Godward Toil

My weariness is normal...and lifts my eyes

More encouragement from Ecclesiastes.  The verses I included in my previous post had one phrase that I did not mention, but which later brought me comfort:

All things are full of weariness;
a man cannot utter it;  (Ecc 1:8)

Later in the same chapter, we read this:

And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. (Ecc 1:13b-14)

I often get discouraged about how much apparently meaningless nonsense I have to spend my day dealing with.  There are two truths that encourage me about this at different times.  One truth is that God is sovereign over all that "nonsense" and is working every bit of it for my good (Roman 8). The other is the truth contained in this Ecclesiastes passage:  that the normal human experience involves being busy with unhappy business.   Marvelously, these two truths can work together to lift our eyes to heaven!   God is working in every detail of this world.  The world is full of unhappy striving. God is keeping me and moving me ever onward toward ever increasing joy in his glory in heaven!  

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.  For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.  And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved.  (Romans 8:19-24a)

Lord, help me hold on to a vision of heaven, as I muddle and groan in the world today.

Hyatt: Don’t Leave God Out of Your Plans

Michael Hyatt is CEO and President of Thomas Nelson, a large Christian book publishing company.  I have linked to him in the past, and yesterday he wrote an excellent post that gets at the relationship between our work and God's, which I have explored here in the past. 

Getting things done with prayer

In a recent sermon on prayer, John Piper made the following staggering assertion:

...God has ordained to make our prayers real causes of real events. Real causes. The words of James 4:2, “You do not have because you do not ask,” do not mean, “You would have had anyway, even if you didn’t pray, since God had a plan and your prayers don’t matter.” “You do not have because you do not ask” means prayer causes things to happen that do not happen if the prayers don’t happen. This is breathtaking. And if you neglect this privilege—your participation in God’s moving the world—you are acting very foolishly. We pray because it is a staggeringly awesome privilege.

I nearly gasped when I heard this.  And it has changed my prayer life.   Why?

Anyone who knows John Piper's mission and theology knows that no one on Earth has a higher view God's sovereignty and supremacy.  In the very paragraph before the one I quoted above, he says,  "God runs this world with infinite wisdom. You and I never inform him of anything he doesn’t already know. We never add to his wisdom about what he should do next."    So when I heard him say "prayer causes things to happen that do not happen if the prayers don’t happen," I knew that  He was not taking about an open theism position in which God lacks foreknowledge and therefore is ever improving and responding.

That meant that I really needed to come to terms with this radical statement.  Does he really mean "cause"?   Do my prayers matter in a "cause" kind of way?   I knew that I hadn't been praying like that.   I asked God to show me truth, to enlighten and enlarge my mind so that I might possibly hold onto such a potentially glorious paradox long enough to examine it and let it touch me.    With that prayer, I went to the Scripture and found just what John Piper found:   We have an inscrutable God who knows and causes all things, and who has taken pleasure in causing prayer to cause things to happen in the universe.   This reality is so profound, that I can barely begin to think about before I exhaust my mental capacity.

Yet, marvelously and inexplicably, my soul can respond to it.  When I was first born of God, I prayed this way.  And I have begun to pray this way again.  Early this week, while I was reading the Bible in the morning, I felt overwhelmed by all of the tasks and responsibilities I had this week.  I could not see how I could possibly do everything that I had to do.  Next actions and projects identified, but not nearly enough time to fit them in.  In my prayer journal, I asked God to help me.   And I asked with the fervency that came from the meditations on prayer that had been sparked by the Piper sermon.   Later that day, one of the huge things I had to do was completed and taken away in 30 minutes.   When it happened, I knew with certainty (with as much unprovable certainty as I know I love my children) that my prayer had caused that to happen.  I thanked and praised Him.   An unbelievable interaction had taken place with the One who holds the universe in His hands.  I participated in God moving the world.  He caused my circumstances (the work I had, the sermon, everything), moved my heart to pray,  heard the prayer, and made it happen.   He ordered all of this such that my prayer was the only way it would happen--and/because it is the way He gets the most glory.

Prayer:  a trusted system for getting things done.

Who is "getting things done"?

In my post yesterday about Psalm 127, I offered a few reflections on the relationship between Psalm 127: 1-2 and productivity.  Today I want to add a related point about the strange and wonderful revelation in these verses of God's sovereignty and our co-workmanship.

Similar to the verses I posted about after hearing a Piper sermon, and so many others (like Phil 2:12-13), verses 1 and 2 of Psalm 127 has that strange and wonderful property where the subject or actor of the sentence fluidly shifts between God and man: "Unless the Lord builds...those who build..."   Who is doing the building here?  The Lord or those who build?  The answer, inexplicably, marvelously is YES!

How could the Maker and Sustainer of the universe being doing the puny little things I'm doing?  Building houses, writing emails, teaching classes..he's doing all of it!  What power...and what an unbelievable foundation to stand upon upon as I go about trying to manage what seems like an impossible number of tasks.  Keep me on that Rock, oh God!

Productivity reflections on Psalm 127

Yesterday, I posted about my resolution to taste God's word and pray each day before launching into other work.  Today, I want to add a reflection on portions of Psalm 127  to draw the connection between this resolution and productivity.

A dear friend and mentor once pierced my heart with Psalm 127, when I told him I was getting busy with my day and leaving aside my regular routine of devotions.   He quoted me the first verse of this passage:

Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain.
It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
for he gives to his beloved sleep.

This passage has become something of a guiding light for me in how I think about productivity from, for, and with God.  Here are some ways that this passage has worked on me:

• Without the Lord either:
  • my plans will fail (whatever I'm trying to do will not happen or will fall apart).
  • my plans succeed, but whatever I manage to achieve will not be of any true value.
• I deeply relate to "eating the bread of anxious toil."  I hate it and don't want it.
• It is a lie that I will have rest from writing that email that tempted me yesterday morning.  The Lord gives me sleep, not getting things off my plate.
• My Bible has a note that says the last line is sometimes translated "gives to his beloved in their sleep."   If so, then true productivity does not ultimately depend on my hard work. The Lord is Getting Things Done, giving power, productivity, and purpose to my work, even as sleep. 
  

Looked at from this perspective, it is not only bad for my soul to skip or delay my morning feeding of God's Word, it's highly unproductive!

Testimony of Trust in God's Wisdom and Sovereignty

Not obviously productivity-related, but such a glorious and Bible-saturated testimony that I want to capture it here.   Thanks to Justin Taylor for his post pointing to this 4-minute video.

Of course, there are productivity implications for this kind of trust (there are implications for everything of this kind of trust!).  The consequence for productivity is that we do not have to rail against any circumstance or task before us, however painful or distasteful, but rather can direct our energy and focus on diligent work for the Lord.  I often waste much energy wishing things weren't so, or cursing unexpected trials.  I want to be an imitator of this man's faith (as Paul put it in Heb 6:11-12), and focus my energy instead on God's work for me and go about doing it diligently, fervently, and to the praise of his glorious name.