January 2009

Spinning my wheels or sharpening my saw…

My game plan for the holidays was to redo the website, clean my home, organize the office and connect with some long neglected friends. Start the new year caught up on filing, correspondence, email, phone calls, relationships. Clean slate. A place for everything and everything in its place. What a great, lofty, ridiculously overambitious vision to kick off 2009!

Instead, I caught that stubborn respiratory virus going around. For three weeks I’ve been extremely weak and unproductive, catching up on very little except bad TV reruns. (And I know I’m kidding myself that I would have accomplished all that even in optimal health.)

So I plunge into 2009, tired, scattered and flustered instead of organized, rested and re-energized. I’m working out of chaos instead of order. And I’m already feeling overwhelmed by all I need to do, everyone I want to write, call or invite to lunch. What’s wrong with this picture?

Stephen Covey describes it so well in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People:

Suppose you were to come upon someone in the woods working feverishly to saw down a tree. "What are you doing?" you ask.
"Can't you see?" comes the impatient reply. "I'm sawing down this tree."
"You look exhausted!" you exclaim. "How long have you been at it?"
"Over five hours," he returns, "and I'm beat! This is hard work."
"Well why don't you take a break for a few minutes and sharpen that saw?" you inquire. "I'm sure it would go a lot faster."
"I don't have time to sharpen the saw," the man says emphatically. "I'm too busy sawing!"

It’s almost February. The window for sharpening my saw is past. I am too busy now to renew, reorganize, refocus or rest. Right?

Wrong. I can keep going without attending to my physical, mental, emotional and spiritual sharpness. But it’s not pretty.

I begin to run on fumes and my own faulty stamina instead of fresh insight and supernatural strength from the Holy Spirit. I get ragged around the edges, losing tolerance for people and situations. I wear myself out, working with a fraction of my creativity, patience and grace. I don’t do anything at 100%. I am prone to temptation and procrastination. I swing between being far too hard on myself and far too self-indulgent. I lose my balance, my joy and my sense of humor.

I wish I could permanently run at 100% without losing my edge, but I’m not designed that way. I need to weave rest and rebuilding into my schedule because I am a limited human being with feet of clay, which God purposely allows so that I will lean on Him. And He is working in light of eternity, not pressured by all my real and imagined deadlines and demands.

What do I need? For myself, I refill my tanks through downtime, fun, silence, time in the Word, life-giving fellowship, laughter. And my home, office, friends and family need to take higher priority in my schedule. This does not just automatically happen.

It means saying no to a lot of very good things (which people may not understand). It means intentionally pursuing the spiritual disciplines that keep me clinging to and drawing on God (which no one sees or acknowledges). It means doing my work as unto the Lord, resting fully in God and restoring my soul in re-creation through sleep, play, friends, family, music, art, nature, exercise, reading, learning, fun.

Every day I must make a choice to live out of rest, renewal, reliance on God. And every day I will be tempted to exhaust myself by working harder with duller tools.

“Know well the condition of your flocks, and pay attention to your herds” (Proverbs 27:23)

As 2009 barrels at me, I need to pay attention to the condition of my mind, my heart, my body and my soul and choose living water instead of fumes. Pray that I will say yes to God’s best and serve Him out of joy and gratitude!

As you head into 2009, have you considered the state of your saw?

Leaning into Him,
Linda