed such a ceremony for a layperson heading off to a new job?

Bradley J. Moore blogged today over High Calling blogs about this when he said, "God Likes Your Job. Really." He exhorts pastoral leadership to "stop avoiding our working world and our careers. We’re starving for some spiritual attention to help us make sense of God’s purpose in the business lives we lead."

The unspoken message in church is that our jobs are not holy or ordained by God. The hushed undertone at play is that the only way to completely serve God is to work as a minister or missionary. The rest of us are left with the feeling that the workplace is dirty and despised -- a leftover scrap from the meal of sin and sorrow that Adam left in the refrigerator for us to nibble on.

Bradley quotes Michele Corbetts blog, where her pastor at Harbor Faith regularly prays for specific industries -- blessing them in their endeavors. Can you imagine the impact if you were brought before the assembly the day before your new promotion was effective? If the pastor and elders and the congregation could “send you out” in your new responsibility with the authority of God Almighty, think of the impact that could have.

You would be called to make a difference. Comment here.

You say you want revolution?

Two thousand years ago, there was unrest in the land. The Jewish Zealots were looking for a savior to overthrow the Romans. They sought to cast out the invaders, to reclaim their borders, to establish self rule again. This proud peoples had lost its very identity to the Roman society.

Out of the boat stepped a carpenter from Nazareth. His simple teachings were swords to the elite and a balm to the masses. He was the instigator of massive social change. This humble hero caused the establishment to shudder. The Zealots could hardly contain their glee. Here was their “go to” guy. Here was the revolutionary they had longed for.

But Jesus had a different kind of revolution in mind. His overthrow was of the grip of sin. His cleaning out of the Old Guard had more to do with the stain of humanity than the Roman swords. At last, Jesus offered a way out of the rut of simple lifelessness.

His teachings as contained in the Four Gospels are the careful remunerations of some of his closest observers. They contain some history. They contain some tragedy. They contain the bantering of the Jewish leaders and the Counter-cultural warrior. Most of all, they contain living waters of life.

Billions have drunk from these waters since he spoke them. Their refreshment has been real.

But few have taken the words of Christ to the next level. Few have allowed themselves the deep submersion into the pool of life. Most of us are content to idly sip on Sunday morning or over an inspirational book or an occasional Bible Study.

Even a cursory reading of the Bible reveals that a true understanding and obedience of it’s instructions should achieve the revolution in society that Christ spoke of.What a different world we would live in if Christians would take heed to the commands like:

• Be at peace with all men
• Die Daily to self
• Submit to Authority
• Turn the Other cheek
• Love your neighbor

What kind of world would we have if we were 'revolutionaries?'

Comment here.