Getting Things Done: Week 1 redux

Introduction

After about two years of uninterrupted Bible study, Pendleton’s End is embarking on an exploration of a book about time management and personal organization—Getting Things Done by David Allen. When the idea of studying a time management book in house church first occurred to me, I was almost giddy with excitement. Every week, it seems, we ask one another to pray that we will accomplish the many tasks we have to do, all the while lamenting that our prayer and devotional lives are pitifully weak. A study, a course with accountability, that would lead us to better manage our lives seemed a way to (somewhat ironically) give us the opportunity to turn our focus from ourselves to God and to doing His work in the world. As the time to begin the study drew nearer, however, I began to be apprehensive about it. I feared that by seeking to improve our lives by reference to a text other than the Bible (especially one whose author is frequently referred to as a ‘guru’) we risked idolatry or, at the least, that we were pursuing a worldly goal rather than a Godly one.

As I discussed all this with Wendy, she guided me back to the Word to seek instruction. What I found was that living as a Christian in the world requires balance between what I will call ‘worldliness’ and ‘flakiness’.

Worldliness needs little explanation. I’ll define it simply as putting one’s own fleshly desires above one’s devotion to God. It is a sin of which all Christians are guilty to a greater or lesser degree, but should not be confused, I think, with affection for or enjoyment of things in the world, so long as those affections stand in the right relationship to one’s love of and devotion to God.

Flakiness is less common and far less often discussed, but it’s a character flaw with which I think most of us are familiar. I think we all know someone who’s done something incredibly stupid because they felt (or said they felt) God leading them to do it. Now, it is certainly possible for God to lead someone to do something that appears foolish or even evil in the sight of men (see Noah and Abraham) but too often the actions the flaky person takes are prima facie not God’s will because they violate His commands. More often, however, the flake will, in following what they believe to be God’s will, harm others through neglect of responsibilities, duties or friendships. They believe they are behaving nobly by ignoring the world in pursuit of the spirit.

As Christians, we are called to be in the world, though not of it (John 17:14-15). It would be foolish to deny the physical reality of the creation, but more foolish still to worship it. As we are creations in tension between the spirit and the body, the infinite and the finite, we must find a balance—sustaining our physical selves and doing God’s work in this world while looking forward to the next. Our first week’s lesson concerns finding just that balance.

The seven aspects of life

These seven aspects of life are borrowed from Zig Ziglar. They are, as any such division of a subject as complex as human life is bound to be, both incomplete and overlapping. They provide, however, a starting point from which to assess myself and the way I’m living my life.

• Mental
• Physical
• Spiritual
• Financial
• Personal
• Career
• Family

The first question I asked myself with relation to these aspects of my life is whether or not each one was worthy of pursuit and, if so, how diligent a pursuit? Consider the following passages from scripture:

Mental

• "Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold." (Proverbs 3:13)
• "Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you. Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding." (Proverbs 4:6-7)
• Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)
  
  
• "…the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength." (Corinthians 1:25)

Physical

• But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. (Romans 8:10-11)
  
  
• Or don`t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
• Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. (3 John 2)

Personal

• A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. (Proverbs 17:17)
• A righteous man is cautious in friendship, but the way of the wicked leads them astray. (Proverbs 12:26)
• As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
  
  
• Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. (John 15:13-14)

Career

• Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth. He who gathers crops in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son. (Proverbs 10:4-5)
  
  
• Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest. (Exodus 34:21)

Family

• "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;” (Matthew10:37)
  
  
• Another thing you do: You flood the LORD's altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask, "Why?" It is because the LORD is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant. (Malachi 2:13-14)
• Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. (Exodus 20:12)

Financial

• "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? (Matthew 6:25-26)
  
  
• In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has. (Proverbs 21:20)
• The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender. (Proverbs 22:7)
• If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. (1 Timothy 5:8)

Spiritual

• "Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;" (Romans 8:5-6)
• "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." (Galatians 5:22-23)
• If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. (James 2:16-17)

I believe these selections from scripture illustrate that God desires for us to pursue excellence in each of these areas of our lives while, and this is important, submitting them all to Him. It is in that spirit, then, of pursuing a life that glorifies God by its excellence that I look forward to studying together.