(Reflections on a life mostly lived)
I am not sure how many of you are driven to go fast and hard in everything you do. I am not sure what drives some of us to be super-achievers. But as I am heading into the final years of my life, I am realizing that possibly this “gift” of drive and achievement might actually have been more of a negative than a positive. Let me explain.
First, it is important to acknowledge that God doesn’t need any of us to accomplish His will. He allows us to participate in carrying out His will. But if we weren’t here, He would simply use someone else or some other means to carry it out.
Second, we live within the time/space continuum and God lives outside of it. As Peter tells us, “with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.” So, we must acknowledge that God can do in a day what we could not achieve in a lifetime, or even a lifetime of lifetimes.
If these two facts are true about God, then those of us who identify as “super-achievers” might actually find that this “gift” is more of a curse than a blessing. It is a simple, yet profound truth that “the faster we go, the further we will travel, but the more we will miss along the way.” If our primary goal is to go as far as we can as quickly and efficiently as we can, being high-speed might be just fine. But if the goal is not the distance, but the trip itself, then maybe speed isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
When it comes to serving God, we often see speed/urgency as being quite important – but I have come to realize that it’s not having speed, it’s avoiding speed that seems to be important to God. The Bible is full of passages that inform us of this truth. (Twenty-two times just in the book of Psalms the word “wait” is used.)
One common phrase we have all heard is, “Don’t just stand there, do something!” But God tells us exactly the opposite in Psalm 46:10, “Cease striving and know that I am God;” In other words, “Don’t just do something, stand there.”
My life and work could be characterized as me, with absolute certainty of what God wanted done, plowing forward with both zeal and commitment to make things happen for Him – and of course, always inviting Him to hop on board with my plans. How presumptuous of me! If God wants something done, He can do it Himself with a mere utterance of one word.
And in all my “high-quality,” headlong pursuits for grand results for His Kingdom, God has never seemed to make my pursuits as fruitful as I was sure He would, considering all my dedication and the “great work” I was doing for Him. I can certainly relate to the sentiment of the people in Isaiah’s day who demanded, “Let Him make speed, let Him hasten His work, that we may see it” (Isaiah 5:19). That’s me. Big God + big plans = big results – right now!
And as I reflect back on my life and obsessions as a super-achiever, what stands out most is not so much what I achieved (or tried to achieve), but what I missed – the relationships I didn’t have time for, the countless opportunities to encourage and bless others that I rushed past, the beautiful things that surrounded me that I either didn’t notice or appreciate, peace of mind, and even the simple gratitude of good health. I do not believe we can fully realize these treasures until we set a pace that is in keeping with the pace that the Lord intends for us to go.
I think Richard Bower said it well, “The call to simplicity and freedom for Christians is the call to move from achievement-oriented spirituality to a life centered on a shared vision of relatedness to people and things, a relatedness of gentleness, of compassion, of belonging to one another.”
I am quite sure that if I had found myself in the same situation as Jesus teaching a crowd of attentive listeners and mothers were bringing their children to be blessed by Him, I would have likely thanked the disciples who were trying to prevent these “distractions” understanding that what I was doing was vastly more important than blessing some young children. I would have likely thought, “Don’t bother me with such trivial things. I am doing something way more important right now!” But Jesus, unlike me, was traveling at a different pace and with a different agenda – His Father’s.
How often do we say with the Psalmist, “My soul waits for the Lord” (Psalm 130:6). “Don’t just do something, stand there!”
As Robert Brault has said, “Enjoy the little things in life, because one day you will look back and realize they were actually the big things.” Yes, Robert, now that I have reached that “one day” you refer to, I must admit, you are right!
The faster we go, the more we miss along the way, not because we were too focused on where we were going and what we were doing, but rather because we were too distracted by where we were going and what we were doing.
One of my great inspirations, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, said it this way:
Nobody is too good for the meanest service. One who worries about the loss of time that such petty, outward acts of helpfulness entail is usually taking the importance of his own career too solemnly.
We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions. We may pass them by, preoccupied with our more important tasks as the priest passed by the man who had fallen among thieves, perhaps–reading the Bible…
It is a strange fact that Christians and even ministers frequently consider their work so important and urgent that they will allow nothing to disturb them. They think they are doing God a service…
But it is part of the discipline of humility that we must not spare our hand where it can perform a service and that we do not assume that our schedule is our own to manage, but allow it to be arranged by God.”
Isaiah said it this way, “In repentance and rest you will be saved, in quietness and trust is your strength” (Isaiah 30:5). Notice he says nothing about speed or success, only “rest” and “quiet.” And in Psalm 32:8 God reminds us who should be setting the pace and direction of our lives “I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.” God is asking us, “Will you hop on board with My plans for you?”
The only time we might be irreplaceable is in this immediate moment in time, just before God moves it from the fleeting present to the unchangeable past. This is our time to do what we can and what we should. Don’t miss the here and now for the then and there. Rather, assess where you are right now and see what God might want you to see and do right now. If and when you get further down the road, trust that the Lord will show you then what He wants you to do then. In so doing you may discover, like I have (sadly, a good bit late), “the slower I go, the more useful I am” to both my Father and to His people!
