Part II: Good Point! But I’ll Have to Think About It Awhile… Maybe Tomorrow

All of these insights accomplish absolutely nothing unless our strength, which is the sum of all our ability to influence events around us, is exerted at the moment of decision.  You look at that list of stuff you have to do and you decide, “I’ll do it now.”  Faith without works is dead.  Good intentions are not enough.  Saying “Yes” to God without following through only heaps up more guilt and shame.  “Later” is not guaranteed.  You may not live to see another day.  And in a sense, “later” will never really arrive because we must always take action in the moment that is present.  We live forever in a place called “now”.  That is why the author of Hebrews pushes the point, “Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.”  All action must be taken “today”.

Be Strong! Take Action!

What we are talking about requires strength, the fourth aspect of loving God.  The kingdom of God, like all kingdoms, can only be established and maintained by some kind of force—but in this case it is not the force of guns, but by the power of the Holy Spirit.  God’s kingdom is one of liberty because its power is primarily the force of self-discipline motivated by sacrificial love.  “The kingdom of God,” Jesus said, “is taken by force.” (Matt. 11:12).  Only the forceful are able to deny themselves and lay hold of it.  This is the strength that is needed in order for us to overcome procrastination and follow through with our plans to accomplish our goals and so fulfill our life purpose.  This point is made very clearly by the Apostle Paul to one of the most athletic and competitive cities in the ancient world.  Corinth was the sight of the second largest organized Games at that time.

Only the Olympic Games were larger or better known.  To this “No pain, no gain” audience Paul writes, “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.  They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.  Therefore, I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.  No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” (1 Corinthians 9:25-27).  The Christian life requires the strength of self-discipline.

Join the 2% Who Get Things Done

Out of 100 people today, surveys show that only 67 are likely to have defined goals, goals they can explain.  Of those who do, only 10 have made realistic plans to accomplish their goals.  And of those 10, only two have the self-discipline to follow through with their plans and actually succeed.  In other words, 98% of all the people you meet each day lack the integrity to live out what they believe.  Heart, soul, mind and strength do not line up in their lives.  Satan, the god of this world, has blinded the hearts of those who do not believe the Gospel.  And without faith, they can have no passionate purpose or goals.  Nothing to serve as an anchor for their souls and minds, only a perpetual drifting on the tides of culture and circumstance.

The question is, “Are you still drifting aimlessly along with this crowd?”  As a Christian, you certainly don’t have to.  By responding in faith to God’s Word, you can experience His transforming power.  Begin by renouncing procrastination as a sin.  “Boast not yourself of tomorrow.”  Do whatever you have to do, today!  Rededicate yourself to really obeying the Greatest Commandment.  In doing so you will bring all four aspects of your personality into line with His will.  That alone will allow you to make wiser and more effective use of your time.  You can be part of the two percent who act consistently with what they believe.

It’s never easy to make the most of your time.  It’s always easier to “cut yourself some slack” by taking another break and putting off your work for later.  But of course, that’s why they call ‘em “slackers”.

Appropriate Goals for Teens

The teenage years are primarily years of preparation.  The wise teenager will establish goals, make plans and follow through in each of the following areas: Spiritual – Establish habits of Prayer, Bible Study, Church Attendance, and Ministry.  Emotional – Develop passion about what you believe is truly important—God, souls, relationships, family, liberty, virtue, art, etc….  Intellectual –  Develop study skills —language arts, basic math & communication skills as well as academic skills and knowledge.  The Liberal Arts are literally Arts of Freedom.  Vocational – Learn homemaking, interpersonal skills, office equipment skills, entrepreneurial-ism, management and any vocational skills needed for your career.  Physical – Establish good habits and routines related to nutrition, athletics, hobbies, and personal grooming.

GREGG HARRIS is a former public school slacker who is now serving God as Director of the Noble Institute and teaching a time management seminar whenever he finds the time.

Part II: Time Management Basics for Teens

“Rise up, O men of God! Be done with lesser things; Give heart and soul and mind and strength to serve the King of Kings.”

This first verse of W. H. Walter’s classic hymn sums up beautifully the Greatest Commandment restated by Christ in Mark 12:30.  It points to the need for a distinctively Christian theology of time-management.  To “rise up” demands throwing off the chains of sloth, lethargy and procrastination.  To “be done with lesser things” implies establishing a criteria for evaluating our priorities.  To “give heart and soul and mind and strength” to serve God requires purposeful, zealous, intelligent and forceful action—all four components of the human personality working together.  Simply put, loving God as we should requires us to manage our time differently.

Making the Most of the Time

The Apostle Paul wrote, “Be very careful then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.” (Eph. 5:16 NKJV).  Paul does not suggest that we save our time.  Rather he urges us to spend our time more wisely. Because time must be spent, or it will be forfeited, wisdom requires us to invest it in those things that have enduring value—the gold, silver and precious stones of life, rather than the wood, hay and stubble.  The evilness of the days refers to their complexity.  Like God, it seems that every institution, organization and cause now “loves us and has a wonderful plan for our lives”.  If we do not begin each day with a clear sense of what God would have us do, we will be distracted by the competing demands.  We must carefully choose how we will spend our time, or else that time will wasted.  The decision of how we will spend our time confronts us with our need to know our purpose in life.  How can we “be done with lesser things” unless we know what the greater things in life are?  That is where the Greatest Commandment comes to bear so powerfully.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30)

Loving God is the greater thing.  It is our ultimate purpose.  But this wonderful purpose requires us to set goals and make corresponding plans.  Even then, goals and plans alone are not enough.  We must also have the self-discipline to follow through with our plans by taking action.  Heart, soul, mind and strength result in purposes, goals, plans and actions.  All four parts of our human nature come into play in the four phases of Christian time management.

HEART: Embraces God’s Purpose
SOUL: Sets Passionate Goals
MIND: Makes Informed Plans
STRENGTH: Takes Forceful Action

Part I: “Cut Me Some Slack!”

It’s Monday morning.

You’re up, but that’s about all. There are five different things you were supposed to do last week that are all staring you in the face. School work. Chores. Projects incomplete. So what do you do? Just thinking about it makes you tired. So you decide to take a break, finish that novel, or maybe catch up on your sleep. You can hit everything hard later this afternoon.

Yeah, right.

It’s called procrastination. And it gets everyone some time or another. But when it moves in to stay, when it becomes a part of your character, part of your personality, you, my friend, are a slacker, or what the Bible calls a sluggard. You are just plain lazy, or, to use the old English term, you’re a sloth.

“A sloth is a tropical mammal that lives much of its life hanging upside-down from tree branches,” writes John Ortberg. “When obliged to descend to the ground, sloths crawl along a level surface at the rate of ten feet a minute. Sloths are generally sluggish and inactive; they build no nests and seek no shelter even for their young. They sleep fifteen to twenty-two hours a day, rising in the late afternoon to eat whatever leaves may be close at hand. Being so passive, they are virtually untrainable, although occasionally you’ll find one working as a denominational official or on a roadside construction crew.”

The deceptive thing about procrastination and sloth is that it is not really a matter of being tired. It is a matter of being rebellious. The sluggard lacks energy only for those things he doesn’t want to do. As one Proverb puts it, “The lazy man does not roast his game.” (Prov. 12:27).  In other words, he loves to hunt, but he’s too tired to cook his prey.

Again John Ortberg comes through with one of his zingers: “In the past I would have considered anything but sloth to be one of my problems because I seem to be so busy. Sloth doesn’t necessarily mean we’re doing nothing. Sloth is the failure to do what needs to be done when it needs to be done—like the kamikaze pilot who flew seventeen missions.” The problem is not with energy levels; it is with obedience levels.

Jonathan Edwards, the preacher of The Great Awakening in the early 1700s, had much to say about time management and especially about the sin of procrastination. In a sermon entitled “Procrastination OR the Sin and Folly of Depending on Future Time”, Edwards quotes Proverbs 27:1. “Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.” He then elaborates on the fact that procrastination always assumes that there will be ample time in the future to do whatever is necessary. Experience sadly demonstrates how wrong this assumption can be. Teens are adroit at recognizing the sin of procrastination in their parents. “Dad never gets around to doing what he promised me.” But like their parents, they have difficulty seeing the same sin in their own lives. “I’ll do it! I’ll do it!, Why does Mom always have to be such a nag?” This is because we always have good reasons for putting things off until later. It’s just so easy to justify our lack of action in light of our special circumstances.

The hazards of procrastination can only be avoided by intentionally setting our hearts on making the most of the time we have. That means we have to practice some level of time management—not necessarily the level that business people typically use, but something simple that keeps us moving in the right direction and calls us back when we begin to drift away.