Thinking in Bible Time

I am incredibly impatient when I get behind the wheel of a car. And it drives me crazy (no pun intended). I will have no problem killing a little bit of time at home only to get in my car and tailgate someone whom I feel is going too slow. And every time I do it, I feel more and more aware of it. I have to remind myself, "what if that were my mother or my daughter in front of me?" or what if that person stopped and got out and looked me in the eye and asked me "why are you tailgating me?".  How embarrassing that would be! Why am I so impatient? 

We live in a culture of Getting it Now! We expect instantaneous results. In the era of the text message and instantaneous feedback, it is getting tougher and tougher to be patient. And yet, God works on His own timetable. The concept of Bible Time was introduced to me by Pat Morley, the author of many bestselling books including Man in the Mirror. Pat's most recent book focuses on this topic among many of Bible Time and it is called How God Makes Men.  Bible Time is the Lord's timetable. To the Lord, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day (2 Peter 3:8).

Another way to think about it, if I live 80 years and a thousand years is one day, my life to God is just under two hours or a medium length movie. So my life to God is a movie! He is seeing the events unfold not as an observer but as the producer and director of my life. My life tomorrow, this week, this month is carrying out a scene to an ultimate drama that God is personally unfolding. Doesn't that make it substantially easier? Just like a movie, things seem to take an unexpected twist. Things happen. The stress of a company, the loss of a loved one. If God is truly the producer and the director of this movie, then He is not unaware. He is there orchestrating the events of my life to His greater glory. I want to be there living the ride, one day at a time.

It is interesting that often I try to force God's hand. I jump ahead of the movie plot. Sometimes it is impatience, sometimes it is lack of faith, sometimes it is lack of perfect knowledge. My prayer is always that God will close the doors of my impatience. I can name countless times that God rescued me from myself. Just like the director and producer would not let the actor create his own plot, God is taking over my life. I am slowly realizing how that works. Bible Time is the first expression of how God thinks of my life.

In the book, Pat describes epic tales of how God makes ordinary men into men for His purposes. One of these is Moses whom God started out as a somebody, turned him into a nobody, and then taught that nobody how to become a somebody. Moses lived 120 years: the first 40 being taught as an Egyptian prince, the second 40 as a Bedouin shepherd with no interaction with people, and the final 40 as a deliverer of the Israelite people. Now if I wrote the script, I would have had him skip the middle 40 years. But God wrote the script and the movie of Moses' life is in Bible Time.

I would have been really happy if God had skipped some painful points of my life, but He didn't. Because Bible Time is the perfect time and God used those times in my life to teach me and prune me so I can be more useful. How that fully unfolds, I have no idea. I just have to be ready and willing one day at a time.

Pat's teaching on this topic is here if you are so inclined.

Tom Randall - Daily Adventures with God

Tom Randall is currently in a prison in the Philippines. Tom has been involved in our church for years and what is truly amazing about Tom is his stories. His stories of how God has been faithful in every circumstance of life. The story of Tom's current situation can be found best summarized in Pastor Joe Coffey's blog or at a Facebook page dedicated to his situation. I won't take the time here to summarize it further as I don't have firsthand information.

My point is that Tom is an example of a man who is always ready to be used by God in any and every situation daily, even hourly. At first, Tom's incarceration sounded desperate. Tom has health issues and he was also in danger sharing a cell with 45 other prisoners, some of whom may take issue with Tom's faith and his readiness to share the gospel. And no doubt, Tom is ready and willing to give his life for the sake of the gospel. In the service last night as Pastor Joe shared the story, he relayed that a reporter asked him if this incident would shake Tom's faith. Joe's answer was unequivocally no. In fact, it would serve to reaffirm and even strengthen Tom's faith. Why? Because God is a faithful god. Moment by moment, hour by hour, God works within those who stand "in the ready".

I remember my high school coach explaining to me that even though I was not in the starting lineup, I needed to be always ready to go into the game. You never know when I might be called to come in. That is my sense of how Tom Randall is. He never held on tight to the things of this world, but always stood ready to be used of God. Tom has already made such an impact in that prison cell (he has already led 7 to know Jesus) that he has now asked for prayer that he be freed, but maybe not yet. What will happen tomorrow or the next day or the day after that? What will God do? I am reminded of Psalm 5 - "I will order my prayer to you and eagerly watch".  We are eagerly watching what God will do in the Philippines through Tom and this situation.

I find myself as I grow in the Christian faith that my sense of adventure with God heightens. I don't know what He is going to do today. As I spend my time in devotional in the morning, my prayer is always for God to show himself in the events of the day as I eagerly watch. I need to view each day with a sense of adventure. What and how will God show me and lead me? I need to have a Tom Randall perspective.

Using Agile Methodology For Life

In our company, we use the Agile methodology.  The Agile methodology is based on 3 week sprints that over time become more and more predictable.  Agile is also based on the concept that things change frequently in technology and you always need to recast priorities.  The successful companies are those that can adapt quickly rather than those that plan way far in advance.  The discipline of Agile is found in following the same process over and over. Part of each sprint is going through a Sprint Retrospective.  We actually schedule a 3-4 hour meeting at the end of each 3 week sprint to review what we accomplished and what we learned. 

Most experts believe it takes at least 30 days to build in a habit.  Most people are really good at setting goals, but terrible at actually achieving them.  Why?  The discipline of Agile is great  - sprint planning, following by sprint, followed by sprint retrospective.  The process is followed over and over again.  Further, every morning our development team gathers for a standing meeting to see how we are doing against those goals.  Habits are built consistently over time.

What is different from Agile is that the habits get applied to a goal that never changes.  Andy Stanley calls those "Be Goals" (see my post from last year).   My goal is to build lifelong habits that cultivate the growth of a Godly man.  Not easy when you have a sinful man as raw material.  I have been very consistent in my devotionals for the past 3 years because I set the habits in place early.  I want to grow in my relationship with Christ and in order to do that, I need to spend time with Him.  I am amazed when I talk to Christians who say they aren't growing, but I find they are spending nominal time with the Lord daily.  Imagine the stupidity of saying you don't feel close to your spouse because you spend a few minutes with him/her each day.  Doesn't work.  Further, I build habits where I spend multiple other hours during the day listening to Scripture preached or sung.  I am trying to cultivate a biblically-based mindset because we all know the world does not cultivate a godly mind. That is the ONLY shot I have to be a godly man.  It does not take much to throw that goal off course.

Many believers use a kind of "drive-through Christianity" where they think they can just get their dose of God each Sunday in church.  Meantime our mind is filled with other things.  I got all over a brother who said that he was so busy, he could not study the Word or pray.  Examine your priorities!  Recently, I started ending my day reading biblically-based books.  Phillip Yancey, Randy Alcorn, and David Jeremiah are particular favorite authors.  I heard our pastor refer to his relationship with God using the following three metaphors which he also applied to marriage.

1. Debrief Daily (spend time every day, even if it is just for a few minutes)
2. Date Weekly (worship weekly, spend time in fellowship weekly)
3. Depart Quarterly (get away for uninterrupted time with God)

My prayer for you is you adopt spiritual disciplines that accompany lifelong goals.  The discipline of Agile without the shifting priorities.