Tag: Bible

What is the wise place to be when we start new things?

What is the wise place to be when we start new things?

The wise place to be when we start new things is on our knees.

In Acts 16, we see Paul’s travelogue to Phillipi.

v12 From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days. 13 On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there.

V12 says, for the first few days it does not seem that anything notable happened. But on Sabbath there is a shift. Following the model set by our Lord Jesus (Mark 1:35), they went out of the city to pray by the river. Then something new happens!

v14 One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatiray named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. 15 When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home.

At the river, Lydia a wealthy merchant, who likely was a worshiper of Yahweh opens up to the message of the Gospel as proclaimed by Paul. Text is clear that it is the Lord who opened her heart. Paul and his team stayed at Lydia’s house, which commentators believe likely became the first house church in Phillipi. This new thing happened because Paul and his faithful team were on their knees.

Human nature resists being on our knees before the Lord to yield to the divine. In Hamlet, Shakespeare captures this resistance to prayer, imploring us with the words, “Bow, stubborn knees, and, heart with strings of steel, be soft as sinews of the newborn babe.” If we bow our stubborn knees, and commit to divine leading, new life shall begin.

Prayer is like a gentle rain that awakens the slumbering seedlings into a new life. Prayer is the fuel of new birth and so the wise place to be when we start new things is on our knees.

On Burnout… What to do about our Busyness?

Why are we busy all the time? How does it affect our lives? And what do we do about it?

We live in a world where when we do things fast Then we get valued. But here’s the problem. Anytime we get busy we keep going from one thing to another we get close burnout. What is burnout how do we get to that stage of burnout?

Psychologists say that burnout happens in multiple stages. The first stage is we have this compulsion To prove ourselves at work. You want to do well at work. So we’re trying to work hard to prove that “Hey, I am worthy of this job that I’m doing.” And that causes us to work harder. Sometimes we think, “oh, I need to work harder than other people here.”

And then there was the next stage that we get to, which is neglecting our personal needs because we have this compulsion to prove ourselves at work and we’re working harder. And then we don’t make time to exercise. We don’t make time for friends, we don’t make time to prepare healthy meals. So we are slowly neglecting our personal needs. Our body has some needs. Our mind has some needs. Our mind needs time for sleep. Time for rest. Time for a recreation. Our body needs good nutrition. Our body needs exercise to be able to stay healthy. And then we also have needs as needs to socialize -meet with friends, meet with family.

When those needs are not met then our body goes and do a place of feeling tired, feeling restless. And then we may have some physical sickness of one form or another. And that psychologists call this stage displacement. And what they mean by that is. Our body is telling us, “Hey, The pace at which you’re working being busy while neglecting your personal needs is not good. You need to stop, make a shift, make a change.” but instead of listening to our body, we just say that’s just I’m feeling tired because I didn’t sleep well or I didn’t eat well. Instead of actually facing the fact and saying, ” I’m working too much. I need rest. We blame it on unrelated things in order to avoid facing the real problem, which is overworking to the point of neglecting our personal needs. That’s what they mean by displacement.

And if we keep on doing this, then eventually we reach a stage of inner emptiness. Things that we don’t really feel meaningful. We wonder, okay, why am I doing all these things that I’m doing? And that eventually leads to a sense of anxiety about work or about something else. Which if we don’t pay attention to our anxiety eventually it can lead to a place of depression. Because our body and our mind is just so tired of being the state of busyness that eventually it says, okay, let’s just check out. We can’t take this anymore. And we regress to a place of depression.

Being too busy and not paying attention to our real needs will lead to this place of burnout.

So here’s the thing that Corrie Ten boom says, she says.

“The truth is that both sin and busyness have the same effect. They cut off your connection to God, to other people. And to your own soul.”

The sense of depression that comes as a result of this busyness will cut us off From things that we love, things that we appreciate, Corrie Ten, boom. It says it cuts us from our connection with God, with other people. And if we don’t pay attention and keep on going eventually it’ll cut off our own connection to our own soul. And that’s what psychologist talk about when they’ve mentioned the sense of inner emptiness. Anxiety and depression. That is a us feeling are we are not in touch with our real self.

What do we do about it?

In the scriptures in Psalm 46, God says. Be still and know that I am

god’s invitation to us is to step off this place of staying in compulsive busyness where we say, I need to prove myself at work and I’m trying to do all these things. God is telling us step away from all of the busyness. And step into the space in which you get to be still and know God.

And we see Jesus doing this often matthew 14:23, mark 6, John 6. Talk about how often jesus takes time to be alone. Takes time to be still. Takes time to pray to God. He went out to the mountains to pray and all night he continued in prayer to God.

Taking time off from our busy schedules. Just spend time with God is a very important part of breaking the cycle of busyness.

So what happens? When we take time off from the cycle of busyness to spend time with God.

Oftentimes when we are busy and we’re going about our lives we are so focused on different tasks we need to do. And when we are in that task oriented mode. It is hard for us to pay attention to relationships. Relationships with other people, our relationship with God, our relationship to our own soul. And that is what Corrie ten boom talks about when she says busyness takes away all these connections. Ultimately God is calling us to help the relationship with him. Healthy relationship with people around us and even a healthy relationship. With the kind of person he has created ourselves to be.

To be in the space of healthy relationships. It is important to take time away from the busyness and be still with God. What are things that we can do that will help us to be in the space of being still with God.

 Sometimes it is as simple as saying, “I’m going to switch off my phone and just spend some time reading the Bible. Other than other times, it may be saying something like, I’m not going to watch TV. I’m not going to play video games. I’m just going to sit and journal about all the different anxieties that I have.

Pour them out in prayer to God and asking God, “what do you have to say about this?” So it is doing those simple exercises where we get away from the business of life. And pay attention to God’s presence. Pay attention to our relationship with God. It’s what ultimately helps us to get away is what ultimately helps us to be still and know god.