THE DANGER OF DISPERSION

'Christian leaders...are usually multi-gifted people who are able to do many things well. This is why they find it difficult to say "no!" to areas of ministry which they enjoy and, for some time, do very capably. Dispersion, though, is a subtle enemy, acting often as a silent "killer." It penetrates your life insidiously - you are unaware of its danger - and it drains your energy little by little until one day you suddenly realize you are unable to enjoy what you are doing and you feel like giving everything up. It has wearied you physically, emotionally and consequently, spiritually. The inability to renounce tasks or responsibilities leads to dispersion and dispersion leads to defeat.'

Pablo Martinez, Take Care of Yourself: Survive and thrive in Christian ministry, p.49.

DIARY PLANNING

'...if someone invites you to a two-day conference in six months' time, what should you do? I suggest asking yourself this question. Does the thought of fitting a two-day conference into the next fortnight fill you with dread because you are already so overcommitted? If the answer is yes, you should turn down the invitation to the conference later in the year because it's very unlikely that in a few months' time you'll be less busy than now. 

Or how about this scenario? You are asked to sit an a committee next year. Have you read the papers for the meeting you are going to tomorrow? No. Well, don't join another committee then. Because if you do, you will find yourself in the same position as now, unless you plan to take steps to change your regular schedule, which - experience should tell you - you are unlikely to be able to do.' 

Claudia Hammond, The Art of Rest, p.259. 

WHAT WORK DOES TO FAMILIES

'To be unhappy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition.'
Samuel Johnson in David Gibson, Destiny, p.64. 

THE DANGER OF BUSYNESS

'I am afraid that you will despair of an end to the many demands made upon you and become calloused....It would be much wiser to remove yourself from these demands even for a while than to allow yourself to be distracted by them and led, little by little, where you certainly do not want to go. Where? To a hard heart. Do not go on to ask what that is; if you have not been terrified by it, it is yours already.' 

Bernard of Clairvaux in Peter Scazzero, The Emotionally Healthy Leader, p.188. 

GOD & HUMANITY

'God is the only multitasker.'
Matt Perman, What Best Next, p.242.

BUSYNESS

'The busyness that's bad is not the busyness of work, but the busyness that works hard at the wrong things. It's being busy trying to please people, busy trying to control others, busy trying to do things we haven't been called to do.' 

Kevin DeYoung, Crazy Busy, p.102. 

BUSYNESS

'Busyness kills more Christians than bullets.'
Kevin DeYoung, Crazy Busy, p.30. 

BUSYNESS

'I've noticed that when one is not concerned with being somewhere else, she tends to notice where she is. In such an environment, daily moments naturally becomes what one talks about at night. For example, the granddaughter's smile down at the A&P becomes a fifteen-minutes story that draws everyone into belly laughter. The smile was important enough to notice and the story valuable enough to tell. The laughter, the story, and the smile each form a sufficient agenda for conversation. I found this attention to the mundane lacking. I wanted "real" conversation about "real" life. I wanted us to talk about things that mattered, things that make a difference. Now I'm beginning to reflect more on those feelings. When did it happen that to talk about what one lives is not enough for real conversation? When did it happen that a granddaughter's smile is not substantial enough to speak of?' 

Zack Eswine, Sensing Jesus: Life and ministry as a Human Being, p.62. 

MINISTRY

'You and I are non-one's saviour, no one's ultimate refuge or rock. Jesus has done and is doing far more for His people than we ever can or will. This is part of Christian freedom; we're free not to feel ultimately responsible; free to trust Jesus to comfort, to teach and to keep His people. We're liberated by knowing there is a Saviour, Refuge, Rock; and that it's not us. We are free to say: Enough.'

John Hindley, Serving without sinking: How to serve Christ and keep your joy, p.39.  

BUSYNESS

'Beware you do not lose your God in the crowd and hurry of earthly business.' 

John Flavel, The Mystery of Providence, p.79. 

BUSYNESS

'I started to feel like a tired, wired little kid at a birthday party who has had way too much sugar, who is in all ways on overload, but still finds herself blindfolded and spun around for a game of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, and then pushed more or less in the direction of the wall with the donkey on it. But I was so turned around, so lost and overwhelmed and stressed that I couldn't even remember where the wall with the donkey was - or even in what direction it might be found. So I couldn't take one step forward without there being a chance that I was actually walking further away from it. And it took me a while to remember that for me, the wall with the donkey on it is Jesus.'

Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies, p.149.

BUSYNESS

'There was once an old sailor my grandfather knew
Who had so many things which he wanted to do
That, whenever he thought it was time to begin,
He couldn't because of the state he was in.'
AA Milne, 'The Old Sailor' in Now We Are Six, p.36.

GOD'S GLORY

'Spiritual blindness not only blinds me to the reality of my sin, but it also blinds me to the glory of God that is everywhere around me. God has created his world to be a constant sight-and-sound display of his power, glory, faithfulness, and love. Yet, the eyes of my heart can be so clouded by the duties of the day, by the busyness of the schedule, and by the problems of life that I don't see the God of grace whose glory is evident everywhere I look.'

Paul David Tripp, A shelter in the time of storm, p.36.