The Overloaded Christian Life
It’s probably more than a little cliché to point out that we are a busy people who live in a busy time. And while we tend to think there is something unique to the modern context that pushes us especially hard toward overwork, as I have read the books of previous eras I have come to see that the issue transcends the trappings of the world as it is today. There may be some unique components to today’s context, but the issue is much deeper and much older. I dare say it is universal.
It is little wonder that we have a host of books meant to relieve our busyness, or at least to focus it. Many of these books are tremendously helpful and many of them offer useful guidance. The best of them go beyond technique to diagnose and correct the issue from a spiritual perspective. New to the field is a unique and uniquely challenging book from Ian Carmichael titled Busy: Tackling the Problem of an Overloaded Christian Life.
It bears mentioning from the outset that this is not a book that teaches processes or techniques. It is not meant to introduce a new system of productivity. Rather, it is meant to “avoid magic bullets and instead look with you at what God has to say in the Bible about busyness. By which I don’t mean looking for a verse in the book of Proverbs that says something vaguely connected with productivity and using it as a pretext to say what I wanted to say about productivity anyway. No, I mean going to the Bible in search of answers to some of the most fundamental questions about our life’s meaning and purpose—what God created us to do—and seeing what implications that has for our lives.”
In Carmichael’s framing of the issue, busyness is not necessarily bad and may actually be very good, just depending on how it is defined and understood. He begins with ensuring we understand a central truth of the Christian faith—that we are made in the image of God. An implication is that just as God works, so we were made to work. Hence “the bottom line is this: well-directed busyness is actually a good thing. It reflects the nature of God as a worker, and the truth that ‘whatever you do’ can be done ‘as for the Lord’ (Col 3:23). In other words, busyness is not necessarily the enemy. Busyness is definitely not a dirty word.” But then it’s equally true that we were made to rest—“to draw aside from our work and busyness to rest and remember God, and engage with him as our Creator and rescuer,” something he refers to as “God rest.”
At this point the book takes an unexpected turn as Carmichael introduces the Bible’s great metanarrative which he summarizes as going from Point A (creation) to Point B (new creation). Knowing that we are saved by grace frees us from the need to try to earn our salvation and frees us to obey God in leading others from Point A to Point B—to essentially be busy in this crucial work that God has assigned to us through both evangelism and discipleship. This is work we engage in through the local church and through our private lives—work which needs to play a key role in the decisions we make in life.
The mistake we are tempted to make is in thinking about it as my agenda for my life. That is a wrong way to think about it as Christians, because “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me”. The life agenda we adopt has to now be thought of as Jesus’ agenda for his life in me. As Christians, we must relinquish any sense of entitlement to the control of our lives or the setting of our own priorities, whilst at the same time thoughtfully setting priorities and making choices about what we do.
What we Need to do is find the right balance of work and rest as we pursue the priorities God has assigned to us.
At the end there are several appendices dealing with matters such as paid employment, the local church, and family life. But there is no app to download, no journal to buy, no technique to master. There is instead much to ponder, much to pray about, and perhaps much to course-correct.
Busy offers a unique take on busyness and one that strikes to the very heart of our God-given purpose. It is a book that blessed and challenged me and, I trust, one that will bless and challenge you as well. I am glad to recommend it.
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A La Carte (October 19)
May the God of love and peace be with you today.
There are, as usual, a few Kindle deals for those who are interested.
(Yesterday on the blog: Extending the Borders and Enlarging the Territory)
Cultivating a Gracious Climate in Your Church
“A message of grace may attract people, but a culture of grace will keep them. What our churches need, not in exchange for a gospel message but as a witness to it, is a gospeled climate. But how do you get that? How do you develop in your church community a safe space to confess, be broken, be ‘not okay’? What are some ways to cultivate a climate of grace in your church?” Jared Wilson explains.
Skeleton Keys (Video)
This new video from The John 10:10 Project is a wee bit unusual, but still informative.
The Hard Blessing of Conjoined Twins
“Dwight and Stephanie Castle’s twin babies don’t sleep at the same time. When one is resting, the other is moving around, kicking and wiggling and babbling. The problem is, the girls are attached—from chest to belly button. The awake baby is constantly bumping her sleeping sister.” Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra reports.
Commercialising Church
“I won’t speculate what their problems may be, but this is a terrible idea. So terrible it surely only needs to be laughed at. What we offer we offer for free. Yes, we ask for people’s money, that’s how all churches exist and continue to run, but these are generous offerings in response to what they received from God.” This article explains why Facebook’s proposed options for churches may be a terrible idea.
Peace. Be Still.
Susan Lafferty explains the importance of the time Jesus said these words.
The Search For Answers And Two Responses When You Find Them
“We look not only for lost or misplaced items, we’re also looking for answers. Truths to address our feelings of emptiness, dissatisfaction, and hurt; the reasons for our pain and suffering, or the next step to take when we face a fork in the road. Trying to fit the pieces of our puzzle together, we look desperately to the world around us for solutions and try different methods of escape or resolution.”
Flashback: 5 Bad Substitutes for Discipline
In her book Parenting Against the Tide, Ann Benton lists five poor substitutes for disciplining our children—five poor substitutes that fail to address the heart.You are sanctified by remembering and believing afresh that you are justified by what Jesus did on the cross for you. —David Powlison
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Christmas Thoughts
Today’s post is sponsored by the Banner of Truth and reflects on a new collection of writings from J.C. Ryle, edited by Andrew Atherstone.
‘What does Christmas mean to you?’ This is a question you hear often during the months of November and December. For some it’s, ‘The best of times’, for others ‘the worst of times’ (to borrow from Charles Dickens). But consider this; many may hear and think of the name of Jesus than at any other time of the year. Christmas can still provide a timely opportunity for the church to share timeless truths to the world at large – as J.C. Ryle did to the people in his villages.
In his introduction to a new collection of writings, Christmas Thoughts, from J.C. Ryle, Andrew Atherstone writes:
‘John Ryle was a warm-hearted pastor and preacher in rural Suffolk, vicar of the little villages of Helmingham and Stradbroke. Often at Christmas and New Year, he wrote an exhortation to his parishioners in the form of a short tract, distributed from house to house. These tracts were hugely popular, eagerly read in towns and villages across England, each running into multiple editions in tens of thousands of copies. Christmas, and New Year, are excellent moments to pause and reflect—as scattered families regather for the national holiday, and as the calendar turns over again, with another year gone forever. Ryle urges us—in the midst of our feasting and festivities and family reunions—to make time to consider our spiritual state and our relationship with God. How is it with our souls? What do we make of Jesus Christ? What will be our future, when all our Christmases are passed?
This little book contains five of Ryle’s most popular Christmas tracts, originally published during the 1850s and 1860s. They have not been issued in this Christmas form since they were first printed more than a century and a half ago. Ryle writes in classic Victorian style, but with a freshness and crispness and direct appeal to readers in every generation. The spiritual wisdom of these Christmas Thoughts is timeless. Ryle challenges us—while we enjoy the wonderful delights of mince pies and mistletoe and mulled wine and music and merriment—to make the most of every Christmas, to consider seriously the person of Jesus Christ and questions of eternal significance.’
Don’t miss this excellent evangelistic resource, especially during a season where the world already has an ear slightly turned to the truth. Order a copy for yourself and one for a friend this Christmas. -
The Blessing of a Higher Purpose in Our Pain
It is amazing what struggles people will endure when they do so for a purpose they believe in. It is amazing what struggles people will deliberately bring upon themselves when they believe such struggles are the means to a desirable end. Athletes endure endless hours of training, excruciating times of preparation, and the pain of pushing themselves to the very edge of their endurance. And they do it all for the glory of a trophy, medal, or personal best. Students endure long hours, late nights, and difficult exams when they believe that their studies will eventually lead to a comfortable and fulfilling career. Women endure the struggles of pregnancy, the pains of labor, and the midnight feedings all for the joy of being a mother to a child.
But what of the trials we do not choose for ourselves, the trials that are thrust upon us without our desire and without our consent? What of the trials that do not lead to achieving a goal or attaining a sense of fulfillment? What of the trials that arise from without instead of within, from the mysteries of God’s providence rather than the longing of our hearts?
In such times, it is a tremendous blessing for Christians to consider why God has created us and why God has called us to live in this world. The chief end of man, the Catechism says sublimely, is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. This is the chief and meta purpose, the purpose that encompasses all we are, all we do, and all we experience. It is the purpose that suffuses every lesser circumstance as well—including our times of suffering.
So what is the chief end of suffering, we might ask? The chief end of suffering is to glorify God and enjoy him. The chief end of trials is to glorify God and enjoy him. The chief end of affliction is to glorify God and enjoy him. The purpose of our lives is the purpose of our times of struggle, loss, grief, illness, and bereavement.
God may be accomplishing many things through our times of difficulty. He may be shifting our gaze from earth to heaven and causing us to have a greater longing for his presence. He may be refining our hearts and increasing our faith. He may be using our trials to bless and encourage others or to set an example they can follow. He may be making use of our suffering to show the world around us that our love for him is deep, real, and lasting and that we will love him in the darkness as much as we claim in the light.
But in all of it, we can be certain that there is a higher purpose and a higher calling: to glorify God and enjoy him. Those who reject God have no higher purpose and no higher calling, for they will not glorify God and they will not enjoy him. But we can commit ourselves to glorifying him—praising him, worshiping him, proclaiming our confidence in him—even when our bodies, minds, and hearts are broken. And we can commit ourselves to enjoying him—loving him, maintaining a relationship with him, and finding pleasure in his promises—even when so much of what we love has been taken from us.
We can, we must, glorify him and enjoy him, for this gives purpose to our lives and this gives purpose to our sorrows. There is no circumstance that is ultimately purposeless for there is no circumstance outside our mandate to glorify our God and to enjoy him both now and forevermore.
