WHICH IS BETTER?

As President Abraham Lincoln said, “You can’t trust everything you read on the internet!” Therefore, I’m not sure whether Bill Gates actually did say it or not, but the claim is made that he once said, “I always choose for a lazy person to do a difficult job. Because he will find an easy way to do it!” This contrasts with the different approach, “If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it!” The question therefore is: Which is better?The lazy approach or the busy approach?

 ¶  Lazy people consider themselves smarter than seven wise counselors.
Prov. 26:16

While Bill Gates may assume that lazy people are incredibly smart people, I think they also deserve another compliment. Lazy people are often energetic people as well. In fact, many lazy people are so energetic, they can look downright busy! 

I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.
Ecclesiastes 3:10

It is wrong to assume that all lazy people are inactive people. They can be very energetic. Laziness is thus not necessarily about the amount effort or activity involved. For example, riding a horse requires effort and can be a very effective means of transport. But not if the horse is a rocking horse! This is despite the effort involved to ride a rocking horse possibly being even more intense than riding an actual horse! Some very active and energetic people get quite offended if they are accused of being lazy.

Conversely though, we shouldn’t assume that the person doing nothing is necessarily a lazy person either.

Feel it no shame, at proper times, to be doing nothing.
F. W. Boreham, DRUMS OF DAWN

Laziness has more to do with a lack of effectiveness and appropriateness. Someone may be busy trying to scale a wall using a ladder. They may build a ladder, move it into position, test it, and vigorously go up and down it. But if it is the wrong type of ladder, or the wrong size ladder, or worse still, the wrong wall – they are being lazy, despite their hard work and busyness! Diligence, not busyness, is the opposite of laziness. Diligence strives for effectiveness and appropriateness. This requires self-discipline and persistence. It does what must be done – what has to be done – even when we are tired, afraid, uncomfortable, or uninformed.  Laziness is rarely prepared to make sacrifices in order to be effective. Diligence nearly always, if not always, involves having to make sacrifices.  

The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.
Proverbs 13:4

I know many good people who all work very hard, but don’t seem to be very effective. They always seem to be running out of time. They are forever misplacing things. Their solution would be to relearn how they do everything. Diligence is therefore not merely a matter of working as long and as hard as they can. Rather, it is finding out the best way to do something then working as hard as possible to do that. 

The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.
Proverbs 21:5

So which is better: lazy or busy? If someone is considered ‘lazy’ simply because they are not busy, when in fact it is merely because they are efficient and effective (and consequently have time to do nothing), this type of lazy would be better. But if someone was ‘busy’ (and also efficient and effective), it may simply be that they are in a season of demand whereby they are helping many others. In such circumstances, busy is better. 

And translating this stand-off into the spiritual arena we can soon see that spiritual depth comes from resting in the finished work of Christ for our salvation. In this sense, we are saved by works – it’s just that it’s not our own, but Christ’s. Yet diligence and hard-work is also required for spiritual depth. The Apostle Peter told believers that they needed to be diligent to be found in Christ (refer to 1Peter 1:10), and the Apostle Paul told the Corinthians that they needed to work diligently to continually be beholding Christ (2Cor. 3:18).

¶ Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by Him without spot or blemish, and at peace.
Second Peter 3:14

This kind of diligence is the same as other forms of diligence. It strives for effectiveness (Philemon 6) and giving appropriate glory to God. It’s the kind of diligence which makes sacrifices in order to practice the spiritual disciplines which are deepening for a soul and glorifying to God (daily Bible reading, prayer journaling, witnessing, Sunday worship, fasting, giving, and contemplation). This is better.

Pastor Andrew Corbett

NO GOING BACK WHEN WE WORSHIP

LAY IT DOWN

¶ After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”  He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

Genesis 22:1-2

A little over a month ago my world nearly collapsed. I was sitting in the doctor’s surgery hearing him explain to me my immediate peril. I had just been diagnosed with a degenerative spine that could suffer permanent damage if I strained it too much. Not only was tennis out of the question, I was warned that even loading a dish-washer could be irreparably debilitating. I had one more tennis coaching commitment to fulfil which I did quite gingerly and left the court that afternoon thinking that this was my last time hitting a tennis ball on a tennis court. For something that had been a huge part of my life, it was a rather flat moment for me.

So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

Genesis 22:3

From about the age of 11, tennis was my life. Even though I had been a regular church goer all my life I became a follower of Christ at the age of 15. It wasn’t long before I was convicted by the Holy Spirit to lay tennis down on the altar of surrender to God. Initially I didn’t. I played on, travelling around Victoria to the various tournaments on the circuit. But then strange things began to happen on the tennis court as I increasingly sensed God’s call on my life to be a preacher and similarly felt that tennis was an idol in my life. This culminated for me when playing in the Victorian Junior Open. Pat Cash was playing on a court behind me. My new Fischer racquet cracked in my hand mid-game. Fortunately, I had a second racquet. But within moments of this I felt a strange burning in my abdomen followed by sharp pain. I then began coughing blood. This was not a good tournament for me.

¶ “You shall have no other gods before me.”

Deuteronomy 5:7

That was my last elite tournament. I laid tennis down on the altar of full surrender to God.

Sixteen years later we arrived in Tasmania. That was nearly 21 years ago. It would be two years before I walked onto a tennis court after sensing God’s approval. But this time it wasn’t to play but to volunteer to coach children in the community. I have since coached hundreds of children. Some went on to represent Tasmania interstate. And a few weeks I once again laid this aspect of my life down in worshipful surrender of the God Who Knows Best.

Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.”

Genesis 22:5

Letting go of things has a certain grieving associated with it. 

When God told Abraham to lay down his only son Isaac on the altar of full surrender, he must have experienced at least a small measure of grieving. For some its a lifestyle change where they too must lay down something they love but which the Holy Spirit considers to be an idol. Sport, alcohol, computer games, types of food or an inappropriate relationship, can all be or become idols in our lives. Whatever our sacrifices are, once we lay them down, we can never go back to them. Altar fires make going back to past sources of comfort (idols) impossible. Whatever or whoever you turn to for comfort in times of discomfort reveals what or who you really worship. Our worship reveals our God.

When you lay something down on the altar of surrender to God, you cannot go back to it.

After I left the doctor’s surgery and then finishing up my tennis commitments, I began to feel even more fragile. I was aware that my deteriorated spine could give way any moment and I could collapse in agony and find myself embarrassed to be invalid again. Everything I do now takes a little more time. I cannot sit for as long as I used to. I don’t sleep so well anymore. Yet my worship of God has deepened.

¶ I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Romans 12:1

One of the greatest blessings in my life has become an even greater blessing throughout this episode. I love my church congregation. I love the way they embrace visitors, new attenders and our new members. I love how they love each other. And I love how they have loved me as their pastor and friend. Several men in my church, starting with Ronny Darby, asked to lay hands on me and pray for my healing. After four weeks of such prayers, I was sent to have an MRI before seeing the Specialist.

Whenever we let go of something in obedience to God, God always fills our lives with something far better! 

Throughout this episode of my life I have wondered what God was doing. I have never at any stage though doubted His goodness. In fact, apart from developing a greater compassion for people with chronic pain, several things have become clearer to me. Firstly, our physical well-being has a bearing on our spiritual well-being. Secondly, in times of physical inconvenience it is often required to be even more intentional about certain spiritual disciplines including Scripture reading, prayer, church attendance and personal witnessing. Thirdly, life’s circumstances sometimes, if not often, require of us that we lay down certain pleasures and loves. Abraham discovered this.

And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”

Genesis 22:7

What we lay down reveals what we worship. Worship is adoration, devotion, surrender. It engages our heart, our mind, our effort. Abraham had longed for a son. God blessed him with Isaac. But it seems that Isaac might have been more to Abraham than just his son. God wanted to expose Abraham’s heart and called upon him to lay down his son on the altar of worship of God. Abraham did – and God intervened just in time to ensure Isaac was spared. Abraham was the beneficiary though. By submitting to God, even though he didn’t understand why, Abraham was obedient to God (obedience is the evidence of true God-worship). His willingness to sacrifice what he loved in devotion to God demonstrated his trust in God (the ignition of true worship). Because he worshiped God he received the blessing of God.

¶ When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

Genesis 22:9-12

My visit to Spinal Specialist was curious. He confirmed that my spine was degenerated. But, he said, much of what the CT scan had revealed was no longer evident in the MRI. I regard this as a documented answer to prayer. He also said that my spine will only get worse, but that the best thing I could do in the meantime was to build up my core strength to better support my spine. This would not only enable me to get back on a tennis court, getting back on a tennis court will actually help to strengthen the muscles which support my spine. While I may never be able to play competitively again, I can use whatever skills I have on a tennis court to help young children in our community to be active and hopefully be a light for the One who alone is worthy of worship.

My love for God has meant that I have been willing to lay down whatever was – or could be – an idol in my life. I have never lacked, never suffered loss, never been worse off, when I have obeyed God and laid down anything the Holy Spirit has shed His convicting light on. It is my hope that we can be the type of Christ-followers who worship God in Spirit and in truth and find our comfort in Him in our times of loneliness, distress, pain, or inconvenience so that the world can clearly see the difference that Christ makes in a person’s life.

¶ And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies

Genesis 22:15-17

Ps. Andrew.