Help Me If You Will!
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Wed, August 29, 2007
- Viewed 34
- (5) comments so far
Strength + Load = Margin for life.
The strength I have in my body, mind, soul, heart is just not equal to the load I carry in these same places. This simply leaves me no margin in which the Super Life of Christ can shine and dwell.
It seems to me we have little room for anything in life. We do not have room to love our neighbors. We do not have room to add bible study. We do not have room to play with our kids until they are finished. We do not have room to build thriving marriages. We do not have room to share Christ with others. We do not have room to help people financially. We do not have room to do much of anything. In other words it seems far too many people are maxed emotionally, spiritually, socially and financially.
This maxing out is in my mind (here is what the series is all about) caused the church to be less than generous with its time, talent and treasure. We are living our lives like a book written to the edge of the page, making our lives a hard to read, jumbled pile of messages that people struggle to understand.
Over a 7 week period we will be doing a small group series focused on adding strength to our lives. This strength is necessary for carrying the loads we all carry. In adding strength we can begin to discover more way to add strength and in doing so, discover the joy that God seek to place within each of us.
Our sermons will be designed to deal with the load. The load in life for too many people is just too great. Not only do we carry too much we often carry the wrong stuff. This is killing our ability to give financially because of the load of credit cards, houses that are too big, cars that cost too much and lifestyles that spin out of control. This load is killing our ability to serve Christ faithfully in his body. We see service as a drudgery someone has to do instead of a joy-filled partnership with Christ in living out the values of god’s kingdom under the rule of a gracious and holy King. This load is destroying families as dad’s never have much to give to kids, husbands and wives do not take care of each other, kids sports, hobbies and activities have eaten every bit of margin we have left. This load is seen in the lives of people who cannot and will not sustain spiritual self feeding. They often view this as added pressure instead of a deepening of a friendship with the creator of the universe who spared no expense to call me friend.
I am asking for resources, for ideas, for stuff you have used in the past, for personal stories that I can use with your permission as I finish up preparation for this series. It begins October 14 and continues until November 25. Thanks and if you’re interested you can tune in on our podcast to hear how I butcher your input. I am grateful to Todd and to the rest of you in this community of faith, encouragement and dialog.
About the author: Leonard Lee a regular commenter here at MMI. He is also a church planter and a veteran of over 25 years of ministry. He is married to his best friend and they have two awesome kids. He currently pastors Bayside of Central Roseville and loves to hunt, fish and play.
I need your help. I am working on a new series for later in the fall based on this premise. Jesus came to give us life at its fullest. This means that hardship cannot steal life, abundance cannot steal life, relationships cannot steal life, work and careers cannot steal life because Jesus said I have come so YOU would have life, in fact super life. Truth be told I don’t see the tons of Christians that drips with life much less with the super life Jesus offered because all these things have been thieves of the life Jesus offers. Here is, in my opinion, one reason why...
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Live Intentionally on Wed, August 29, 2007
Sounds like a great series. I agree with your premise. Here in America do we not only tend to leave no margin for life but we actually live beyond the margins, borrowing from the future and setting outselves up for a crash. A couple thoughts…
>Strength + Load = Margin for life
Did you intend there to be a minus instead of a plus?
Strength - Load = Margin for life
If you haven’t already read it, you might want to check out Randy Frazee’s book “Making Room for Life”
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0310250161?ie=UTF8&tag=liveintent-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0310250161
- Paul
Camey on Wed, August 29, 2007
Leonard,
Have I ever told you the one about….. (made ya laugh)
Sounds like a great series! I personally appreicate the fact that you are teaching on against the tide on having more & bigger stuff makes you happier. Life is not about being happy 24/7. Joy can be found even at times when sadness may abound. I think joy has been replaced by happiness for so many and that was never meant to be.
Joy is said to come in the morning. Actually? It can be found in any moment at any time. One thing that brings me incredible joy….. Getting on my knees and spending time with Him. Joy is one of those subjects.. I probably could write a book on… (huge smile)
As always… praying…
Leonard on Wed, August 29, 2007
Thanks Todd for posting this mess of typos and grammar errors. Where is my wife when I need her. She is the smart one in the family. I appreciate all of your input.
Camey on Wed, August 29, 2007
Hey Leonard,
Your name still clicks to your blog. It might be helpful if you posted your email address in case someone didn’t want to post directly here at MMI and have not taken notice of your email address before when you’ve posted it.
Just a thought….
Peter Hamm on Wed, August 29, 2007
Since your name clicks to you blog, and since i’m guessing you’d like this conversation to maybe happen here, here are some thoughts I posted on this topic about a year ago.
I wonder if we didn’t just slow down a little maybe we’d be able to handle our load.
We work longer hours for less real pay than we used to. We commute farther and longer. We increase our personal and national debtloads to ENORMOUS proportions. We microwave our meals instead of marinating them. We go to the farmer’s market instead of planting a garden. We watch more TV and read less. We only absorb enough information on any topic as fits on our computer screen. Our kids are in karate AND dance AND soccer so we’re driving them somewhere every night of the week. They have their own palm-pilots to manage their schedule. They have to schedule playdates two weeks in advance… They don’t even get time to be KIDS! We don’t have family dinners anymore. We take fewer vacations, and more of us take work with us on them than we used to. We check email 60 times a day. We communicate more and better with perfect strangers on the internet than we do our own kids or spouses. We’re more productive, but we’re more miserable…
For me, the antidote was simple. I was lucky enough to get a job in a more rural area and move away from the big city. I traded a 1-hour-each-way commute for a 9-minute one. I managed to all but eliminate my personal debt in doing so because of the housing differential (just a mortgage and car payment… no revolving credit…). I’m home for dinner 5 or 6 nights a week, and usually, we sit after dinner for at least an hour just TALKING, my wife and I. I spend a good deal of time almost every morning in quiet silent meditative prayer. Just being still and quiet. Just SHUTTING UP and being…(It keeps me going, it centers my life, and through it God sustains me) Because I’m blessed to be a pastor, when I’m interrupted in my daily grind (and sometimes it is just that) by somebody who needs to just talk and have someone listen (because sometimes of family problems most of us can not even IMAGINE) I can stop everything and just sit and listen and cry with that person and it’s not an interruption of my job… It IS my job… Guess what I find, learn, discover, and gain in all this? Yes, you got it… wisdom… Now, don’t get me wrong, some weeks (this one in particular) make it REALLY hard to carve out margins, but 40 or 45 weeks out of the year, I’m blessed to be able to carve the time I need. Here’s my secret… I say no to a LOT of things…
Our society has no place for silence, relationship, and… LIFE… and we’ve structured our lives to match. Stop the madness.
Also +1 on the recommendation of any book by Frazee, especially “The Connecting Church” which ruined, in a good way, my ideas about Christian community.
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