A friend of mine had a baby recently – and her husband took a week or so off before heading back to work.  I asked him how it was going.

He said, work is alright, but it’s different now . I just don’t find it matters as much as it used to.  I won’t quit or anything, but it just seems less important to me.

True enough.  My friend still needs to work, but there is a new member of his family who is far more important than every possible promotion, raise or accolade.

We all need this kind of shift in perspective – not by all going and having a kid – but by inviting God to be at the center of our lives.

When there is no ultimate goal or concern in our lives, or that varies day to day, or simply becomes whatever is most urgent, busyness consumes us.  We can’t stop it or get away from it.

If God is the ultimate center of our lives, then everything else falls into place around Him.  James, who we interviewed a couple weeks ago was consumed by the lifestyle his lucrative career could buy, and lost himself.  In the end, he quit, took a break, and eventually came back – but able to see that work wasn’t everything. You can watch the interview again here: https://vimeo.com/72458543

He and my friend with the baby both realized they were enslaved to their work, sometimes without even realizing it.

This kind of slavery to work is something God wanted to prevent Israel from ever experiencing again, or inflicting on anyone else.  In Deuteronomy 15:1-2 and Deuteronomy 15:12-15:

“At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release. And this is the manner of the release: every creditor shall release what he has lent to his neighbor.”

“If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty-handed. You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your winepress. As the LORD your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today.

We’ve heard a lot about the Sabbath day so far, but this introduces the idea of the Sabbath year where Israel was meant to release every debt, and release every person who was so indebted they had sold themselves into slavery.

Why?  Because God had released their nation from slavery, and this would be a constant reminder.  Every week, a day off, and every 6 years, a year off for crops and for the lowest servants.  This would be a clear sign they were not worshipping work, but worshipping God.

That same act of liberation needs to be in our rest.  We need to tell ourselves we are resting to prove we are not slaves to our employers, to our bank accounts, to our pride or anything else.  We are children of God, not defined by work.

There is more to me than my work.

This inner shift has to come before we try making outer, structural changes to our weeks and years, like we’ll discuss next week.

Question: What would it take for you to see your work differently?  What could change for a year, or what life event, would break the cycle?

Ryan Sim - February 6, 2014

Thursday - Act On It - Reset: Money

Reset

We’re looking at how following Jesus impacts our view of money. I sat in Chapters a couple weeks ago, next to some guys talking about motorcycles. They all rode one kind of bike or another, and were talking about insurance, alarms and more. One man was about to sell his house, and wanted to use the profit, all of it, to buy his dream bike. His friend got upset, and said, this is because you’re single. I could never spend like that with a wife and kids, I have too many responsibilities. The motorcycle buyer said, “I Know, there are a lot of better ways I could spend the money, too, but this is my dream bike, I just have to have it”. These guys had significantly different values about money. Partly this is because of their different experiences – the guy with a family had to change his spending habits to support something more important than his dream bike. I do have to wonder, though, if this will remain his buddy’s dream bike, or if there’ll be a new dream in five, then, twenty years while this one sits in the garage. Or what happens when he can’t ride anymore, and has to sell a depreciated bike. Will this still be his dream, or is the dream always changing? In yesterday’s passage of scripture, Paul uses the same language Jesus is known for using – he refers to storing up treasure in heaven, instead of on earth. In other words, we need to dream bigger dreams than motorcycles and vacations. They’re not bad in and of themselves, but when they become our dream, prioritized over all else, we’ve made them into our ultimate good, and that’s very bad for us. A few weeks ago, I defined sin in this way, as when we take something good, make it our ultimate good, and that is ultimately bad for us. We free ourselves from slavery to false, empty and fluctuating dreams by gaining and saving in order to give generously. In our series on Becoming Like Family, we talking about three ways to give: to Christian ministries like Redeem the Commute, to other work consistent with God’s kingdom values, and to save in order to directly help friends and family in need. Challenge: Write, sketch, or imagine God’s dream for you in his kingdom. What lasting impact has he positioned you to make on the world? What financial changes would you have to make to do it?

Related Topics: Dreams, Kingdom, Money, Priorities, Reset | More Messages from Ryan Sim | Download Audio

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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