Lost sunglasses. I am
walking through Tieneman Square in Beijing, squinting. I’ll have to purchase another pair at the
vendor’s by the gate. He hands me my
selection—a grey pair with a metal butterfly adorning the tiny corner of each
frame. I like this pair. But an hour later, as I walk by the river, I
must purchase another set. I select
frames exactly like the first ones. But that
story follows me back home and even friends who didn’t accompany me to the
Great Wall or on the rickshaw laugh at the story as they hear it retold.
My knack for losing things extends elsewhere. Not wanting
extra clutter around my house, I’ve too often placed an item somewhere to get
it out of sight…and forgotten where I placed it. While I’ve certainly not conquered my
tendency to file things and forget them or to flat out lose them, my study of
God’s Word is helping me to become more aware of little details in my life. My own propensity in this area will probably never
be completely gone, but the scatterbrain in me is beginning to be conquered,
slowly but surely, as I seek to embrace the second command of I Thessalonians
4:11.
“And that ye study…to do your own business.” The verb do
refers to that which is done frequently, rather than a one-time
occurrence. This verb involves
“[bringing] about or accomplish[ing] something through activity” (BDAG). One’s own business is his own “personal
labor,” as in I Corinthians 4:12, which states—“And labour, working with our
own hands.”
I’ve been far too capricious for most of my life. After reading the Anne of Green Gables series as a young teen, I began to view
impetuousness as a positive characteristic.
So when I did something flighty—lose sunglasses, misplace an important item,
or make a careless error—I thought such actions evidenced an underlying
creativity rather than a character weakness to be conquered.
Majoring in music wasn’t my idea after high school; in fact,
I was looking forward to freedom from practice time. And yet, after praying about the options, God
directed me to a double major in education and music. In making my decision, I considered the many
hours of practice required from a music major and realized it would only be
through repeated routine consistently applied on an hourly and daily basis that
I would achieve my goals as a musician. When
I performed my senior recital, I rejoiced to see the progress I had made. One day at a time. Because of a developed routine.
My years as a college musician saw me embracing disciplined
and productive practice in a desperately needed routine. And yet, I somehow failed to translate that
routine into my daily life, even swallowing the notion that creative sorts
should avoid predictability, that routine would make them boring
individuals. But over time, I began to
realize that whimsicalness looked more like what God calls a “hasty spirit” and
stood in stark contrast to the faithfulness required of stewards. Each task of my life is a stewardship from
God to be faithfully executed for His glory.
Over time, God has begun to show me that daily routine is
absolutely essential for faithful living.
When we fail to root out sin or character weakness in our lives, we find
those areas grow only worse. More than
being forgetful, the hasty spirit had begun to affect my reactions in other
ways. Because I had not faithfully
followed routine in small areas of my life, I found myself reflecting too much
haphazardness and not enough faithfulness in other aspects of my existence. Proverbs 14:29 explains, “He
that is slow to wrath is of great
understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly.”
The last thing I wanted to do was to exalt folly. But I was literally doing so by living a life
that lacked consistent routine in the way I conducted my smallest daily responsibilities. Then, as I waited in the Nairobi
airport for a return trip home from Kenya this past summer I read, I Timothy
6:6—“But godliness with contentment is great gain.” While on the surface this verse may not offer
any solution to the impetuous, I saw in the word contentment the
opposite of caprice.
I saw a gratefulness for the moment, a willingness to
embrace the entire bulk of the existence God had handed to me (from objects to
people to circumstances) and to live in such a way, in my every moment, that
reflected His faithfulness, His orderliness, His predictability. Does not He
bring about an orderly day? Does not He
reign from sunrise to sunset?
Many Kenyan cities have their share of scantily made shacks,
fleeing refugees from poorer places, and an abundance of need. “If God called
my husband and me to go to the mission field,” I thought, “how difficult would
it be for me to pack up and leave? Does
everything in my demeanor express contentment for whatever God has chosen? Have the things of life entangled me at any
point?” I saw they had—for a lack of
routine in the stewardship of small daily tasks and responsibilities (like a
specific location for keys, which I lost three times in three years) had poked
holes in other dimensions of my character, causing me to fail to be completely
faithful in my specific “business”—the tasks God had appointed solely for
me.
I began to think through my routine and the attitude with
which I approached all of my daily responsibilities, from housework to schoolwork
to ministry work. I considered how God
wanted all things done “decently and in order” (I Cor. 14:40). And I felt conviction wash over me as I
thought of areas I knew needed to be organized and managed with far more
predictability. I immediately considered
items to be purged from my closet spaces and new little habits to be added to
my life in order for me to live out the I Timothy 6:6 attitude—embracing the
present as God’s gift (contentment) and reflecting His orderliness in a
consistency with even the smallest tasks.
In many respects, faithfulness is the biblical antidote to a
hasty spirit. It’s morning quiet time
and daily work that keeps on with fortitude, in spite of any difficulty or any
inner voice that resists it. It’s waking
up with the alarm clock immediately, putting one’s feet on the floor in
preparation for another day of service, regardless of fleeting feelings of
tiredness.
It’s experiencing what I once feared was the boredom of predictability.
Because when I faithfully execute my responsibilities, the
circumstances in my surroundings are stopped from delivering a deathblow to my
spirit. I don’t need to rely on the
fickleness of the moment—the hasty spirit’s caprice—to supply needed
energy. God can bring that energy as I
obey Him.
While I still have far to go, I am discovering what I had
begun to suspect before—far from making one boring, routine frees a person to
become the individual God wants him to be and to properly embrace the business
of life. So many little things that I once
allowed to slip are now recipients of predictable habit. My keys have their
assigned location. Daily I place them
there after coming home and retrieve them again when I must leave. Clothes are ironed and placed on the closet
door to be worn the next day. Lunches
are packed and set out the night before. Instead of the dread I anticipated, I
have found liberation. Time I didn’t
know existed before—moments to spend with God and minutes to serve others—rise
to the foreground when I study to do the little, habitual things of life the
best way.
The command to “study to do [our] own business” invites us
to note where we have failed and to think through the most effective way to faithfully
perform life’s tasks. Like repetitive
correct practice, the music of life becomes easier as we apply ourselves regularly
and consistently to doing our tasks God’s way.
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