We’re recently started a new series called “reset”.  Last week, we talked about how Jesus makes it possible to reset all of life, giving us a fresh start in life that impacts every key area.  We’re going to look at many of these in depth, starting this week with how Jesus resets our goals.

When my wife and I were having our first baby, we were encouraged to write birth plan.  This is where you write down a plan for who’s in the room, and make choices about everything from epidurals to breastfeeding to how bright the lights should be.

I know someone who works closely with an OB, and she has some wild stories about how people let some of the small choices get in the way of the big picture.  In a perfect, routine childbirth, a parent’s ideal may be to have the lights just so, no pain with no drugs, and a favourite song playing at the exact moment the child is born.

But when things don’t go perfectly, there are some people who forget the point, or the goal.  They start to argue for their personal preferences, instead of arguing for a baby’s health.

When my wife and I were writing up a birth plan, we decided to stay goal focused.  The goal was to have a healthy child.  All our personal preferences, hopes and dreams for the birth experience were going to be expressed, but we’d drop them in an instant if things were going wrong.

That was a moment we reset our goals…to make sure they were focused on the right thing.  It’s not a bad thing in life to regularly reset our goals, and ensure we’re focused on the right ones.  Not just in childbirth.

We can get so bogged down in day to day tasks we forget the point in our careers.  Do we live to work, or work to live?

I heard a TED Talk (attached) that shared the job description of a hospital janitor.  It was what you’d expect – mop, clean, scrub, restock.  It had nothing at all to do with hospital patients and healthcare.  But some psychologists interviewed hospital janitors.  They met one who told them about how he stopped mopping the floor because a patient was walking slowly down the hall. Another told them how she ignored her supervisor and didn’t vacuum the visitor’s lounge because there were some family members who were there all day, every day.

In the drudgery of cleaning, these janitors remembered the real goal of the hospital, and perhaps even of their human race.  They reset their goals to be about more than cleaning, but about caring for others.

Question: When have you had to reset your goals?  Why did you do it?

Reminder: We are reading the Bible in sync as one community – so check out today’s reading here.

Reminder: The best way to grow spiritually this year is to join our Christianity 101 in the Cafe Course in Pickering starting this Wednesday,  January 22nd. Register for you and a friend today!

Read the Bible in Sync Today

Ryan Sim - March 26, 2014

Wednesday - Change It - Reset Society

Hi, welcome to Redeem the Commute. I'm Ryan your host of the Daily Challenges. Here we are in nature. And that's because this week we're studying how following Jesus resets our views of society’s divisions. We saw yesterday a vision of those in Christ being one with no divisions due to class, race or gender. Unfortunately there have been many divisions between Christian individuals and churches from history, influenced by wars, political differences, etc. but that is no excuse. For Christians this passage makes it clear that nurturing divisions from other Christians for race, class or gender comes under God’s judgement. Note the particular emphasis on Christians here – those who have been baptized into Christ. He’s reflecting on the ways a committed follower of Jesus acts in response to the gospel. His emphasis on baptism didn’t mean he thought a Christian was made by water – he’s so clear elsewhere that one is saved by faith alone. Water signifies what happens on the inside, and wouldn’t have been taken lightly in his day. No one was likely being baptized out of tradition, like we unfortunately have today. Only those who deliberately meant to follow Jesus, and were willing to risk everything for it, including family, social standing, inclusion in their ethnic group, would bother being baptized. The baptized risked these things for Christ, and gained a new family, a new society that is meant to be unified. To see further division in that would be a terrible shame, and undermine the message. When people are bound by Christ, those differences are not cause for division, but can be celebrated. Now this isn’t a statement that all religions are equally valid and good. Nor is it a statement that everything in every culture should be celebrated. He is saying those who say they follow Jesus need to overcome the divisions that others may promote. Here’s how John Stott put it: Celebrate richness of culture but not the idolatry that may be at its heart. What comes first is the faith and baptism into Christ. Then that changed, and reset heart can be led by the Holy Spirit to discern what parts of culture, ethnicity, gender roles, etc. are of Christ, and what is about idolatry – of the religious variety or the selfish variety. Paul himself tried to navigate this carefully. When he spoke in Athens, he explored a city full of altars to various gods, including one to an “unknown god”. He told them he knew the unknown God they’d been looking for. He found the one thing in their culture that he could celebrate. Question: Think critically: What parts of your own culture are rooted in idolatry? Idolatry doesn’t just mean worship of golden statues, but worship anything God created – things like money, power, ego, etc. What parts are compatible with life in Christ?

From Series: "Reset"

When our computers get bogged down and unmanageable, we know to hit a reset button to simply start over. Wouldn't a reset button be great in life? We know it would be complicated, with all our responsibilities and routines to consider, but imagine the freedom and refreshment of a new start in life! What would you do differently? What would you pay more attention to, and what would you ignore? How would you avoid getting bogged down and broken again? The great news is, in coming to earth as Jesus Christ, God has begun to "reset" our universe, our world, and even us. We're invited to start over with him, in what he calls his kingdom. We're invited to start a new life with a clean slate. What gets wiped clean, and lived differently, when God resets our lives? We'll explore how God resets these key areas of our lives: Reset: Goals Reset: Time Reset: Money Reset: Work Reset: Body & Food Reset: Sex & Marriage Reset: Family Reset: Compassion Reset: Nature Reset: Society Reset: Death Join us for the next several weeks, and invite God to reset your life.

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