Creative Sacrificial Self Discipline
Today is a new day, a chance to make a change, I WILL BE DISCIPLINED - why am I blogging this? well If I fail want to fail publicly and if this helps be stick at it any some more then its done its job.
I would love to say that I want to follow Jesus so passionately that when I go to sleep Im excited to get up just to spend time with him and read the bible but the truth is the first thing I think about is how little hours I got and whether theres enough milk for some frosted flakes.
But Yesterday I decided to make a change, Quiet time etc etc is something Ive always struggled with and recently just ha a realization that Im not breaking a commandment not to do it, as we can so often feel like not doing this is a sin due to the pressure of Christian culture, and I was quite happy to take a 'new' mindset towards it all in the rebellion of the most hated Christian Culture. But in my act of defiance towards constantine I somewhat swung like a pendulem, because I didnt consider quiet time or whatever you want to call it a religious duty then I decided to be free from it more and more often until I just forgot that I ever did do it. I spent time with God a few times a week, but it wasnt really set aside time and I think my heart values time with God do much more than giving the relationship the odd 10 minuites here. So While Im not going to beat myself if I wake up late one day and dont do it at a regimented time of 5:30 or whatever I am definatly going to be intentional about it.
Yesterday I wasnt in Uni in Aberdeen because of the snow and while I did bits here and there I really didnt get a whole lot done, and a pet hate of mine is complete unproductivity due to time wasting, ebay watching, dvd extra watching, guitar playing, snow ball making etc etc. In the afternoon I normally do an Old Testament survey with other people at the church lead by a guy called Graeme Young but this week we've had some guys over from Metro Ministries in New York who are kind of linked to our church, you can check out the great stuff they do here, anyway they were over and instead of the OT survey we had a bit of Q&A where they told us some stuff and we asked questions. Still freshly bugged from my complete lack of productivity and knowing the time craziness of their week (100hr weeks etc) I said "Have you got any practical tips for effective time management" They shared a few things that I think Ill just share with you as I plan to put some if not al of them into practice in different way in committing to be a better user of my time.
- Firstly Discipline is really a byword for sacrifice, often to really achieve things and to be successful at something you have to do things that you dont want to do
- To be use creativity in your time management, ensuring everything is done and this approach is much liklier to be sucessful than creating regiment which you almost always break and even when it works it is very constricting. When involved in ministry a plus is to be able to imporovise and be flexible so having regiment is limiting in that sense
I actually just compressed a page of stuff inot those two sentences so there you have it, creative time management, these man made formulas though inevitably have to have a spiritual under belly that Im trying to cultivate in really LIVING life as worship, doing everything as if it was for the Lord.
But Yesterday I decided to make a change, Quiet time etc etc is something Ive always struggled with and recently just ha a realization that Im not breaking a commandment not to do it, as we can so often feel like not doing this is a sin due to the pressure of Christian culture, and I was quite happy to take a 'new' mindset towards it all in the rebellion of the most hated Christian Culture. But in my act of defiance towards constantine I somewhat swung like a pendulem, because I didnt consider quiet time or whatever you want to call it a religious duty then I decided to be free from it more and more often until I just forgot that I ever did do it. I spent time with God a few times a week, but it wasnt really set aside time and I think my heart values time with God do much more than giving the relationship the odd 10 minuites here. So While Im not going to beat myself if I wake up late one day and dont do it at a regimented time of 5:30 or whatever I am definatly going to be intentional about it.
Yesterday I wasnt in Uni in Aberdeen because of the snow and while I did bits here and there I really didnt get a whole lot done, and a pet hate of mine is complete unproductivity due to time wasting, ebay watching, dvd extra watching, guitar playing, snow ball making etc etc. In the afternoon I normally do an Old Testament survey with other people at the church lead by a guy called Graeme Young but this week we've had some guys over from Metro Ministries in New York who are kind of linked to our church, you can check out the great stuff they do here, anyway they were over and instead of the OT survey we had a bit of Q&A where they told us some stuff and we asked questions. Still freshly bugged from my complete lack of productivity and knowing the time craziness of their week (100hr weeks etc) I said "Have you got any practical tips for effective time management" They shared a few things that I think Ill just share with you as I plan to put some if not al of them into practice in different way in committing to be a better user of my time.
- Firstly Discipline is really a byword for sacrifice, often to really achieve things and to be successful at something you have to do things that you dont want to do
- To be use creativity in your time management, ensuring everything is done and this approach is much liklier to be sucessful than creating regiment which you almost always break and even when it works it is very constricting. When involved in ministry a plus is to be able to imporovise and be flexible so having regiment is limiting in that sense
I actually just compressed a page of stuff inot those two sentences so there you have it, creative time management, these man made formulas though inevitably have to have a spiritual under belly that Im trying to cultivate in really LIVING life as worship, doing everything as if it was for the Lord.
Technorati Tags: church ministry, discipline, metro ministries, time management
posted by liambyrnes at 3/01/2006 10:40:00 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home