The Busy Paradox w/God...
Have you been running HARD in your business?
Have you passed the point of exhaustion?
Or perhaps know what it's like to fun on fumes?
For many years I ran HAAAARD.
Doing business,
Starting them,
Growing them,
Changing them,
It kept on going and going and going...
Till one day, I reached... BURN-out.
Yup.
Stick a fork in me.
TOAST.
That's when I realized,
I don't have an infinite battery. Hmmm...
I'm human,
I had limits.
Who'd a thunk it? O_o
As I was forced to rest,
As I restlessly attempted to recover,
I was trying to figure out where I had gone wong.
I thought I had a pretty good philosophy,
"The busier you are, the HARDER you work."
And if you're still busy,
Work harder,
And if you're still busy,
Keep going,
And if you're still busy,
Nose to the grindstone,
Until you're not.
Duhhh, right?
EXCEPT for the fact that,
As crazy, driven entrepreneurs,
We're never REALLY done.
We keep STARTING things,
We keep DOING things,
We keep INVENTING new ways to keep busy,
So the BUSY keeps going.
Come to find out,
That is totally opposite to the way God operates.
And like a lot of things,
God likes to turn HUMAN logic upside down,
And ONLY when we truly turn to Him,
Do we realize how foolish our ways were.
"For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. "
Because at the end of the day,
We were trying to be awesome in our own strength,
Thinking BUSY-ness leads to success,
Thinking stopping the BUSY-ness meant stopping success,
When the truth is,
When we STOP to seek God first,
And handle BUSY-ness God's way,
We get GREATER success.
However, His way of handling busy,
Is soooo different... and weird.
Hence "The Busy PARADOX with God" which is,
"The busier (crazier) things get,
the MORE time you need with God."
Wait, did I just hear that right?
Are you saying spend MORE time with God,
When you have LESS time to spend?
Isn't that backwards?
Isn't it suppoed to be spend LESS God time when it's crazy busy,
And come back to it when it's less busy?
You gotta be practical, right?
You can't ignore business, right?
You gotta make a living and eat, right?
Well, think about it this way...
You're driving a new shiny car,
You normally fill up the tank once a week,
But all of a sudden you have to drive double the distance every week.
Now you're racking up the miles,
You're using the fuel,
Now the tank is empty half way through the week.
What do you do?
Do you say "No, I don't have to time to refuel, I'll do it at the end of the week like I normally do."?
Umm... I've done that.
I've pressed the limit on running my fuel gauge down,
And got stuck in vehicle incapable of moving... TWICE.
The first time, my car wouldn't start in the driveway,
And as I looked down at my dash,
The fuel light was waving at me saying "Remember me?".
The second time I was on the road and I felt my car take off and then start puttering and rooooll to a stop in the middle of the road.
I looked down at my dash and I'm pretty sure the fuel light was laughing at me.
Grrrr....
So speaking from PERSONAL EXPERIENCE,
If you use your car more,
You have to STOP for gas more frequently.
That's pretty genius of me to figure out, right. ^_^
So how does that apply to our BUSINESS life?
When we have double the stress,
When we have triple the load,
Going week after week after week without refueling properly,
Is a recipe for disaster.
The scary part is some of us have done it for YEARS! (myself included)
And here's the thing...
Spending time with God is like refueling.
It's not an obligation,
It's a necessity.
It's a benefit.
It's a SMART move.
Spending time with God is SMART because,
You get divine wisdom from God for your business,
You get guidance from God on your schedule,
You get to figure with God out what MUST be done,
And get to figure out what NOT to do.
It's the path to working SMARTER not harder.
Spending MORE time with God when things are CRAZY,
Is a WISE investment of your time,
With a great ROI,
It's a WINNING investment!
Last but not least... Jesus did it. :P
We don't typically see Jesus as a crazy entreprenuer,
But believe it or not He was a crazy busy guy is SUPER high demand.
He had a schedule like that of a crazy entreprenuer.
He was in SO much demand people were about ready to run each other over to get to Him. I'm pretty sure that's more demand than what you and I get from our business, right? ;)
On top of that, Jesus' "clients" or "customers" weren't just business customers. He had actual SICK people with dabilitating life-long diseases that were in GREAT distress. His emergency cases were bigger than OUR emergency cases.
So whatever STRATEGY He used to handle his CRAZY quadruple busy schedule AND teach and train his immature disciples AND still be in sync with God, AND stay sane enough to complete his divine mission to save humanity... we should just do THAT. Cuz dare I say He had it CRAZIER than an entreprenuer?
So let's see what STRATEGIES Jesus used...
Example #1: "And [Jesus] said to them, 'Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and REST a while.' For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat."
- In the middle of a time when Jesus' ministry was booming, business was QUADRUPLING... the demand for Jesus' service was through the roof, where they were working so hard forgetting to eat, what did Jesus do?
Did He say "Keep going till you drop since it's for a good cause"?
Or did He say "You can sleep when you're dead"?
Nope.
Not Jesus.
Right middle of crazy busy season,
Jesus instructed His disciples to REST.
He didn't say rest as little as possible,
He didn't RUSH them,
He didn't limit them,
He didn't pressure them saying there's no time.
He told them to REST.
To Recover,
To last longer,
So they can continue to do good works without falling apart.
Jesus did not run them into the ground,
And He will not run YOU into the ground either.
He will tell you to REST.
EXAMPLE #2: "great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. But [Jesus] would withdraw to desolate places and pray."
- Ok so here's Jesus with people coming to Him with bursting appendices, broken limbs, life-long skin disease... LOTS of emergencies. They had travelled far and wide and were broken and needy as can be and yet...
Jesus CHOSE to withdraw.
Jesus CHOSE to close down business,
Jesus CHOSE to say NO to the crowd,
So He can say YES to His Father in Heaven,
Jesus CHOSE to ignore all the emergency calls and text messages,
Jesus CHOSE to ignore the emails about deals blowing up,
So that He can say YES to spending time with His Father in Heaven.
- And never once did the Bible say that Jesus missed His mark,
Or that He ignored an opportunity He should have taken,
Or that Jesus was lazy for resting to being STILL with God.
As Jesus showed us, it's OK to PAUSE,
It's ok to WITHDRAW and spend time with God.
It's actually a NECESSITY more than an option,
And you don't have to worry about MISSING an opportunity,
Because God will take care of opening the doors that no man can shut,
And He will allow you to REST,
And get everything He wants done.
You just need to trust Him enough to REST in Him.
EXAMPLE #3: "And after he had DISMISSED the crowds, [Jesus] went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone"
- Even after a long, long day, Jesus MADE time for his Father.
- We cannot make "being tired" as a reason to continually miss our God time and push it aside.
- We make time for the important stuff in our life...
We make time to eat,
We make time to shower,
We make time to go to the bathroom,
Those are assumed non-negotiables in our life. We MUST make our time with God the same.
- In this verse, Jesus DISMISSED the crowd.
This would be similar to you CHOOSING to STOP working,
CHOOSING to say no to that event,
CHOOSING to say no to that extra client,
CHOOSING to say no to that new opportunity,
So that you can be IN LINE with God's will.
You must SEEK God first in all those decisions.
EXAMPLE #4: "And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, [Jesus] departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed."
- Even during a crazy schedule,
Even while there are crowds surround Him,
Even while business is booming and busy,
Jesus always MADE time to spend time with God.
He refueled mentally and spiritually in the morning to prepare Him for the day.
Jesus walked in God's PERFECT timing,
So we need to follow His example so we can do the same.
We can do more with God in 1 hour than we can do on our own in 10 hours.
We need to remember that truth and TRUST God's timing.
At the end of the day...
Here's what I PERSONALLY experienced.
When I SEEK God when I'm busy,
I end up doing the things that I REALLY need to,
And chose NOT to do certain things cuz God didn't make it a priority,
And it repeatedly turns out ok.
After a while, you're like "This is totally AWESOME!"
Without Him I would have FORCED myself to finish it,
I would have gone into overdrive to finish it,
I would have lost sleep and sacrifieced my health to finish it,
But when I INVESTED the time to SEEK God,
I made BETTER choices,
AND still got the most important things done,
AND had less stress and more peace and ease doing it.
Think of spending extra time with God as an INVESTMENT with an excellent ROI (return on investment).
It's a good PRACTICAL decision,
Even though it doesn't make sense on the front-end,
It's fabulous on the back-end.
"But God has chosen what the world calls foolish to shame the wise. He has chosen what the world calls weak to shame what is strong."
God definitely likes his PARADOXES.
I actually thinks He gets a kick out of it.
So just EMBRACE the Busy PARADOX with God.
"The busier (crazier) things get, the more time you need with God."
Here's the steps on HOW to do that.
Step #1) NOTICE that things are getting crazy.
If you notice you're getting wound up pretty tight,
You're starting to snap at people,
And everyone seems to be irritating you.
It's time to PAUSE and refuel with God.
Step #2) Ask "Holy Spirit, I need You. When do you want me to spend more time with You?"
- If you look at your schedule and think there's no time... COOLEST thing ever is to ask Holy Spirit, then...
Step #3) Wait and LISTEN. Write down anything that comes to mind. Then ask "Anything else? Can you be specific?"
- I'm always amazed at when I think there's no answer, when I think I'm stuck and I bother to ask God, something comes up.
- Whatever answer you get, block out 30 minutes as quiet time with God.
- Treat it like an appointment. Start on time. End on time. Shut off your phone, close the door. Get to somewhere quiet.
Step #4) Quiet your mind.
- Spend the first few minutes just calming down your mind, closing your eyes, breathing deeply and thanking God. Get into a state of gratittude. This will not only calm down your mind, but it will prepared you to HEAR or sense God's answer more clearly.
Step #5) Ask God questions.
- Just start having a coaching Q&A session with God. Ask Him whatever is on your mind like you would a real coach.
- "God, what do you have to say about this crazy day today? What do you want to tell me?"
- "God, what are the top 3 things you want me to prioritize?"
- "God, what about ___ task/activity?" (rinse and repeat)
- "God, what about the timing on _____?"
- "God, what are your thoughts on _____?"
- "God, what do you NOT want me to do today?"
- "God, what should I NOT focus on today?"
Get both open ended questions and specific ones on your day, situations, tasks, projects or assignments. WRITE down any answer you sense or feel. Write it down like Q&A bullet point list, one question and answer after another. It's actually really fun.
After 20 minutes of doing this, you should start to feel a little different.
I typically feel a shift in my stress level, increased peace, a calmness and I feel myself breathing deeper than before. All good things.
It may seem a little awkward at first,
But try it for at least 3-5 days and see if you don't see the needle shift for you.
It's good.
It's wise.
It's got good ROI on your time. ^_-
"Dear Heavenly Father,
Help me get out of the CRAZY,
Help me break the cycle,
Of seeking ME first,
And getting further away from You.
Teach me how to SEEK You FIRST in the middle of the crazy,
Teach me how to make You a PRIORITY in the middle of the crazy,
Teach me how to HEAR You in the middle of the crazy.
You said you will provide me with EVERYTHING I need,
Well I need help with EVERYTHING,
Help.
Make it CLEAR,
Step me through it,
Give me FAITH,
Help me TRUST You,
May I be USED by You,
In Jesus name, Amen."
Cheers to working SMARTER not harder with God.
