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RETRO – BACK TO THE BASICS
The Greatest Show on Earth
Ed Young
January 8-9, 2005
Have you ever seen a “retro” guy? Usually, it’s someone stuck in a certain decade. I used to workout in a gym where I would see a retro guy every time I would lift weights. This guy was middle-aged, but he was perpetually stuck in about 1982. Had the tube socks, the short shorts, the feathered hair, the hat thing on the back of his head with the bill sticking straight up in the air. He was locked, frozen in 1982. Usually, retro guys manifest themselves in workout attire. You can’t really spot a retro guy in other realms of life, because let’s face it, women dress men. But men, when it comes to working out, we can wear what we want to wear. And a lot of people struggle with that, and we turn into retro guys. “I looked good during 1982, so I’m going to stay with that look when I workout! Yeah!” Retro guys.
We love going retro these days, don’t we? Everything is retro. I was working out yesterday morning on the Stairmaster watching television and saw a new network called “Retro Vision.” There’s retro music, retro fashion. Everything is retro. You heard some retro music earlier. [Ed is referring to the 70’s music played at the beginning of the service.] Was that incredible? That Bee Gees number? That was phenomenal! Retro. Retro. Retro. We like to go old school; we say, “Back in the day….”
I’ve been thinking about retro as I’ve been preparing for this series of talks. And I think going retro is very alluring because we have the opportunity to go back in the past. And when we go back in the past, we don’t really remember the bad. We only remember the good, because enough time has gone by that we forget all the negative stuff. We just remember the positive stuff. So a lot of people live in the past.
Some of us, though, are trying to go retro by going to cosmetic surgeons. I have no problem with that. You will not find a verse in the Bible that says, “Do not go to a cosmetic surgeon.” If you want to do that, good for you! But a lot of people are nipping and tucking and lifting and highlighting their way into oblivion. They’re trying to make time stand still. Retro is all about time.
Time is one of the most precious things we can think about. Time is major. Time is a gift from God. We only have enough time on this planet to do the will of God; just enough time to live out his purposes and to do his agenda.
The Bible says in Ephesians 5:15, “Be very careful, then, how you live–not as unwise but as wise….” God wants us to use our intellect. He does not want us to park our brains at the door when we become followers of Christ. We are to use our minds. God wants us to make wise choices. He wants us to make wise choices when it comes to time. That’s why it’s so important to go retro.
Look at the next verse, Ephesians 5:16, “…making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” The word “opportunity” literally means “towards the port.” It’s a picture of a sailing vessel led by a great captain. The tides are pushing this way and that. The winds are going here and there. He sees the port and he moves the vessel into the port. That’s what it means to make the most of every opportunity. We’re led by the ultimate captain, of course. That’s Christ, who gives us the opportunity to move towards the port. Then that text says something pretty crazy. It says, “because the days are evil.” The days are evil. “Well,” you might be saying, “what does that mean? Days are evil? Are you talking about murder, rape, robbery?” No. The Bible is not talking about that in this context.
Once sin entered the equation of life, time suddenly was up for grabs. Our days now have the potential to be evil. In other words, we have the opportunity to waste our lives. We have the opportunity to squander time. We have the opportunity to allow the good to equip the best.
On the other hand, we have the chance to leverage time and to use time to our advantage. If we spend time with the author of time, then he will show us how to allocate time. Well, how do we make the most of our time? We go retro.
“Are you saying we live in the past?” No. I’m saying we learn from the past. When I say, “Go retro,” I’m going to talk to you about going retro in a deep way. Not just about decoration, fashion, or music. I’m talking about going retro to leverage time so we can maximize this only life we have, so we can maximize what it means to walk in sync with Christ. I can go retro and I can see how I allocated my time in the past. I can make decisions in the present regarding time allocation matters which will give me a great trajectory in the future. I can make pre-determined decisions. I can make advanced plans today that will help me steward my time to be the best I can possibly be.
The nut shell is this: When it comes to time, when it comes to this whole subject matter about going retro, it comes to priorities. Priorities. Do you ever get to the end of the day and say to yourself, “Did I accomplish anything?” Do you ever get to the end of the day and go, “Where did all the time go?” Do you ever say that? Well, the reason we say that is because we have a priority problem.
[Ed begins drawing on a Plexiglas backboard. Throughout the course of this series, Ed draws on the board to illustrate the distance between our priorities and our commitments, how that happens, and what we can do to lessen that distance.]
PRIORITIES ARE SIMPLY SAYING YES TO THE BEST
Priorities. The word priority has the word “prior” in it. It’s advance decision making. It has to do with rank and order. It means saying yes to the best. Because if we say yes to the best, we’ll have to say no to a lot of good stuff. And so often the good eclipses the best.
Priorities really are something that we don’t have to worry about. Priorities are something that we don’t have to freak out about or we don’t have to really pray about. They’ve already been settled. They’re in stone. God’s talked about them for years. As we go retro, we can see God’s priorities. And to have priorities, to live by priorities, here’s what we do. It’s very simple. We agree with God.
If we agree with God as we go retro, “Okay God, I agree with your rank, with your order. I agree with saying yes to the best, because you want the best for me,” then we have the proper priorities. So whether we believe in the priorities or not, that’s up to us. Priorities, though, emerge from principles. God’s principles throughout Scripture are for all of us to have the best life possible. So, as we look at the principles then we see priorities.
But here’s the rub. We’ve got a problem. We’ve got priorities, but we also have commitments. And usually, there’s a delta between priorities and commitments. There’s usually a variance. There’s usually a gap. We say, “Oh yeah, man, my priorities are boom, boom, boom!” But when we look at the commitment column, our commitments don’t really reflect our priorities. And usually when you look at people who make big, honking decisions about priorities, they normally come from crisis mode living. You experience a death in the family, you go through divorce or a sickness, there’s some huge financial problem—“Oh, I’m ready to change my priorities!”
Here’s what we miss, though. The priorities are set in stone. Where we struggle, where I struggle, is this thing called commitment. We think commitments are small and we think commitments are insignificant. We think they are kind of micro. And here’s what I’ll tell you. Those micro, small, insignificant, commitments that we make accrue. They become like plaque in our arteries and they cause a huge gap, a delta, a separation between our priorities and our commitments. I want you to think about that. I want you to download that. I want you to process that, because we are going to unpack that.
Why the gap? Why the variance? Why the delta between our priorities and commitments? “It doesn’t mean that much, Ed. It’s just a little decision, a little choice, a little deal.” I’m telling you, you combine that, and it accrues. It’s like plaque and it will mess your life up and my life up, and we’ll end up having a good life and not the best life. We’ll end up missing the best that God has in store for us.
You might be saying, “Well, what should my priorities be?” That’s a pretty good question. What does God say about it? Well, God wants success in all of our lives. So what is success? Success is living in the will of God. And we have just enough time to do God’s will.
Before I tell you the priorities, let me tell you a little story. Let’s go retro for a second—back to 1967, back to bee hives and bell bottoms, back to psychedelic shirts. Back to Greenville Memorial auditorium where my mother took me to see The Greatest Show on Earth: Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bailey Circus. I was mesmerized by the circus. Ah, it was sensory overload. Even for a kid like me, who has ADD. The ringmaster, he was setting the pace for the entire show. “Welcome to Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bailey Circus. In ring one…and ring two…and ring three….”
I saw the people juggling and the acrobats and those on the tight rope and the contortionists and the clowns and the elephants and tigers and Gunther Gable Williams. Remember that guy with the tan and blond hair? I loved that stuff! When I got home my Mom said I was so excited I made a bee line to our refrigerator, pulled out three eggs and said, “Mom, watch me juggle these eggs!” And I began to juggle the eggs and splat, splat, splat!
You may be saying, “Ed, you know, as you just mentioned the word priorities and commitments, hey, my life is a circus. My life is a three ring circus. I feel you, man. I’m struggling with juggling. I have all these things in the air—the carpool and the kids and the work. And man, I’m having a hard time.” Or maybe you’re kind of like a clown. You have a smile painted on your face, but down deep you’re not really living, you’re just existing. Maybe you feel light a tight rope artist trying to balance life’s demands. Maybe you feel like you’re a contortionist. You’re schedule has you stretched here and stretched there, and you go, “Whoa, where do I go?”
The biggest decision we have to make when it come to priorities is we’ve got to give the microphone, the top hat, and the custom made suit to Jesus. You see, a lot of us are trying to run the show. A lot of us are trying to pace our circus. A lot of us are trying to be the ringmaster and we’re not wired to do it. It’s a formula for frustration. We’re trying to say, “Okay, I’ll do what I want to do. I’ll call the shots. I’ll tell you how my life should be run. Ring one, ring two, ring three.” And we’re going to mess up that way. Until we give the microphone to Jesus, and the top hat, and let him call the shots, our lives will never, ever, ever hit on all cylinders.
So that’s the decision when it comes to priorities that we’ve got to make. And if you’ve not made it, I pray you make that choice. Once we give our lives to the Ringmaster, once we allow Him to run the show, there’s three rings of priorities. These are Biblical principles that segue into proprieties.
RELATIONAL RING
The first ring—in ring one is the relational family ring. How many single adults do we have in the house? If you’re single, lift your hand. Single, single, singles. Singles, I love you. Singles add some juice, some life, some “spitheringthum” to church. Owen Goff made that word up—“spitheringthum.” It means like, “Yeah!” You know? Ask Owen to define it. Singles, though, have all that energy. Yet the tendency, the temptation being a single, is to just float around. What’s hot, what’s not. What’s in, what’s out. And you just kind of float around if you are a single adult.
Singles, I challenge you to move toward Christian community. I challenge you to move toward friendships of faith. I challenge you to build consistency in your relational world. It’s a monster priority. Jesus has made us as relational creatures. Our number one relationship is got to be our relationship with the Ringmaster. After that, we relate to others. Too many singles have whacky relationships. Life is too short to have whacky relationships. Yeah, all of us are going to have some whacky relationships, but most of our relationships should be solid Biblical relationships.
Now how many of you are married? Lift your hand if you’re married. Married, married, married. Okay, okay. Marriage/family. That’s monstrous. You know the order there. I’ve written a book about it. The most important relationship in the family is the husband/wife relationship. It’s not your relationship with your kids. It’s not. Number one is the marriage. Number two in this context is your relationship with your kids.
Relationships and family. That’s a priority. The Ringmaster has told me, and I’m on board. That’s a priority. Let me stop here and say, most everyone here would agree with this. You agree with God. You say, “Ed, tell me something I don’t know, brother. I’m with you, I’m feeling you. Yeah!” Here is where we mess up. Let me take my green marker and show you. Let’s say for example, that you say, intellectually, “Oh, yeah, family is important. It’s huge. It’s this first ring behind my relationship with Christ.”
Well, how about your commitments? Do they reflect that value? Are you having a date night at least twice a month? Are you spending those quality moments with your spouse? When you have an opportunity to spend more time at the office or more time with your spouse and family, where do you lean? Which area do you find yourself cheating on? Do you cheat towards the family, or cheat towards work?
“It’s just insignificant, Ed. It’s just a little decision. You know, I’ll go to this Maverick’s game and forget the date night, you know? And then I’ll do this and forget that. And I’m not going to really do anything special for my spouse. It’s just an insignificant commitment. They’re not really that big.” And then you say, “You know, kids, I’ve really got to make the money at the office and I’ve got all these responsibilities and…. You know, they have the games and they need for me to do something with them alone, but you know, I think I need to do this and that.”
See, what happens is, your commitments don’t match your priorities. Those commitments may seem insignificant, small, micro. But together they can eclipse this [priority] and cause a great gap which will help you miss the greatness that God has for you.
Years ago, when we lived in Irving, I was pushing our double wide stroller as I was jogging. The twins were in the stroller. Lisa was jogging beside me. She was pushing EJ in a stroller. Our oldest daughter, LeeBeth, was riding a bike. I thought to myself, “Whoa, just think Ed. Fifteen or twenty years from now you’ll do like four weddings. You’ll weep openly about your relationship with your family. And man, this is it! I mean, you’ve got to capitalize on this time. They’ll only be this age for a certain amount of time. And I’ve got to do the stuff.” And for years I’ve agreed with this and man, that’s my priority—relationships and family, and all that. But I asked myself when I was running that day, “Do my commitments match my priorities?” So this relational family thing is a monster. I’m telling you, it’s huge. It’s a constant battle.
CHURCH RING
There’s another ring that Jesus points us to. The second ring, if you are keeping score, is the ring of the church. And we know how important the church is. The church is the bride of Christ. The Bible says the gates of Hell will not prevail against the church. The Bible also says the manifold wisdom of Jesus will be made known in the church. Ninety percent of the time you see the word “church” used in the New Testament it’s talking about a specific local church. Anytime you read about a figure, a man or a woman, mentioned in the New Testament, they were hooked into a local church. It’s all about the church. I love church, and as believers, we should love the church.
It all goes back to priorities. We set our course, our decision, based on the grace and the mercy and the power of God, about what we are going to do relationally and what we will do corporately. God tells me, he tells you, that we are to spend time with him daily. Why? Because he is the author of time. How in the world do we know how to spend our time if we’re not spending time with the person who invented time? We just won’t know how to do it.
Now don’t beat yourself up and go on some kind of guilt trip if you’ve missed 2-3 days of not spending time with God in your personal private worship. That’s okay. But I can tell in my own life, when I miss 2-3 days, I begin to feel that gap. I go, “Oh, yeah, God, you’re a priority.” But I’m missing 3-4 days because I need to workout and maybe I’m doing this and I’ve got this responsibility and I’ve got to travel here and I just kind of skimp on my devotional time, on my private worship. See what can happen? My commitments don’t match my priorities.
The Bible also commands us to worship together corporately. We need that time daily that we reallocate our time. We also need time weekly where we get together with a bunch of people. And the church is basically a colossal collection of moral foul ups. That’s what we are, if you’ve ever wondered what the church is. I laugh at people when they tell me, “I don’t want to go to church because the church is full of hypocrites.” Whoa! I’m a hypocrite and so are you. Join the club! It’s a hospital full of sinners. We don’t have it figured out yet. I don’t either. I’ve got a long way to go. So do you. Isn’t that good?
But God commands us to gather together weekly. And because I’ve made this decision prior to the opportunity to spend time with God daily, prior to the opportunity to go to weekend worship, I already know my schedule. Because I’ve made decisions early in my life about date night and family night and being home at least 4 nights a week to eat dinner with my family, I can tell you what I’m going to be doing six weeks from now or eight months from now.
If you say, “Ed, how about May whatever on Thursday night?” I can tell you, “Sorry, I’m booked. I’m going on a date with Lisa.”
“Well, how about Friday at whatever.” “I’m sorry, I’m booked. I’ve already made that advanced decision.”
If we wait until the opportunity to make the decision, we’ll never focus and never live out the real priorities. That’s why we’ve got to worship God privately and also corporately.
How about church membership? A lot of you need to join a church. Church membership is huge. There’s a biblical reason why we should be in a church. You realize we cannot be a full court follower of Christ unless we’re a vibrant part of a local church? There are many things you cannot do, that I cannot do, unless we’re connected to a local church. But a lot of people in our consumeristic culture float from church to church. What’s hot, what’s not. “Oh, I’ll go over here for this series. And yeah, the music is good for like a week over there. And I’ve heard the girls are beautiful in that church. I think I’ll go over there for a while.” We can’t do that. We’ve got to settle down biblically and say, “I am going to join this church.” And obviously, I’m biased towards Fellowship Church. We would love to have you. But there are some great churches in the area. So quit kicking tires and testing the waters and join a church.
There is also a cultural reason why we should become a church member. It defines who can be counted. Every team must have a roster. Every school must have an enrollment. Every church must have a membership. I met a guy a couple of months ago who plays for the Dallas Cowboys who joined Fellowship Church. He’s a big tight end. He’s All-Pro, someone told me. Jason Whitten. Jason are you here today? Maybe he’s not. I don’t know. What if Jason came on stage and goes, “Guess what, man. I play in the NFL.” We go, “Okay. What team do you play for?” What if he said, “I don’t play for a team. I’m just in the NFL.” Now that wouldn’t make sense. Maybe he’s taken too many licks to the head, you know?
Same is true [with church]. I talk to people sometimes and they’ll go, “Yeah, I’m a believer.” “Really? You’re a believer? That’s great, man! You’re a follower of Christ? Excellent! Where do you go to church?” “Well, you know, I just like, kind of float around, shop around. And I’ll go here some and there some.” Automatically, I go, “Whoa, you’re missing something. There’s a disconnect here. Yeah, you’ve got your priorities. You’re telling me this, but you’re commitments don’t match your priorities.”
There’s also a relational reason why we should be members of a church—accountability and community. How many of you were here Christmas Eve at the American Airlines Center? Wasn’t that awesome? Unreal. I was blown away by that thing. It was the first time that we’ve only done two services in, I don’t know, 14-15 years. We walked into that place, and in over flow, people were waiting in line for like an hour. Oh, we got emotional. I looked at that place and I’m like, “Whoa, we serve a big God!” I had no idea just visually of what Fellowship Church, by God’s grace and power, is doing. I was just mesmerized.
Well, we serve a big God and a big church is cool because heaven is going to be big. Heaven is not going to be a small place. Now, I’m not against smaller churches at all. I’ve grown up in smaller churches and I’ve pastored smaller churches. For the first four or five years, Fellowship Church was a smaller church. Now we’re a big church. And that’s cool. One of the great things about a big church is it reflects heaven. But also, it gives you more relational opportunities. If you join a smaller church, you’re like, “Oh, so I’ve got to hang out with them for the rest of my life? Hmmm.” You know?
If you’re a member of a bigger church—and here’s something people don’t realize—we need more people because we need more volunteers. Just about 45 minutes ago I was at the Fellowship Church Uptown and gave a brief talk down there to a bunch of volunteers as we did our first run through service. Next weekend we kick off Fellowship Church Uptown. It’s in a cool little theatre in North Dallas High School and it’s going to be amazing what’s going to happen. All these volunteer’s were so fired up. It reminded me of the old days back at Fellowship Church. And then this afternoon, after our last service, I had to go over to Fellowship Church Plano and meet with 200-300 volunteers over there and talk about that. Those are smaller venues as we continue to reach up, and reach out, and reach in as God’s church.
Make sure you have this priority down cold. So when I say to you, “Hey, what are you doing six weeks from now on a particular week? You should be able to say, “Oh, I’m at church.” Don’t wait until the moment. “Sure we’ll go to church today, baby. Or not.” You have to have already made that choice, because there are many times I don’t feel like going to church. And I’m the pastor! I’m telling you. Talk to Lisa. She’ll tell you. “Honey, you’re the pastor. You’ve got to get up.”
WORK RING
Let’s do one more. You’ve got ring one, the family ring; ring two, the church; and ring three, work. I’m not going to spend too much time on this, but we’re made in the image of God. God’s a working God. And it’s good to work. God has given us the ability to work before sin ever entered the equation. So work is good. And the feeling that we have of accomplishment is a good thing. You know that feeling. Maybe you’re a teacher and the bell rings and you have that feeling of accomplishment. “You know I communicated with my class today.” Or when you close that deal, “Wow, I closed the deal.” When you bag that client, “Man, bagged the client!” When you repaired that computer, “I repaired the computer!” For Jason Whitten, “I scored a touchdown!” Or when I preach a sermon, ah, the feeling of accomplishment.
Is that bad to feel that way? No. It’s a good thing because it’s a God thing. Read the book of Genesis. God worked for six days. Then after that he looked back and on the seventh day, he goes, “It is good.” Look at the work, the sense of accomplishment. Work is good. And we’re all unique. We all bring different skills and abilities and aptitudes to the table. We’re to work. Retirement is not in the Bible. You’re not going to find it there. It’s just not going to be there. We should always work, because every time we work it can be an act of worship if we are doing it God’s way. So when I work, my workplace can become an altar.
“Well, Ed, where do you get that?” Well, just check out Colossians 3:23-24, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” Whatever you do—preach sermons, close real estate deals, perform operations, score touchdowns—whatever you do. Whoa! I’m going to ask you, work? Do your commitments match your priority? Ring one—relationships/family; ring two—church; ring three—work. Are you working for the glory of God?
Let me talk to the men for a second, because women have this one down. And after all, women are smarter than we are anyway guys. Let’s just admit it. They are. They really are. It’s a real struggle for me as a man to balance marriage, family, and work. I mean, can we talk a little bit here? Let’s just get real here for a second. That’s tough. Because the market place, work, is where we get our self-esteem from. “Good job! Enjoyed the message, Ed. Hey, you closed the deal. You bagged the client.” Parties, perks, promotions, and bonuses. Wow! And that’s good. Guys, we know that’s our self-esteem in the market place. “Yeah! All right! I get energized by that. I mean, I measure my accomplishments. Compare myself to other people. Look at me!” And guys, that’s just the way we are and that’s okay. That’s good. But here’s the issue. What happens, as I said earlier now, I said it for a reason, what happens when we have an opportunity to spend time with spouse, family or the office? Now, that’s tough there, isn’t it?
Okay, let me think. The market place—pat on the back, parties, perks and money. Well when I go home do I get any rewards monetarily for being a godly husband? For having a date night? For spending time with my kids? I mean, am I going to get a better office? Am I going to get that? You know? And for me, I can speak at Fellowship Church all these services and people laugh or say, “Nice sermon.” How about when I come home? I mean, are Lisa and all the kids going, “Ha, ha, nice sermon! Dad teach me some more, please”? No, they’re not doing that. And early on, especially, it was very, very tempting for me. And I spent too much time at the office.
But I’ve seen too many pastor’s get consumed by the church. The church becomes their mistress, and they lose their marriage and their kids. So when I was jogging that day in Irving, pushing my kids—two of them in a double wide stroller—followed by Lisa and LeeBeth and all that stuff, I started thinking about my time allocation. I went retro.
Here’s the great thing about time. Because time moves forward, we can go retro and learn how we allocated our time in the past to make better decisions right now so we can live in the future for the glory and power of God. Well, I began to look at my schedule, and I was spending an inordinate amount of time in message preparation. Speaking does not come easy to me. And I was spending, in the early years—you won’t believe this; this is insane—35-40 hours a week just on message preparation. That was insane. That was nuts. Over the top.
I came across a file this week, an early file. I had dictated 42 pages worth of information, and I never used one line of the 42 pages! Whoa! Well, after that jogging venture, after just thinking about my priorities and my commitments, I was going, “Okay, I am preaching all this stuff. Okay. You’ve got to give your life to the Ringmaster and you know relationships/family and church and work—in that order.” But my commitments didn’t match my priorities when it came to family. So I made a decision. I decided to cheat towards my marriage and my family. Not to cheat towards the work.
Here’s what I did. I said, “God, here’s my prayer,” I have it in my journal, “God, I’m going to put 20, at the most 25, hours a week in message preparation. And then I’m going to walk away from it. I’m gonna give you that time. I’m going to be focused. I’m going to be on point. I’m going to be prayed up and receptive to hear from you. Then, after that, I’m going to walk away from it. I’m going to walk away from that and walk into the arms of my wife and my four kids that have only four seasons.”
Once I made that decision, guys, my life has never been the same. And for the most part—and it’s still a struggle sometimes—I have kept that commitment, only by God’s grace and power. But because I’ve made that decision prior to the opportunities that I have, it’s helped my priorities and commitments in these areas to come together. And that’s what God wants us to do. Do I have it all figured out yet? No! Do I still mess up in these areas? Yes. And so will you. But as we unpack this, as we get deeper and deeper, you’re not going to believe what will happen to your life.
“Well, Ed, how? I mean, okay, this is cool and all this. But how do I do that?”
MANAGE YOUR PERSONAL CIRCUS
Two things. I’m going to give you two bits of homework. I told you we were going retro. Two bits of homework. The first one: submit every act to the Ringmaster. You make the choice. You give the microphone to Jesus, the top hat to Jesus. You let him run the show. Every time you have a decision and opportunity, you give that to Jesus. “Jesus, what do you say about it?” And again, there’s no use to pray about the big, honking priorities. But if you have a question, ask Jesus about it and think about these three rings. And you either say yes or you say no. That’s the first thing.
Now here’s a second bit of homework. Now it gets really, really serious. And let me explain this second homework assignment this way. If tomorrow morning you met with a nutritionist, what would a nutritionist tell you? I’ll tell you what they’ll tell you. They’ll go, “Okay, Mr. Young. Now if you would, take out a journal and a pen and carry it with you for the next seven days and record every single thing you eat for the next seven days. Everything. Okay?” And if I’m paying the nutritionist, okay. So I’d carry a journal around, you know? “Three cups of espresso, hummus and pita bread—I love that. Salmon. Sushi.” And then you see, “Whoa, I didn’t realize I drank 17 cups of espresso in 3 days! Unbelievable.” You know? You’re like, “Whoa!” You know what I’m saying to you.
I’m going to challenge you to do something that I’m going to do for the next 21 days, just 21 days. I want you to keep a time log, because after you have recorded everything you do, how you allocate your time, then we can go retro and study our time, then we can bridge the gap between our priorities and commitments. There are two ways to do that. Go online to www.fellowshipchurch.com and type in the keyword, “retro,” or just click on this big icon that says “Retrospective,” and there you are. You can just type until your heart is content about how you utilize your time. It’s not going to be too detailed, either. We’ve done it hopefully in a very user friendly manner.
“Ed, I don’t have a computer man.” Well, do like I love to do. I love to write it. In fact, I even collect pens. Go old school, go retro. Just take out a journal or some notebook paper and just write out your time, how you allocate your time. You’re not going to believe what will happen, because you are going to see something. You’re going to see that there’s a much bigger gap in these priorities and commitments than you ever thought possible. You’re going to see how significant the insignificant really is. You’re going to see how macro the micro really is. Because you know what God wants? You know what God wants to teach us in this series? He wants our lives to be the greatest show on earth. That’s what he wants as we live out the three rings of priorities.
Let’s pray together.