Is it just me or has life gotten really busy? Not just my life, but life in general. It seems like everyone I know is busy / overwhelmed / in a hurry. I don’t know if it’s the pace of an increasingly connected society, a slow economy requiring us to work more hours, or maybe it’s just me but it seems like life is just plain busy these days for me and my flock.
As I was talking with some friends this week, I was reminded of two principles that have been very helpful to me in thinking through how I manage my time and cope with the busyness of life. I like to think of these two principles as ocean buoys. As long as I stay somewhere between these two buoys, there is an ocean of grace for me swim in with my time.
The first principle is that it is good to be busy for the Lord. There is something fundamentally good about being busy about the Lord’s work. I refer to the “Lord’s work” in the sense in which everything we do (work, family, church, etc.) should be done to the glory of God; not just the “spiritual” stuff. It’s important to recognize that busyness is not necessarily a bad thing, because it is good to be busy for the Lord.
The second principle is that it is good to remember that we are but dust. While it’s good to be busy for the Lord, we must always remember that we are but dust. That is to say that there is only so much of me, there is only so much that I can do, there is only so much that I can take and there is only so much that I can produce. This principle helps me to guard against taking on too much and it also recognizes that everyone is an individual and everyone has a different operating capacity. Some people need more sleep, some need less. Some have boundless energy, some do not. Some are more outgoing, some are more reserved. The point is to know yourself, to realize that there’s only so much of you and than to choose to do the things that are most important and leave behind the rest.
When you hold both of those principles together, you’re free to swim in an ocean of grace when it comes to time management, so enjoy the waters.
Prayer, in many ways, is the supreme expression of our faith in God and our faith and confidence in the promises of God. There is nothing that a man ever does which so proclaims his faith as when he gets down on his knees and looks to God and talks to God. It is a tremendous confession of faith. I mean by this that he is not just running with his requests and petitions, but if he really waits upon God, if he really looks to God, he is there saying, ‘Yes, I believe it all, I believe that you are a rewarder of them that diligently seek you, I believe you are the Creator of all things and all things are in your hands. I know there is nothing outside of your control. I come to you because you are in all this and I find peace and rest and quiet in your holy presence and I am praying to you because you are what you are.’ That is the whole approach to prayer that you find in the teaching of Scripture.
Great post here from Rick Holland. Here’s an excerpt:
If you are a parent who longs to see your children walk with God or a someone who wants to influence your friends and family, there is a helpful pattern for us to follow in Romans 2:4. Paul writes:
Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?
The second chapter of Romans begins with a confrontation regarding being more ready to judge others, including God, before oneself. In verse 4 Paul asks if judgmental spirit has cloaked our understanding of and experience with the gospel. God has demonstrated kindness, tolerance, and patience toward us. And here in the second part of the verse we meet a remarkable principle.
It is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance. Notice that it is God’s attitude, His disposition, which motivates us to change. God motivates us with kindness.
Think of the implications of imitating this attribute of God as we parent our children and try to influence others. Another way to say it is, “You can’t bad-attitude someone into a good attitude.”
The Valley of Vision is a book of prayers that has meant a lot to me over the years, especially in times of darkness and uncertainty. They provide a well lit path when my own soul seems dark and unable to pray. This is the opening prayer and it has meant a lot to me over the years and especially today.
Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly,
Thou has brought me to the valley of vision, where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights; hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory.
Let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up, that to be low is to be high, that the broken heart is the healed heart, that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit, that the repenting soul is the victorious soul, that to have nothing is to possess all, that to bear the cross is to wear the crown, that to give is to receive, that the valley is the place of vision.
Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells, and the deeper the wells the brighter thy stars shine;
Let me find thy light in my darkness, thy life in my death, thy joy in my sorry, thy grace in my sin, thy riches in my poverty, thy glory in my valley.
I find myself tempted to put the burden of my happiness on the shoulders of my children every day, and I know this is the case by how often I react to their failures and sins as if they have stopped me from achieving happiness. My aim needs to be to help them learn where real happiness lies by carrying them there. That is, I must model the easy yoke and light burden of Jesus and take my children to Him as the source of happiness.
On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech from the steps of Lincoln Memorial, capping a historic March on Washington.
You can watch the seventeen and a half minute speech below, and/or read the full text after the jump.
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free.
One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.
One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.
One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.
So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating “For Whites Only”. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”
And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!
But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
This may seem like a completely random post for me, since neither my parents or Amy’s parents are anywhere near the age for being put into a nursing home, but one of the extremely practical pieces of advice that Dr. Feinberg gave us this last week had to do with nursing homes, as he’s had to spend a lot of time dealing with them himself. I was really impressed by Dr. Feinberg’s pastoral care in pointing some things out to us that aren’t theological but that almost everyone will have to deal with at some point. Here are several of the pointers he gave us on choosing a nursing home.
When you visit various nursing homes looking for the right one for your loved one, be sure to pay attention to what you smell. The smells speak to the cleansliness of the facility.
Look into the rooms to see how many beds are in each room and what size the rooms are. It’s very rare that a patient has a room all to themselves, in fact it’s rather common to have three or more individuals sharing a room so look around and see what the norm seems to be. Remember that the more people in a room, the more visitors, and the more visitors the more colds, flus, etc. that they bring with them.
Ask the administrative staff if the family is consulted when changes to a patients location need to be made. When other patients move, or pass away the administrative staff has to make changes to room assignment. You want to find out if you will be consulted in those arrangements, because you don’t want your loved one to end up wit someone obnoxious.
Look around and see how many caregivers are actually present. Is the facility understaffed? It’s true that they could always use more caregivers, but having looked at several facilities, how does this one compare?
Look at the staff’s faces, their body language, their attitude. Is this just a job for them? If so, that’s going to significantly effect the kind of care that your loved one gets.
Ask what the turnover rate is for personnel at the facility.
One of the most important things to remember in this transition is that things are going to go wrong in the care of your loved one. The important thing is to realize that, expect it and see how the staff responds when things do go wrong. In other words, are they defensive, judgmental, etc. or do they own the mistake and look for ways to improve.
In some ways I’m not quite sure how to start this letter. I want to tell you how proud I am of you. I want to tell you how much I love you. I want to tell you what a blessing you are to me and to our family and to our church. More importantly than all of that, I want you to know how much God loves you and how desperately I want you to love Him.
I’ve been so encouraged in this respect as I’ve watched you participate in Awana, memorize many verses, go to Sunday School and listen attentively at night as we read “God, Baby Jesus” (that’s what you call our family devotions ). While all of these things are wonderful and I wouldn’t trade any of them, I want you to know that being a Christian is about far more than participating in church activities. Being a follower of Christ is about loving Christ, treasuring Christ and setting our affections on Christ above everything else. This is my great hope and prayer for you, that you would grow to have deep affections for Christ and that you would find Him to be all-satisfying to you.
2011 has been a great year for you and for our family. In January you started the Prep-K program over at Northside school, your teachers were Mrs. McComb (I probably didn’t spell that right) and Mrs. Harvey and you loved them both very much. You also began working with Mrs. Singletary as your speech therapist and thanks to her hard work and yours, we’ve seen tremendous progress in your speech and in your all around development; I am so proud of you!
We had a wonderful summer together. You spent time with Grandma and Papa, as well as Nana and Granddaddy. We got to check out some of the great things to do here in Northern California like Lake Tahoe and we moved into the house at the church, which you and Cody like to call the “Giant House.”
This Fall you began Kindergarten, which you enjoy very much, with Mrs. Duff as your teacher. Your mom and I are still going back and forth about what the coming years will hold for you as far as schooling goes, but right now we’re very glad that you like Northside so much.
There are so many things that I want to teach you and talk to you about, but it seems at this time God is still calling me to wait as your speech has developed just far enough now so that we can have a basic conversation. That’s one of the funny things about waiting, there’s always more of it to do. But since He is my Heavenly Father I will trust Him and wait ‘til your ready, but in the meantime I am having a wonderful time enjoying who God has made you to be right now.
Dr. Feinberg wrapped up the discussion on euthanasia today with some extremely practical and helpful advice regarding terminal illnesses and end of life care. Dr. Feinberg encouraged us not to have a “living will” / “advanced directive” informing the physician what our wishes are should we incapacitated, but rather to have a “durable power of attorney” document that places a family member in charge of our care should we be unable to care for ourselves. The advantage of a durable power of attorney over a living will is that you can still spell out what you want done, but the decision making is placed in the hands of your family rather than a physician who you likely don’t know and may not share your ethical view points.
I think the big takeaway from today’s class was that end of life decisions are best handled far in advance. These aren’t the kinds of things that you want to be thinking about for the first time when you’re in the middle of a crisis, rather you want to have thought about most of these decisions before you’re faced with them. It’s important to talk to your family so that they know your wishes and will be able to help see that they’re carried out.
One ethical area that Dr. Feinberg has forced me to think about more deeply and in a lot of ways has helped to change my mind on is when is it appropriate to stop medical treatment or to remove technology that is sustaining life. The short answer is that it is rarely appropriate to do so, because of the sanctity of human life. That is not to say that there is never an occasion when life support should be removed, but it is far better to err on the side of life than death. This principle applies to feeding tubes, life saving measures, dialysis and much more. Of course, every situation is unique and needs to be thought through thoroughly and prayed over diligently but the big principle is that life is sacred and needs to be preserved.
The last thing Dr. Feinberg covered today was an extensive look at nursing facilities. How to choose a nursing facility and how to pay for one. I’ll probably put that material into a separate blog post, as it’s pretty extensive and very insightful.
