Reflections

After a long hard day, what are you eager to sink into? Sometimes a sweet treat, a glass of red, or a little retail therapy can hit the spot. A reward for all our energy-sapping effort. 

On Sunday, I was meditating on 1 John 2:15-17:

“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.”

Knowing that Greek has a lot of different words we translate as “love,” I was curious which one is used in this passage. To my surprise, it’s “agapē” which I’ve always heard defined as unconditional love. So I clicked on the word in the Blue Letter Bible app to see if they have any more to say on it. Interestingly enough, they have two definitions, one when it’s love toward persons and one when it’s toward things. So to “agapaō” God is to “welcome, entertain, be fond of, love dearly.” But to love "the world" (which, it’s worth noting does not mean creation or people, but rather the “things of the world” which Paul frequently uses to mean sinful desires, and John here gives examples of the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life) is to be “well pleased, contented at or with a thing.” Upon reading that, my mind immediately jumped to C.S. Lewis’s essay “The Weight of Glory.” He has a section in the essay where he is bemoaning our low standards. He says something to the effect of, “we are too easily satisfied” and likens it to being content making mud pies in our backyard because we can’t comprehend the goodness on offer in a seaside holiday.

And so I return to my initial question which was my personal reflection. When I’ve had a long day or I want to reward myself somehow, what am I content with? I am too easily satisfied with many things: pizza, sweets, purchasing things, reading a good book, watching a movie. It’s not that these things are bad. But I fill up on them, leaving no room for the One that truly satisfies. I run after these empty carbs (literally and figuratively) instead of choosing the Bread of Life that would nourish and satisfy for all time. Instead of Living Water, we choose the water of this earth and will thirst again and again, only temporarily sated. We make these choices when it seems like too much effort to spend quality time with God or deal with our negative emotions like resentment, grief, and longing. It’s particularly sad when we do it as our coping mechanism because we neglect complete healing for a temporary band-aid. 

Simplicity pushes us toward that which is good. Because while it shouldn't be a hard choice, it is. So we depend on spiritual disciplines, like simplicity, to form us over time into the type of person who will choose the Bread of Life and Living Water. With boundaries on our screen time, accumulation, and discretionary spending, we remove more of the mud pies. We make it easier to say yes to the seaside holiday. Even if we doubt its value on the long drive there, we will be rewarded by choosing that which is better.

And to end, here are a couple lyrics that hit me this week: 

“Free us from the poverty of begging for what’s been given.” - “Can’t Outrisk” by Ocean & the Ghost

“We are entangled in consumption and greed / Christ, in Your mercy / Break our obsession / With hollow possessions, O Lord, set us free / …May our hearts be satisfied / Fill us with joy and peace” - “Satisfied” by Porter’s Gate

Practice

Jesus lived a simple life with a simple schedule-- and that's certainly not because He didn't have lots of demands on His time. It allowed Him to hear Abba clearly and honor the dignity of the image bearers around Him. Instead of focusing intensely on the distraction of this world’s values, He was interruptible, willing to let the Spirit redirect His attention to the needs around Him instead of the good plan ahead (Check out Mark 5:21-43 for a great example of this). 

So this week, we pursue interruptibility by increasing the margin in our life. But frankly, it’s as much about choosing to be less hurried as it is about actually being less busy. The goal of doing so is to notice and serve the people around you. It may be as simple as saying “hello” while walking your dog, making a meal for your pregnant neighbor, or praying with your coworker for her sick mom. 

To begin, REFLECT on these questions:

1. How interruptible am I? What do I feel and think about when another person or God tries to interrupt my work or relaxation?

2. How much free time do I feel like I have? If I got rid of all of my common distractions, how much free time do I actually have?

3. What is good, helpful, and necessary in my schedule? What is unhelpful, a poor use of my giftings, or redundant in my schedule?

This week we will PRIORITIZE and SUBTRACT with a few different options to simplify your schedule so you can become interruptible with a cheerful heart.

1. Don’t schedule anything additional this week to make space for margin. Cancel unnecessary items in your schedule to create more margin.

2. Create a fixed-hour schedule. By putting it down on paper, we identify what the reality of our days looks like. To paraphrase Justin Whitmel Earley, how we spend our time is how we spend our days. And how we spend our days determines who we’re becoming. 

• Use a table on a blank sheet of paper or print off a blank daily calendar
• Put in: sleeping hours (and wind-down time), spiritual disciplines (church, small group, prayer/Bible time, Sabbath, etc.), core relationships (family dinner, roommate night, etc.), health habits, work/study times, etc.
• Schedule and guard margin. Avoid letting commitments bump up against each other without buffer time. Use this time to spontaneously serve, say yes to invitations, and especially allow for life to take longer than expected, so you can answer your mom's call or help someone whose hands are full.

3. Try combining things. Can you make your exercise social? Can you prioritize hobbies that cultivate quality time with God like hiking? 

4. Leave with enough time to be early to things. By making plans to leave early, you can choose to be less hurried which helps you feel more open to unexpected interruptions. 

5. Continue digital simplicity. Not pulling out our phones at every opportunity frees up our mental space, our eyes, and our time to notice others, talk to them, and serve them.

Your Turn

Which ideas will you try? Comment below what you notice when you choose interruptibility!