Five Insights to Make Life Less Busy. #4 Is Gold. #BigRocks

Is it me or does everybody seem to be more busy now than ever before? Maybe you can relate or maybe you can't but I've just been noticing lately how much people seem to be so busy that they act as if they are hardly functioning. I'll ask people, "How are you doing?" and they naturally respond, "Busy. Oh real busy. I haven't been this busy in a loooong time. I mean, sleep. What's that? I haven't had sleep in so long I don't even remember what it feels like." It's like people are literally losing the hours in their days.


So I've really been thinking a lot about time and busyness and all of this stuff that seems to be plaguing us. After all, if you get to the point that the only thing you can think of saying is how busy you are, there's probably something going on that you need to deal with. I think there are ways to avoid the busyness rut, though. Here are three insights that I believe could totally change your perspective of time, stress, busyness, and the whole thing:

#1: Your lifestyle is perfectly designed for the results you're getting.
If you are constantly stressed out or overcommitted, you have to eventually come to the place where you realize that something has to change. After all, healthy habits will produce healthy results while unhealthy habits will always lead to unhealthy results. And since habits are so hard to change, you have to take a good hard look and be honest with yourself.

#2: You'll never have enough time in a day.
We all believe that if we just had a few more hours in a day, we wouldn't be stressed, but the truth is that we'll never have enough time, at least not if we keep living the way we do. The problem of busyness is not a time problem. It's an us problem.

#3: It's not how busy you are. It's how well you prioritize.
I noticed something about myself ten or so years ago. I was always going so hard, so fast, and doing so many things that I constantly reached a burn out point. I wanted to live life to the fullest, so I committed to pretty much any activity that presented itself. But somehow my constant desire to do more and more was not bringing me more life, but less. I stretched myself in so many directions that I was never able to fully experience any of them.

#4: We have to put the big rocks in first.
Have you ever noticed how rocks fall into a jar? Check out this video to see what I mean. If you fill the jar with all the little rocks first, the big rocks won't fit in, but if we put the big rocks in first, all the little ones will fall in around them and you can fit everything into the jar? Life is like this. We seem to fill our lives with trivial things that don't matter, leaving little room for the most important things. We need to define which things matter most in life and put these in first, not last.

#5: It's never too late to become who you might have been.
One of our five core values at Echo is Restoration. We believe that people are never beyond hope and can always be made new. After all, that's what following Jesus is all about. It's about being made new! So if you are looking at your life and you can see how some busyness might have taken over, choose to make a change. It's never too late. Really.

If this blog post resonates with you or you would like to find out more about this idea, I'd like to invite you to join me at Echo next Sunday, March 1st. It will be our first "Sneak Peek Service" to the community and would be a great opportunity to see what God has to say about getting our lives in order.

#BigRocks

DNA Study of Acts Part 3 (3:1-4:31): "Healing Power" (February 1-7, 2015)

DISCIPLESHIP

Focus Verse

Acts 3:12: "Peter saw this opportunity and addressed the crowd. 'People of Israel,' he said. 'What is so surprising about this? And why stare at us as though we made this man walk by our own power or godliness?'"

Bottom Line

Our mission calls us to bring healing and God must always get the glory.

Tension

Healing. What unfolded in Acts 3 was a supernatural healing. Today we don't seem to see the same sort of miraculous healings in our churches. We are blessed to have been given modern medicine and the many advancements that have come with it, but rarely do we hear about these unexplainable stories of physical restoration. And despite our many advancements in the area of physical needs, our emotional, relational, and spiritual needs are greater than ever. We seem helpless to do anything about it. Our lives are riddled with broken relationships, broken egos, and broken spirits, and we eventually reach a place where we don't believe any healing can ever take place.

Sometimes we just deny that any healing is needed. We deny that there is a problem. We think that because our eternity has been redeemed by Jesus, that we are not allowed to have areas of our life in need of growth and restoration.

When we do experience healing, we do whatever we can to rationalize and explain them. When we see amazing things happen, we jump to the reasons instead of pointing to the only person that could have made it happen in the first place. Why do we seem so incapable of experiencing healing? Why do we always have some area of our lives that is shattered, broken, and seemingly without hope?

Truth

Jesus rescues, redeems, and restores. This is the good news. This is the gospel.

What happened in this scene was astonishing. Peter's healing of the blind beggar was incredible because it showed how powerfully God works through human beings when they are fully committed to his mission and dependent on his power. We know Peter was doing both of these things because Peter didn't hesitate to point out who did the healing: God. It was God's mission and it was God's power, not Peter's.

There are a few things we can learn from Peter's experience here that can change the way we see what we're doing:

1. He trusted in God's power to heal. Never once do you get a doubtful vibe from Peter. When he approached this blind, crippled man, Peter didn't hint at the possibility of healing. He expected it. He trusted in God's power to heal the man long before the opportunity presented itself. He didn't have to see it first to believe.
2. He believed he was called to carry out God's mission. Peter never would have even considered healing the blind beggar if he didn't believe it was what he was supposed to do. But Peter understood that being a follower of Jesus wasn't just about following a set of moral do's and don'ts. Peter grew up in a Jewish tradition that defined people by moral standards, determining a person's spiritual maturity by what they didn't do, but in being a missionary Peter understood that his life would be remembered not by what he didn't do, but by what he did do in obedience to Jesus. Being a Christ follower made Peter a missionary and this meant carrying out God's good news of rescue, redemption, and restoration into a fallen world.
3. He acknowledged that there was something to be healed. This might sound obvious, but Peter didn't deny that the man had an issue that needed to be dealt with. He was clearly moved by the beggar's hurt and broken state and he was willing to take action.
4. He put the spotlight on God. Peter's decision to put the focus on God when everyone was ready to give him the credit was counterintuitive. He could have said, "Hey everybody, check out what I did!" But he didn't do that. He gave glory to the great Healer. He didn't even begin to try and explain what happened. This is not normal. We have been plagued by a constant need to understand when God doesn't ask that we understand Him. He asks that we worship Him.

Challenge

How can you model your actions and behaviors after Peter's? What is God challenging you to do today in these four areas?

1. Trust. Do you trust in God's power to heal the areas of your life that need healing? Do you truly believe that healing can happen or do you feel defeated? What about areas of brokenness in the world around you? Can you honestly say that you believe in God's power to rescue, redeem, and restore the broken lives, relationships, physical and emotional needs of the world? How can you be more trusting of God's power to heal in your life and the world around you?
2. Mission. Do you see yourself as a missionary? Do you believe God has called you to live out God's mission in the world? Is your life marked by sin avoidance, a pursuit of doctrinal precision, and moralism? Or is it marked by obedience to the mission of Jesus and an insatiable desire to do something about the brokenness in the world? Are you a part of a Microchurch at Echo and, if so, are you being a missionary to its mission field? Have you been putting your words into action?
3. Honesty. Are you aware that you have areas of your life that need healing? Are you willing to admit that you still have room to grow? What are some of those areas? Name them specifically.
4. Worship. Do you put the focus on God when healing takes place in your life or other people's lives? What would you have done if you were in Peter's shoes? Would you point to Jesus as the great healer or take the credit? Do you have a need to understand or are you willing to move beyond understanding to worship? Are you moved to humility by God's power? How can you better put the focus of your life on Jesus instead of yourself in the area of healing?

Dream

Imagine your life completely healed and restored, without broken relationships, hurt friendships, and feelings of emptiness. Think about what it would be like if you were walking in the full power of God to live completely and totally for him. Imagine a world where healing is normal. What would that be like? Imagine all of the death, disease, brokenness, and sadness of humanity redeemed and restored. Now imagine that God has invited you to be a part of His mission to bring that restoration to it. What gifts, skills, and abilities has God given you? What has he made you passionate about? What has your Microchurch devoted themselves to as a mission field? Imagine what it would be like with all of you working together for the advancement of God's mission, passionately pursuing his healing of the mission field He has called you to. Now go. Live it.

NURTURE: GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

• What part of this devotional spoke to you the most?
• Do you think it's easy or difficult to trust in God's healing in your life? What about in the world around you? Why?
• Do you see yourself as a missionary through your church and/or Microchurch? How do your actions reflect this?
• What areas of your life need healing? Have you been honest to yourself about these areas so you can grow through them or have you ever found yourself in denial?
• What is one thing you can change (or begin changing) today in order to find healing in your life? Is there a specific action you can take to make this happen?
• What specific needs do you see in your Microchurch's mission field? Have people in the mission field expressed any specifics?

ACTION: PLAN & PRAY

• What does your Microchurch have coming up that needs to be planned (in terms of Micromissions and Echo Parties)? Supplies? Deadlines? Who will do what?

Pray as a group for the following areas:

• Individual Growth: Pray for each other's areas of need for healing.
• Missionary Formation: Pray for each other to be missionaries to your mission field, bringing healing and restoration.
• Group Growth: Pray for the group's unity and dedication to your mission field.
• Mission field: Pray for your mission field, naming specific needs and people.

We are a network of Microchurches

If you grew up in the 1990s like I did, you probably remember some controversy around euthanasia, the practice of ending human life in order to relieve pain and suffering. There were many opinions both in favor and against the practice. The president and many other leaders from around the country began to share their thoughts on people like Jack Kevorkian and others. I was an early teen during the time that this became so controversial, so I wasn't sure what the big deal was.

It wasn't that I didn't oppose the practice. I just didn't know what it was. In fact, it was more than that. I completely misunderstood the entire concept. Why? It was because I thought all the controversy was around something entirely different. "Why," I thought, "is everyone so upset about the youth in Asia?"

Now, you may be giggling right now at how ridiculous it was that I would be confused by such a thing, but I am convinced that I am not the only person to make this mistake. But there's an important lesson to be learned from my experience. The lesson is this:

Language matters.

The words we use make a huge difference in how people perceive our intentions and what we are trying to get across. My misunderstanding around euthanasia might be funny, but there are countless of misunderstandings and conflicts throughout history that are not so funny and hinge on the words people use (see the Arian Controversy and the conflict between homoousios and homoiosios). Lives, reputations, churches, and movements have risen and been destroyed by the words people have used.

I bring this point up because I am making a simple shift in language for ECHO. Over the past few months we have begun assembling a team of individuals and have been training around a groups model I have been calling "Echo Communities." Echo Communities are microchurches with mission fields, or "Communities with a Cause," as our literature has called them. You may have heard me say that our vision is to "launch 1,000 churches by 2025." This is a HUGE vision and our Echo Communities is our primary means for accomplishing it. As of this blog post, I am changing the name of Echo Communities to "MICROCHURCHES" to reflect this fact.

If you have questions about this change and maybe even have a few reservations, I totally understand. That said, here are a few questions you might be asking and my reasoning beneath each one:

Question: Why not keep calling them Echo Communities?
We have talked about how every Echo Community is a church in its own right and should always have the functions of the local church as described in Acts 2:42: "And all the believers devoted themselves to the apostle's teaching, to fellowship, to sharing in meals, and to prayer." 

The truth is that the word "microchurch" is simply more accurate. It also reflects our value for church planting in a more effective manner. We want every microchurch to be elevated and honored by our language as what we know they are: churches. They spend time in community, disciple people through small groups (DNA Groups), and have a mission field. They are churches.

In addition, the term Echo Community sometimes takes a lot of explanation and has made it difficult to describe quickly. When someone asks, "What is an Echo Community?" my response is usually something like this: "Well, it's not a small group, or a Sunday school class, and it's sort of like a House Church, but not really, and it's a church in its own right, but we also meet as a church together, so it's not really the whole church even though it is a church, and..." So by the time I'm done explaining, sometimes it seems like people are more confused than before I began. With the word "microchurch," people automatically know I'm referring to something other than a small group, but they also grasp the idea of a network of microchurches more quickly. Bottom line: It's just easier to explain the concept.

Question: Why make this change now?
This one is pretty simple: Timing. I have been wrestling with this language issue for a while. It is probably inevitable to rename our Echo Communities to Microchurches eventually, so it is important to make this shift now as opposed to later. It's simply better to make the change now while we're still finding our footing as a church, rather than a couple years in after a lot of people have become attached to the name. I realize that these are just words and probably don't matter too much to you, but they will matter more to people after we've launched.

Question: Is the vision for our church strategy changing?
Not at all. If you go to our church website, you will notice a "Next Steps" tab. Under this tab is a list of spiritual growth steps that people can take at our church, including such things as following Jesus, getting baptized, serving on a ministry team, etc. Why have these steps? You can find out about that on another blog post. But you will notice under that tab "Step #4: Join a Microchurch." You will notice that nothing has changed about the core vision, just the name. If any changes are made about the vision, they will be minor, but the broad vision for our microchurches as a part of our church strategy will remain the same.

Question: Will we make more changes?
Well, that depends on what you mean. While I don't see a lot of changes in our language coming soon, we will always experience change. Our mission statement, values, MARCS, etc. will remain the same with few exceptions. But remember that one of our core values is "Innovation," which means we will always embrace change as a part of our DNA as a church. What changes will we see? I honestly don't know at this time, but we are a church plant, which means we will likely experience incredible amounts of change over our first few years and it will likely never slow down.