In last week’s Gear-Up, we discussed productivity and what productivity looks like from a biblical worldview. It was clearly stated that busy work is not necessarily productivity. According to John 15:1 & 2, the scriptures suggest that productivity is directly linked to your purpose. In another scripture we find Jesus hungry and approached a fig tree in its season. The leaves were full and gave the appearance that it was fruitful (productive), but from a closer advantage point He found that the fig tree was busy giving the appearance of being productive, but bared no fruit (Matthew 21:18-20). In verse 20 we find that the tree withered and died.
The most profound part of these scriptures is the death of a withering tree. The tree found himself doing a lot of busy work, so when it was needed in its purpose he couldn’t produce fruit. Often times busy work has distracted us from our God given purpose, so when we are needed; we have no fruit to give. A great deal of energy and resources is used to produce unfruitful works and we continue to take on more, without the ability to say no. It is sad to say that the body of Christ is overdosing on over-commitment. The culture that we established, suggest that we are invincible and can do all things in our own strength (not in Christ). The result is an individual that is frustrated, burned out, stressed, depressed, and multiple other health concerns manifest; the symptoms of a dying tree.
The neglect of self-care and operating outside your purpose is considered self-violence. Self-neglect is a contemporary form of violence to one’s self. Self-violence defined by Jones (2001) is “to allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence” (p. 12). This act of self-violence destroys an individual’s inner peace, wisdom and their ability to be productive according to God’s will. STOP THE VIOLENCE and Think About It!
Arnulfo A. Peat, Jr. is currently the Executive Pastor of Urban Empowerment and Founder of Think About It Ministries. Peat serves in ministry with his wife Nicole Peat and their three children; Elisha, Nathaniel, and Valerie. For more information go to www.ThinkAboutIt.name
OhhhhhWeeeee Pastor Peat! This is gooooooood! \0/! I am feeling this! I'm going to get very personal in my response to this thought...
ReplyDeleteI cannot, must not over commit myself...I have been called to be a wife to my husband, a mother/intercessor to 5 grown men and women, a grandmother/intercessor to 12 grandchildren, & soon to be great grandmother/intercessor to twins, minister to women and intercede for their families, & be a good neighbor/intercessor in my community...A leader and committed to my church family and to assist when & where I can to grow the vision our pastor has for our community...Now! Whew! People will come to you with their list of needs and where they have placed you on the list to take care of things...so we must stay prayerful and discerning or we will get ourselves in trouble. We won't be good to ourselves or our 1st love...we'll be too busy to spend intimate/precious time w/our 1st love. We must not allow the callings of others, the world, even family's needs to drown out the still small, intimate voice of our 1st love...that is where we get our strength, our consolations, our understanding, our encouragement, our direction, our protection...Lord give us the grace and discernment today to say "NO" when we need to and "YES" when you want us to...
You are so right. Busy work does not mean that you have accomplished anything. There are days that I have been soooo very busy, but have done nothing to advance the kingdom.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your insight. It has really given me a reason to focus on kingdom work not busy work!
Good word! Love this blog!
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