BRAD POWELL ONLINE

I’m sure most of us have heard the old saying “work smart not hard.” Of course, as with most famous sayings, there is an intended truth and an unintended error. The error here is that, if we work smart, we can achieve our full potential without working hard. WRONG! Though there may be occasional exceptions to this, just as lightening does occasionally strike twice and a few have struck it rich through the lottery, the rule is that it takes working smart and hard.

For me, the saying would be far more valuable if it were cut in half.  ”Work smart.” Now, we have solid and more complete counsel. “Work” suggests the need for some discipline…some sweat equity…giving our all. “Smart” suggests the need to invest your labor in a way, place, and area where it has a chance…a greater probability to succeed.

Here’s my point, (finally, 3 paragraphs in), if we’re going to experience genuine success in our spiritual lives, (the most important and valuable area of our lives), we have to “work smart.” As with all of us, I experience a lot of seasons where, though working really hard at it, I’m sliding backward spiritually. In my devotional time with God this morning, I found a passage that highlighted the problem for me.

“The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green…,” Psalm 92:12-14.

Think about it. No matter how hard I work to flourish spiritually, if I plant myself in a spiritual wasteland…a place where God, His truth, and His people are not being experienced or expressed, I will fail. Where as, if I plant myself in a spiritually fertile place…(represented by the “house of the Lord” in the passage above), I will flourish when I invest myself in knowing, loving, obeying, and serving God.

So, for me, working hard at my spiritual life isn’t the whole issue. I need to make sure that I’m “working smart.”

How about you?

PS If you want to take this idea further, contrast Abraham with Lot. Where they planted themselves made a huge difference.

This past weekend, I did a talk, in our “Change Your Game” series, that focused on how we’ve lost the wonder of life. Though we were created to joyfully experience each day in a new and life-expanding way, Psalm 118:24, we’ve lowered each new day to being a simple repeat of all the days before. Solomon describes this sad and profound loss better than I ever could in the book of Ecclesiastes. (Checkout Ecclesiastes 1:5-9; 2:17-23)

I won’t repeat the talk here because you can listen to or watch it online at northridgechurch.com. But, I have to confess…this talk is really messing with me. Think about it…the reason we miss the wonder of each new day God shapes for us is because we’re not allowing Him to reshape us for that new day. We’re going into each new day with all of the old baggage of our many yesterdays. So, rather than experiencing a new day…we keep experiencing the same old day…over and over again.

As an illustration of this, I compared my grandkids sense of wonder in life with mine. Sadly, the difference is profound. When I twittered about this, someone reminded me that G.K. Chesterton had written a little about this in his book “Orthodoxy.” I found it and thought it might inspire you like it does me.

“A child kicks its legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough… It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again,” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again,” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike: it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”

Of course, the answer, (which I seek to develop with a little more depth in my talk), is for us to faithfully be inviting God to reshape and remake our lives each and everyday. When we do, He makes it possible for us to experience each new day as genuinely new. When we do, we’ll find ourselves once again filled with wonder…constantly saying “do it again.”

I’d love to know if this messes with you as much as it’s been messing with me!

I really do believe that God’s timing is perfect. (I believe anyone who genuinely believes in the God of the Bible needs to believe this. He’s all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-present. His timing must be perfect.) Here’s my problem. I don’t live like I believe it. So, I try to “make things happen” in my timing while seeking God’s help and giving God credit. Sound familiar?

This is dangerous and destructive. By trying to force or change God’s timing, we can actually mess up our lives by missing God’s will…even when we know it. As hard as it is, we need to learn to trust in and wait on God’s timing.

A great example of this is seen in the contrast of two Kings: David and Saul. King Saul believed in and knew the power of God. He experienced and lived it. But, when it came to trusting and waiting on God’s timing, He couldn’t do it, (1 Samuel 13:7-14). As a result, he messed up and missed God’s will for his life. Where as David, though his circumstances were more frustrating and fearful, practiced what He believed about God by waiting, (1 Samuel 26:7-11). He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was God’s will for him to be King. He knew that God had removed His Spirit from Saul. But, though his life was at risk and years went by, David didn’t force the timing by killing Saul. He trusted in and waited on God’s timing.

Now, this doesn’t mean that we sit around singing “kum ba ya my Lord” and do nothing. It means that we do what we can do…remain faithful, invest ourselves fully in the areas of influence and responsibility that we’ve already been given, seize the opportunities God gives today, and keep growing, learning, and preparing. But, we should never seek to control what we cannot control or change what we cannot change. We should never compromise or shortcut God’s truth or our character to speedup His timing.

If we want to finish like David rather than Saul, then we need to, as difficult as it may be, trust in and wait on God’s PERFECT timing.

How are you doing at this?