Here’s a thought: what if instead of doing more, we did less?
We live in a fast paced world that urges us to do big things and do more things, make more income, make more impact, have more influence.
We also have the nature of God within us which calls us to do big, bold things.
So, it feels right to push for more opportunities, more tasks, more relationships. We find ourselves taking in more work, new side businesses, new projects, another WhatsApp group, another church commitment. And there are the family commitments that already exist, of course.
It can all get so exhausting. And if we’re not careful, we may find ourselves doing so much that we let the things that are truly important slip through the cracks.
It is true that God often calls us to bigger things. And sometimes He may call us to seasons of stretching. But the key word here is stretch, not overwhelm. There is a difference between doing big things and doing many things. God usually makes huge demands of us, but even He would not ask us to do too many things all at the same time. Because He knows that we will not give our best to them all at once.
What if we called a time-out so that we can truly examine our motives? We need to take a step back and ask the most important question of all in this situation, WHY? Why are we doing all of this? Have we really been asked to do so many things all at once? And do we have to do them right now?
We need to understand our life’s seasons, understand what God is asking of us, understand who or what is driving us. Are we in a hurry to be affirmed and recognized by the world? Is this a manifestation of an inner desire to find our identity or significance in a position or a project?
Are we sure that the more important things like time with God, family and even our health are not slipping through the cracks? Are we sure we have not forgotten the point of Sabbath?
This is by no means a call to being slack. There is a lot of work to be done, yes, even for the Kingdom of God and His purposes. But we need to be clear and sure that we are not doing things out of season or doing things we have not been called to.
What if we considered doing less, instead of more? What if we pick just a few priorities in a season and wait patiently for the next season when we can add to them or take on more things? Remember, as Christians, we play by a different set of rules and we know that the race is not to the swift, but of God who shows mercy (Ecclesiastes 9:11, Romans 9:16).
We need to get quiet and get clear. Clarity of our season, our purpose and our motives will help us to do less because we would know just where to turn our time, effort and resources.
So, let’s explore doing less. Less of the things that don’t matter which automatically creates space in our lives to help us do more of the things that actually matter. We can still light up the world without burning ourselves out in the process.
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