When it comes to the simple life do you want to reorganize your life or do you want to revolutionize your life? If you want to reorganize your life any old hint column in the newspaper will do. But if you want to revolutionize your life Jesus Christ is the one who can do that. He is the way that happens.
When we want to simplify our lives we usually want to start on the outside and reorganize this or that. But Jesus doesn’t start there. He starts by revolutionizing our lives from the inside out, making a difference. He shows us how to do it in the real world that you and I live in today.
Many of you are discovering in this world where we’ve got smartphones and tablets and you’re connected all the time, that timesaving devices can become time slaving devices. That those very things that were supposed to help you are now enslaving you.
Is it really that important that you have to be on these things every second of every day. I'm always thinking, “Who are they talking to that it’s that important?” Then there always comes that crucial moment in the conversation – the flush, that moment when “the sound” is heard and the person on the other side says, “Where are you?” And they say, “Car wash… Sudden thunderstorm” something to try to cover over the fact that they’re pretending they’re somewhere else.
You’ve got to have some breathing space in your life where you realize, “I really am too busy. I haven’t talked to my kids, spent time with my kids for a month! I haven’t seen my spouse for a couple of weeks now. Something’s wrong here.” But you’re not going to think that, you’re not going to have time to implement any of these things if you don’t have some breathing space in life.
Time to be alone. That’s part of this disconnecting. A place where it’s quiet, with Jesus, by myself, in a quiet place.
Let me give you a place to start. How do you make this work? Millions of believers for thousands of years have had this habit of spending ten or fifteen minutes a day doing this. A few minutes each day. Some people call it a “quiet time”. For me personally it’s the most important thing I do in the day. If I miss this time, I feel hectic and hurried. If I spend just a few minutes, it has the ability to get me some breathing space.
What do you do? Maybe read a verse or two of the Bible. You talk to God about what you’re thinking about. I'm not talking about half an hour, an hour, two hours. Just a few moments each day of connecting with Him, thinking about what’s really important.
