How many of you were here last week? Good then you heard Rick say something like ….
“ As I have worked on these messages I felt convicted about my own use of margins.” That is preacher speak for; “ lets find some sucker to do the Time Margins message.” Well here I am.
So for those of you who are visiting or who don’t know Rick or I very well, let me fill you in. Rick and I have several things in common when it comes to time management. We have found several ways to get more done.
1) Double booking. This is a skill were you can say you’re going to be in two places at once. The advantage is that sense you can only be on one place at time others need to make up for you not being in two places at once there by making more stuff happen.
2) Forgetting appointment: This means you didn’t double book you simply forgot to be or go to a certain place and a committed to time. The advantage is by doing this you free up ignorance amounts of time in what could be a very busy day. However it takes a zen master to keep this going with all the time management tools, day planners, reminders friends and yes-even family helping you not to forget the given appointment. But we are up to the task.
3) Multi focused: This is not the same as multitasking. As you know multitasking is the ability to do several things at the same time. Multi focused people when giving a task to complete have the ability to focus on other things. Now some people call this daydreaming, or wishing you were doing something else but those are most often the closed minded people at are expecting the task to get done.
It is for these three reasons and for many more that as we spend some time together today rest assured I’m not going to talking to you about time management. We are going to talk about Time Margins. So lets began to define the difference.
Lets start with the source of all wisdom and truth. No not the bible…. We will get there in a minute we are going to the other source of truth… the Internet. Putting in the words “Time Quotes” in Goggle give me 42,400,000 responses to select from. For the record that search took 4.5 seconds. But that’s because I have an apple computer so it’s faster than your PC.
Regardless of that fact, Clearly Some great minds have weighed in on the topic of time. Here is what some the greatest thinkers have to say.
Queen Elizabeth the First of England, the richest, most powerful woman on earth of her era, whispered these final words on her deathbed: “All my possessions for a moment of time!”
Harvey MacKay business consultant and best selling author said. “Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep
it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it you can never get it back.”
I’m thinking this guy needs some help from me on the advantages of double booking.
How about this one…..
I bought a cheap watch from a crazy man
Floating down canal
It doesn't use numbers or moving hands
It always just says now
Now you may be thinking that I was had
But this watch is never wrong
And If I have trouble the warranty said
Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On
Some of the more intellectual people in the room with recognize these words of wisdom from the famous think tank known as Jimmy Buffet.
Ok one more and this one may end up as a poster on my office wall…..The words of someone known as Zall who’s second law is and I quote, How long a minute is, depends on which side of the bathroom door you're on.
This causes me to wonder what Zall’s first law is, but we don’t have time to get into that right now.
But really a great first question when dealing with Time margins where does God stand on time? Clearly He cares about time and he used it to explain the way he created the universe, earth and mankind. He values time enough to let us know that after a week of hard work creating he took a day off.
Now I’m not here today to answer the question if God completed his work in 6 24-time periods or if it is a metaphor to make the explanation more understandable to our finite minds. I’ll let Rick, or John handle that heavy lifting in our great class called investigations.
This I do know, God cares about time and how we use it. My goal today is to help you get a fresh prospective on time and what you or I do with it and how that affects or relationship with a Loving God and or relationship with the people in our lives and even how Time Margins can change the world.
In 1967 a little known man named Charles Hummel wrote an essay he called "Tyranny of the Urgent," His essay became a little booklet that has sold millions of copies and I think it’s a great read for every Christ follower or for anyone considering the claims of Christ. You can find it on Amazon for $8 and that’s a five pack and once you read it you will quickly think of four people to give the “extra” copies too.
Hummel said the issue with time management isn’t so much a shortage of time as a problem of priorities. He put it this way; "Your greatest danger is letting the urgent things crowd out the important."
Again nothing really new here, if I say time management is really all about right priorities no one in here today is saying; “ wow, never heard that before”
What is interesting about the essay is that is doesn’t offer three, five or even ten bullet-points of a program to get our priorities back in order. Instead it points to the Gospel accounts of Jesus who NEVER seemed to be in a hurry during his entire life. One of the examples the little book sites is the account of the actions of Jesus when he finds out his friend Lazarus is dying. It’s a great story in John 11.
On one side of the story is Martha the sister Lazarus and also a friend of Jesus urging him to hurry and on the other side of the pending travel plan are the disciples who are pointing out that the last time they were in Judea the Jews were threatening to kill him.
When I have read this story in the past I’ve often thought that Jesus didn’t get to Judea sooner so he could raise Lazarus from the dead, but listen to Jesus response to the disciples and Martha when they expressed there concerns about the timing of the trip.
John 11:9 Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world's light. 10 It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light."
And after making that statement it took him four days to get to “see” Lazarus. And for the record the trip Shouldn’t have taken four days, it wasn’t that far. So what did he mean? Well as is often the case to get the answer we need to look at other statements made by Jesus.
Listen to these words of Jesus, Matt 6:33-34 verse 33 is one verse many of you may have heard before…..
Matt 6:33-34 NIV
33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Now the next verse
34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Now before we unpack this lets read it in the message. This translation expands the meaning inside the verses.
Matt 6: 33 - 34 message
People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.
34"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.
I like the sound of the phrase being a part of what God is doing Right Now. That is what Time margins are about. Doing the important things first and being in the Moment with God.
Think about that for a minute, What if you or I could be part of what God the creator of the universe the maker of heaven and earth, the being that controls everything that has ever been made, what if we could be part of his plan? Doesn’t that sound amazing. That’s a reason to get you out of bed in the morning, that’s a reason to do, I don’t know something. But what is the plan? How do we know the plan and when do we do the plan? Now those are great questions and that is what finding Time Margins are all about. So here is the answer. Are you ready, Get something to write it down? Ready…. Pray. Pray, and read your bible, Be in relationship with God. I know it’s not that sexy of an answer, but it’s the truth.
I’m guessing that your first response was who has time for that! And now you get it. How many of you have been part of the group here at AC3 who are reading the bible threw in a year? Anyone in that group miss a day since the adventure started on Jan. 1st. Sure. I’m not here to create guilt, and many times in the past we have talked about reading your bible and how much that can help your relationship with God. So for today I’m wanting to give you two ideas about prayer. In the world that we live in finding time for that seems impossible. But as I said before, if we are willing to say that being part of God’s plan is important, how do we find time for the important living in the urgent. Here are 2 ways I have found to grow my prayer life and hope they help you.
1) Find sanctuary’s for prayer.
Your car is one of the best and easies. Kill the tunes or the talk show when you’re driving. Pray when you’re driving, and for the record closing your eyes is a bad idea. Think about all the trips you make in your car alone. If you build this habit you will be amazed at what happens. The biggest hurdle to getting this going is to remember to start. Put a visual reminder in your car. It could be something to hang on your mirror or a post-it on the dash. If the car doesn’t work think of when your alone and can pray. Another way I make this work is when I can’t fall asleep or I wake up in the middle of the night. I will lay in bed and pray.
2) Conversations not ritual
This can be a big jump for some people depending on your church back ground. See if this helps you. Jesus told us before he left this planet that we were sons and daughters of God. Jesus encouraged us to call God by the name daddy. I loved my dad and never once when I talked to him did It sound like this, “oh most reverent and wonderful father, who gave me breakfast this morning, grant me the use of the car, and the funds to buy fuel.” No I would say “Dad, thanks for breakfast and can I borrow the car?” I’m not suggesting that formal prayer is a bad thing but I’m trying to get you to look at getting you in the habit of prayer that is real and regular. Thursday I drive to Bellingham to see my oldest son. During that trip I turned off the radio and my prayer time sounded something like this. “God thanks for the day for the clouds, they’re amazing, I’m going to be seeing ryan, but you know that, help me to show him you. Help me to say things that will help build a bridge…. And it went on from there. The point is it was a conversation. Try this you will like it.
Remember, the goal is to be in touch with the God plan for what may be happening around you and what is going on in your life. To illustrate this point I’m going to tell you a story and unlike so many stories I know this one is true and it involves real people and real events.
Much of this story is found in a book called the butterfly effect by Andy Andrews.
Our story starts on April 4 2004 when tom brocaw named Norman Borlaug, ABC’s the person of the week. This was an award that the broadcaster gave out to call attention to people who had done something he thought was great.
Does anyone know who Norman Borlaug is? He won a Nobel Price and is credited with saving 2 billion people. How did he do that? I mean 2 billion is a big number. It’s in truth a number we hear a lot but I’m not sure we really grasp how big that number is. Example A US dollar bill is reportedly .0043 inches thick. Assuming the same for a 100-dollar bill, a stack of 100-dollar bills totaling one billion dollars would be just over 3583 feet tall.
So with that frame of reference when I say that Norman Borlaug saved 2 billion people that’s a lot. How did he do it? Well with wheat and corn. In 1940 Borlaug was given the job of figuring out how to hybridize wheat and corn so it would grow in very arid climates. He was a scientist and he figured it out. And his discovery allowed people all over the world to grow wheat and corn in places they had never been able to do it before. And from the time he made that discovery threw 2004 its estimated that 2 billion people were able to move from starvation to growing the food they needed to live and grow. So you can see why he got person of the week on ABC. And we aren’t even talking about the number of people since 2004 that have benefited from Norman Borlaug discovery. Now I know what some of you are think, your thinking, great to be part of God’s plan I need to do something to save 2 billion people? Great, like I could do that?
But for a moment consider that it wasn’t Borlaug who saved those people. Let me tell you about a guy named Henry Wallace, who was the Vice President under Roosevelt. Now some of the real history geeks will be saying; “I thought Truman was VP for Roosevelt, and that’s true for the second term, Wallace was the VP when Roosevelt was first elected. Before becoming VP Wallace was the secretary of Agriculture. He loved the study of plant life and he once he became VP used that influence to hire Norman Borlaug to go to work on this crazy idea Wallace had about hybridizing wheat. So can you see that maybe Borlaug shouldn’t get to be person of the week? I mean Wallace was the one who had the idea and used his influence to make it happen. Wallace was the one who made the government pay to set up the facility; the lab the support staff so maybe the answer to our question of how to save 2 billion people and counting is for you or I to become VP of the united states. Being a scientist is feeling like a better option all the time. But before you get discouraged let me tell you something else about Wallace. When Wallace was 6 his dad who was a collage pro at Iowa state would send his son on nature walks with his most promising grad student. This Grad Student gave the young Wallace a love for nature and a love for plant life. He also talked to the young Wallace about looking for different uses for plants. That love for plant life grew in Wallace and that caused him to have the idea and to believe that someone could hybridize wheat and corn. And the name of that grad student was George Washington Carver.
Much of Carver's fame is based on his research that came about after he graduated college into and promotion of alternative crops to cotton, such as peanuts and sweet potatoes. He wanted poor farmers to grow alternative crops both as a source of their own food and as a source of other products to improve their quality of life. The most popular of his 44 practical bulletins for farmers contained 105 food recipes that used peanuts. He also created or disseminated about 100 products made from peanuts that were useful for the house and farm, including cosmetics, dyes, paints, plastics, gasoline, and nitroglycerin. But few people know that Carver was the inspiration in Wallace’s life who would later influence Norman Borlaug. So now your choices are scientist, VP or collage grad student. All noble professions. But let me tell you about a farmer who had the first name of Moses.
Around the time of civil war a young couple Moses and Sarah had a small farm in Missouri. On that farm they had African Americans working with them, they didn’t treat them like slaves, on the contrary they considered them some of their best friends. One night Contrell’s raiders a band of outlaws who hated former slaves came to farm burned the barn and took a young former slave mother and her baby. Sarah was heartbroken as was Moses so he got word out and was told were he could make a trade with Contrell’s Raiders. He took his last horse and in the middle of the night four hours from his burned up farm he traded that horse for the contents that they threw to him in a burlap bag. In that bag was a small baby, his mother already dead and the child starving. Moses took that baby and put him inside his coat. Walking the four hours back he keep telling that baby that he would keep him alive and raise him as his own son. He would teach him to read, and he would send him to school. Most of all he would give that child his last name. And that is how a little baby named George Washington, became George Washington Carver. So I’m thinking Moses Carver for ABC’s person of the week, unless its…… You get it don’t you? We could do this all night.
What if God has something for you to do today? Or tomorrow, or the next day?
Ephesians 2:10
10For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Remember Jesus and this trip that took 4 days. The time it took him to get to see Lazarus. Do you know what the bible tells us about that time? Nothing. John found nothing of value that happened during those four days to make it apart of the gospel account. So let me ask you a question, do you really thing Jesus who only had 3 years to start a movement that would change the world wasted those three days. I don’t. But I believe it mattered. Just like it did for a poor farmer who traded his last horse for a baby boy. His voice is a small, soft loving voice. He doesn’t yell at you or me telling us what to do. He guides with the whisper of the spirit that is like a Reading and studying the bible, praying to learn to hear his voice.
And if your not a Christ follower well if your not a Christ follower and you want to be part of a plan that just might save another 2 billion people well my best advise is guess. Really that’s all you’ve got. I’ve not done the research to know if all the people in the story I told you were Christ followers. It really doesn’t matter to me. But If I’m going to live my life and only have so many days to make a difference, why wouldn’t I want to get direction from God on how to make that difference?
Maybe today is a good day to say, I want my life to matter. I want to be part of that plan. If that’s you then would you pray with me……. That prayer could sound like this.
Oh and regarding the book of John and the missing information about Jesus and his 4 days before he went to raise Lazarus. At the end of Johns book these are his final words, Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.
Not bad for a guy who was never in a hurry. I think we could learn by following his example.
According to my watch the time is now
Past is dead and gone
Don't try to shake it just nod your head
Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On
Don't try to explain it just bow your head
Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On
