The Problem of Deadlines and Lack Thereof...

[BenNorthcutt]

A couple of thoughts strike me today as I read Laniak's devotion on the shepherd's skill in finding and maintaing water sources. The first is the fact that, as "shepherd's" knowing where to find spiritual water and food is among our primary roles--if not the the primary.

I heard a pastor from CA speaking one time about pastors who decide to read the Bible through in a year. He laughed and chastised them. "Knowing this book is the most important thing that we do," he lectured. "We ought to be reading it through three or four times every  year."

I spent most of last year preaching through the Old Testament on top of teaching OT and NT classes at a community college. Between those three things, I think I have learned alot about Scripture as a whole and about parts of the Bible that I've only glazed over previously. But even now, if I was being totally honest, I would have to say that going to the Bible to "rejuvinate" me is not something that I do daily.

I wouldn't say, however, that I actively struggle with the same frustrations as Laniak's example. When I do sit down with the Word of God, it rarely takes more than a few chapters before the HS illuminates a passage and points it at some aspect of my life.

My frustration is in the fact that no one is giving me a deadline for spending time with Jesus. In ministry--just like I did when I was in school--I operate on deadlines. Every week, I have a saturday night deadline for having written a sermon, prepared a SS lesson, printed bulletins, and made a PowerPoint presentation. I have a weekly sunday night deadline for having prepared class content for my NT class on monday monring. I have monthly deadlines for having conducted so many shut-in visits and having prepared for our monthly collegiate worship gathering.

When I get up in the morning and think about what I need to do today, my mind naturally goes to those tasks whose deadlines are the closest... And while I undestand and affirm that the value of "drinking from the well of Christ" far outweighs anything else I might do in a given day, there is no deadline for it. And this naturally puts it on the backburner...

"God, may these forty days of starting out my days reading and thinking about you build in my a habit of beginning every morning with you."