St. John Studies

I wrapped up a thirty-seven year career as a full-time teacher in spring of 2013.  One of the things I do not miss about teaching is preaching against procrastination.

Every semester, I would have to address this issue; in fact toward the end of my career [the last 6 or 7 years] I set my classes up to reward people who successfully battled this awful disease.

You see, all my classes were either web-enhanced or online.  That is a term that is so common now but it basically means that assignments are all done at home on a computer, even if students came to campus to hear me pontificate on a subject in the classroom.

Every student is given a course “shell” when they enroll and they can access the class on an online learning platform 24/7, 7 days a week.

Not being a teacher who wants to monitor student activity 24/7, I would open up assignments and keep them open until the end of the semester.  I would announce that they are due on the last day, the last hour of the class.

Guess what would happen.

About 80 percent of the class would procrastinate.   About 19 percent would have enough discipline to deal with their academic work and they chopped away on the class all semester, not waiting until the end to turn it all in in a flurry.  About 1 percent finished early.

That was a thrill.  I would announce that small percentage to the whole class like Dave Ramseyites yelling “We’re debt free!” on his call in radio show.

Why is it that we procrastinate?  Kendra Cherry in her online article entitled “The Psychology of Procrastination” says students overestimate how much time they have left to perform tasks.   My experience is that they tend to be way too optimistic that they can get it done in plenty of time.  Students also overestimate how motivated they will be in the future.  Many have that very wrong.  If you lack motivation to do work early, how do you think you will find the motivation close to the deadline?   Fear kicks in and most of us do not do our best work in fear mode.  Students mistakenly assume that they need to be in the right frame of mind to work on a project.  Boy that is a joke.  This is just making a lame excuse.  If the right frame of mind is not coming early, it won’t come late.

One of the last classes I taught face-to-face, I had a student who stopped by after class when the class was about over.  He was very complimentary of my presentation skills in the classroom but he had a thing or two to say about by computer-based homework.

I will never forget what he said.  “I took this class and the first quarter, I loved the freedom you gave us students to do our work.  How liberating.  No quick deadline.  No monitoring.  At the mid-term mark, I got a little concerned when you sent out the mid-term assessment, when I was close to the bottom in my points totals.  Now I am in a dead panic as I see I have put off all this work until this final two weeks.  Dr. Carter, you have given me all this rope to be free and what I have done is use it to hang myself.”

He finally understood my lecture.

As we get to the last post from chapter 10, I want to share some of the wisdom I have received from my wife of almost 40 years:  “When you are troubled, or worried or upset, GET BUSY!”

Pastor Idleman says about the same thing at the end of chapter 10 when he talks about “feelings” keeping us from acting.  You know the old statement we make to others when we want to sit tight and not take action:  “I don’t feel like doing anything about it.”

Even if we don’t feel like taking action, make little steps in the right direction anyhow.  Force yourself to act.

His story of being stuck in traffic and feeling so much impatience is a good example.  Let me share an experience I had this week.  I was sitting at a table with an older woman who is single after her husband has passed.  I listened to her share her thoughts with others at the table about her life.  She feels bad due to a medical condition.  She goes nowhere.  She sees no one.  She said “I have no life.”  I observed her.   Watching her almost brought me to tears.  There was no smile on her face as she was talking.  Her voice had a sound of sadness and panic to it.  This woman is stuck.

Of course, I don’t know her whole picture and I can’t present it to you.

What could she do?

Force herself to smile.

Make conversation about positive topics instead of discussing all her problems.

Find a way to burn some calories despite her medical condition.

Go someplace and see some people.  Invite friends and get out of the house.

Again, I don’t know her situation.  This is all me coming to conclusions based on a few moments at a table with a “stuck” person.  I may be “way off.”

Pastor Idleman says that sometimes we know the truth.  We know we need to obey God even when we don’t feel like it.  Then he says the key: “When we obey God without the motivation to do so, our feelings will eventually catch up with our actions.”

In other words, get busy.

Maybe you have the steps to make your change in your mind.  Take the first step, whether you want to do it or not.  He says “you may find that along the road [to change], with God’s help, actions that at first seem artificial can become authentic.”

Listen to Pastor Idleman”; listen to my wife.  They are both right.

Questions from Chapter 10:

1.It seems so natural to choose the path of least resistance, but that’s not what will lead us to AHA.  How does the hard work of immediate action bring changes that the path of least resistance never could?

2.Passivity happens when we honor something over God.  We rarely, if ever, intend for that to happen, so what leads us to honoring things like family, money and comfort above God?

3.What’s your “first step”?  How will you act on it?

Pastor Idleman spends several pages writing about the priest Eli, in 1 Samuel.

This is another example of how the Bible is so relevant today and how passivity can creep into everyday life.  It was a factor in Bible times.

Eli had two sons who were not good boys, Hophni and Phineas.  They stole money from the offering [from God].  They kept and ate sacrifices meant for God.  They slept with women who served outside the sanctuary.

In short, they had no serious regard for God at all.

Eli knew of their activity.  He was getting reports from others about his sons.

What could he do?

1.punish his sons severely so they would suffer the consequences of their sacrilege.

2.ignore their actions.

3.yell at them and do nothing.

Eli did the third.

He scolded them and the boys heard Eli’s voice but they knew there would be no consequences.

What is the upshot of this?  The boys kept right on with their sacrilege.

They knew their father was not going to do anything to punish them so they knew they had to endure a few minutes of tongue-lashing and that was all.

I am a parent [and not a perfect one by any means].  It is hard to discipline a child.  However, if you just yell and do not enforce consequences, children will catch on to that very quickly.  They will know they can get their way.

God was not happy with Eli. God accused Eli of loving his sons too much.  Eli put his sons above God.

God warned Eli that if things did not get serious and he did not implement change, that his whole family would suffer.

What did Eli do?

Nothing.

His response is [1 Samuel 3:18] “Let Him [God] do whatever He thinks best.”

What should Eli have done?

1.repent of his disobedience of God [his own personal failing].

2.call his boys “on the carpet” again and punish them severely [give them consequences].

You see, Eli was a talker and not a doer.  His admonitions to his sons were just so much “hot air”.

His boys knew it but most of all, God knew it.

God punished the whole family of Eli because of Eli’s passivity.

You see, God is not just a talker; God is a doer.

We have been discussing passivity this week, one of the killers of any effort to change.  Passivity is the knowledge that we need to take action but the desire to act is just not there.

Let’s talk of some extraordinary statements from Scripture that can lead a person to passivity.  In 1 John 3:4-9 John says “Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.  But you know that He appeared so that He might take away our sins.  And in Him is no sin.  No one who lives in Him keeps on sinning.  No one who continues to sin has either seen Him or know Him.”

This is a real killer piece of scripture for many believers because it can be construed as the doctrine of perfection.

What are the facts?

Ever after we come to know Jesus, we all continue to sin.

What can happen to people who believe the words of 1 John?  Hopelessness.  The feeling that it does not matter anymore because we are not meeting God’s standards.  Passivity.

What does John mean by saying such strong things that make us realize our shortcomings?  We should not persist in sinning.

What happens when I sin?  I experienced this the other day.  I really did something wrong and I knew it.  I knew it before I was about to do it.  I did it.  I felt bad after I did it.

For hours after the sin was committed I grieved that I had been so bad.

Let me stop right there and let’s imagine I am a passive person and I believe the doctrine of perfection.

If I am passive, I continue to grieve my behavior but I grow to accept it.  I say things to myself like “It is just me” or “I can’t help myself” or “I’m making too big of a deal out of this” or “It will be ok.”

It won’t.

I eventually become adjusted to that idea that I am to be the way I am.  I am a sinner.  I will never be accepted by God and the words “No one who lives in Him keeps on sinning” keep ringing in my head.   Opportunities to sin reappear and I indulge myself.  It does not matter.  I can’t stop this.  I can’t change.

Let’s take another path, another interpretation of 1 John if you will.

The word is persist.  If you believe in God, we don’t want to persist in sin.  This does not mean we succeed in leading a sinless life but we don’t want to lead a sinful life either.  A believer, Alfred Plummer wrote, “sins, but opposition to sin, is the ruling principle of his life.”  We need to remember why Jesus came.  In 1 John verse 5, John reminds us: “He appeared so that He might take away our sins.”  In 1 John verse 8 John states “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.”  I don’t want the status quo to be “me, the hopeless sinner”.   I want something better for my years here on earth.  I know God knows I sinned.  I ask for His forgiveness; I know He knows me better than anyone here on earth can know me.  He knows me warts and all.  He wants me to believe.  He wants me to be a fighter against the devil.  He wants me on His side.  I accept His forgiveness.  I move on beyond my sin.  I choose to persist.

If you think your goal is to lead a sinless, perfect life, you must be real with yourself.  You and I don’t have what it takes for this to happen.

However, we can persist in trying to keep sin at bay.  Trying to do better is a reasonable goal and I believe that God honors that.  When we are passive and accept our lack of effort as “who we are”, we are playing into the devil’s hands.

He wants us passive.

He wants us to remain as we are.

He does not want us to ACT!!!!!

The title of today’s post is the subtitle of Chapter 10.

I admit it.

I have said this.

Why does Pastor Idleman use it as his subtitle?

Because passive people use this sentence all the time to justify their passivity.

Let’s break the sentence down.  “I’m sure” is the heart of the sentence and it is a pretty bold statement when you think about it.  Can we be sure?  Do we have the control we need to make that statement?  Can we say this with true confidence?

Not really.

“Everything will work itself out” is the dependent part of the sentence if you are a grammarian.  That part is true.  Everything does eventually “work itself out” but the question is, is it working out the best way it can?

I was once told that when you die, someone will come along and clean out your “in basket.”  This is an office reference that means when we have stuff that we need to do [the in basket] and death interrupts our life here on earth, we will leave a lot of things unfinished.  No worry.  There will be someone who will come along and clean up all those unfinished jobs.

Guess what?  You will have some jobs in that in basket that you have begun and not just anyone can finish them.

You need to finish them; no one else can do the work.

If you have the notion that “everything will work itself out” and that applies to all situations, you are kidding yourself.

If you are sitting around, hoping that someone else will take action for you, you are kidding yourself.

Pastor Idleman refers to Nehemiah who was given the task of rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem.  He and his workers were experiencing opposition from multiple fronts.  The worst opposition came from Jewish people who did not experience the Babylonian captivity that Nehemiah’s people experienced.  They mocked the efforts to build back the wall.  Eventually, the mockers became attackers as they  became hostile to Nehemiah and his builders.

It would have been so easy to stop.

Nehemiah could have said “Let’s quit, I’m sure everything will work itself out. Someone else will come along later and build this wall.”

That’s not what he said.

He said “pick up a sword and fight.”

Nehemiah is credited with building a New Jerusalem and what has come to be called the Second Temple.

“Today… movies and television often portray men as clueless, game-addicted couch potatoes rather than active, hard-working leaders.  Often the strong and sensible characters in movies and television are women.  When portrayed as strong, men often exaggeratedly suffer from an overdose of testosterone.”*

What is wrong with men today?

We can go on and on with examples of men from the world today, men who are not really living up to their potential but let’s not.

Let focus on Ray Barone.

You probably remember the show, Everybody Loves Raymond.

Ray is the typical male, just trying to keep his head above water.  He has a job as a sports writer, three kids and a wife.  His wife is a “strong” woman who makes up for Ray’s lack of fortitude with her own powerful sense of right and wrong.  As Ray tries to coexist with her, his number one goal is to do as little as possible to help around the house.  As we observe his life, he will do anything to get out of work.  He is constantly trying to create explanations for why he cannot act to help his wife with housework, the kids or anything she is interested in.

In this show, we see Ray caught up in numerous lies where he is willing to tell “fibs” to get out of working to help his wife.

He does have things he wants to do, watch sports with his friends and play golf and he will do what he has to do to indulge in his interests.

Added to this dynamic, Ray is scared to death of his mother, who lives across the street.  He wants to please her more than his own wife, which is painful for his wife to endure.

We watch the show and it is episode after episode of Ray goofing up.  He tries to weasel his way around taking action on anything and always gets caught in his little efforts to dissemble.

What does Ray need to do?

He needs to take action.

“Manhood, by God’s design, includes active, intentional work and leadership.  We see this at the beginning of the Biblical narrative, in Genesis 2:15: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”  From the beginning, men were to be active (“work”) and responsible (“keep”) on behalf of what God had made.  As we will see, God calls all men to actively work and lead in the following spheres: ourselves, our families, our jobs, our church, and our society.  In fact, the astounding truth is that God has made men in such a way that the hard work of intentional leadership in these areas is ultimately the most satisfying way to live.”*

Don’t get me wrong, it is wonderful to see women lead today.  I love it.

This is not about one gender being better than the other.

However it is sad to see men shrink from an active role in life [like Ray Barone].  At my church there is an effort to start up United Methodist Men again.  What happened to UMM?  Why did they disappear?  Women’s groups in the church are active but no men’s groups?

The title of this post was borrowed from a post from the website noted below.

It is a disturbing title, to say the least.

If “manhood” has been marred, it is time to stop marring it further.

Maybe the way to stop this is to avoid passivity.

Let us take action.

*From the Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

I admit it.  I don’t know why but I get all worked up watching men wield swords, the broader the sword the better.

I don’t consider myself a violent man.  I would not want to chop someone with a broadsword.  I would not even want to see someone get chopped with a broadsword but this type of activity affects me.

Not too long ago, I was watching a tale of knights defending a castle in Old England.  The “bad guys” were trying to scale the battlements.  The knights in the interior of the castle were greatly outnumbered but my-oh-my they were optimistic and they were valiant.  They faced overwhelming odds yet they knew how to wield their swords.  Invader after invader met his end as he tried to go over the wall of the castle.

As I was watching the show, I found myself twitching with movements as if I was in the fight.  I was mimicking the activity with my own body.  I was itching to get into the action.

Not really….

Why is that?  Why do we admire action yet we are unlikely to take action?

I can tell you what I need to do to fix things in my life yet I don’t want to take the necessary steps to fix the problem.  It takes too much effort.  I don’t have a plan to see it through.  It costs too much.  It hurts too much.  It takes too much time.  I don’t have the willpower.  I am not willing to let God take over.

Did you catch that last one?

God will help us to take action if we just ask Him to help us.  He knows the steps and will put us in the situation to take them.  He will give us the energy to make the effort.  His plan [if we follow it] is the best plan.  It will cost just the right amount.  He will heal our wounds if we hurt.  The time will be there, if he knows we are making steps to change.  He will give us what we need to make the change if we ask him so our lack of willpower is not even relevant anymore.

Ok, let’s make fun of us men.  We would rather watch action than do action.

Do you want to be bold?  Pray this simple prayer.  “Lord I don’t have what it takes to clean up my life but You know that I need to change.  Please Lord, I ask You to supply what I need for change.  I ask You to put me in a position to change.  I am ready Lord; let’s do this.”

Get ready; you have turned your life over to Him.

He will keep his end of the bargain.

All excuses will be washed away….He will put you in a position to change.

Will you change or will you just be content to watch the action?

When are you going to say to a friend, “Look, I’ve been able to keep it a secret, but I have a drinking problem, and I need help, because things are starting to spin out of control.”

When are you going to end the relationship you know God wants you to end?

When are you going to be generous the way you know God has called you to be generous?

When are you going to make amends with the parents you have wounded?

When are you going to join a Bible study for the first time in your life?

When are you going to spiritually lead your family?

When are you going to talk to one of your coworkers about your faith?

When are you going to do something real about all the social justice causes you post about online?

When are you going to invite your neighbor to church?

When?

Pastor Idleman puts this list at the end of Chapter 9 for a reason; he wants us to do something to change now!

Chapter 10 is about passivity.  This is the killer of action.

To be a passive person means you suffer from a compulsion.  You have a learned tendency to live at half-speed.  Passive people feel their glass is half-empty.  They half-heartedly commit to projects, plans and goals. Passive people are half in and half out of relationships. The passive person who suffers the effects of a the glass half-empty life is more attached to not having what they think they want or desire, even though they protest loudly that this is not so.

Passivity is an offence of omission – not doing or saying what you need to, not responding, not accepting challenges and refusing to take risks.*

In the context of the book AHA, we know we are not doing right in our lives but we sit.  We do nothing despite the fact that there is an urgency to act in our lives.  We would rather stay right where we are than act.

I can’t say I have not suffered from passivity.  We all have.  We all have times when we just can’t get started on that project.  We can’t make ourselves make that phone call.

We wait for some external force to kick us into action.  Pastor Idleman begins Chapter 10 with a sad story of a Southern California fire.  You know, you see those fires in the news several times a year.  People debate about the cause of the fires but I suspect that dense population, cheap housing materials, dry vegetation and high winds all contribute to the fire situation in this part of the world.

The fact of the matter is that people in Southern California need to take fires seriously but some don’t.  Pastor Idleman talks about homeowners who get the fire warning to leave their homes immediately and they start packing their suitcases, try to save their tvs and computers or maybe even make the effort to fight the fire with a garden hose.  One firefighter said it this way: “move fast or you will become charcoal briquettes.”

People sometimes do not move fast.  In one fire, two dozen were burned alive.

The headline in the local paper read “Hesitation is a Fatal Mistake as California Firestorm Closes In.”

Chapter 10….When?

Now, before it is too late.

*from the Positive Health Online Website

1.What are the barriers between brutal honesty and immediate action?

2.Why is it so difficult to get from brutal honesty to immediate action?

3.What are the fears involved with taking immediate action?

4.Why is there often such a difference  between “public beliefs,” “private beliefs,” and “core beliefs?”

5.What can we do to have some consistency between these three types of beliefs?

6.As you have read through the book so far, maybe you have had a sudden awakening, and maybe you have been brutally honest with yourself.  Now honestly, what action do you need to take now?

What is standing between you and that necessary action?

In AHA from Chapter  9:

“We have an awakening moment, we even find the strength to be brutally honest, but we never get around to actually doing anything different.  We spend much of our lives between honesty and action.”

Here we go.

Some of you won’t like this.

It is a heavy dose of spiritual warfare.

Some don’t want to think this is true.

We are talking about the power of satan on man….today.

As we grow older, many people just lose the will to change.  They become so tired that they slug through the day.  They know they have tension from time to time.  That tension may be caused by knowing that they need to change but they don’t think they can make the change.  This can result in anger as they get grumpy, irritated, frustrated and difficult to live with.

People give up.

Guess what?

Satan is happy.

Satan’s number 1 target is your mind.  His number 1 weapon is lies [he wants you to question God’s word, he wants you to deny the power of God in your life and he wants you to substitute other things in place of God.  He targets your body [the physical suffering we have is designed to make us question God as we don’t understand why it is happening].  He targets your will as you slowly but surely feel you have no will to change.  He likes to use pride as you feel no need to rely on God; you can do it alone and you are willing to take credit.  His purpose is to make you feel independent from God and not connected to God’s will.  He targets your heart as you forget God’s love and you commit sin.  After sinning, he wants your conscience as you beat yourself up that you have done something very wrong.  You may have a guilty conscience for long periods of time and some never feel forgiven.   You feel accused.

The need to change dies and if you have any conviction to change, the conviction is not worth much if it does not result in action.

Pastor Idleman references Michael Novak a Catholic philosopher who makes the point that until we have action, our beliefs really are not real.  He says we have three levels of belief.  Public beliefs are the beliefs we present to others.   We present these ideas to others in the public forum because we want others to think we have them in place but we may not really have them in our lives.   It’s all about appearances.

Private beliefs are the beliefs we truly have.  At least that’s what we think.  The problem is, when we are called on to act on those beliefs, we don’t do them.  An example is we know we need to eat less red meat because it can lead to heart problems.  We love red meat.  When we are in the grocery, what do we do?  Buy red meat.  When we are at the restaurant what do we do?  Order red meat.

Core beliefs are the only true beliefs we really have.  These beliefs are backed up with action.  They are not just beliefs we say we have or beliefs we think we have, they are beliefs we live.

There is an old expression you have all heard.  “Actions speak louder than words.”   As Christians we may talk a good game but Idleman wants us to play a good game.

Don’t tell me you should love your family; love your family.

Don’t tell me you should help the poor; help the poor.

Don’t tell me you should go to church; go to church.

Satan: he wants us talking but he does not want us doing.  He wants us stuck.  He wants to kill our desire to change.  He wants us spending much of our lives between honesty and action.