Tommy Cash - November 30, 2014
Hurry Up and Wait
We are addicting to achievement. Today, even companies and app developers are rewarding performance with badges and achievements because they know if we can measure our progress, we work harder. Many of us would love to have a divine leaderboard as well, to know how well we are progressing toward God through church, reading the Bible, acts of kindness, etc. But Paul reveals to the Corinthians that God doesn’t have a divine scoreboard. God hasn’t gamed religion. Because we don’t have to earn, we are free to respond to what God has already done for us!
More Messages From Tommy Cash...
Powered by Series Engine
This message was written and delivered by Tommy Cash
I have been asked several times, How? How do I go to school full time, raise 3 kids, work full time, volunteer at the church, be a brother, a husband, and a functioning person in society. People get mesmerized and they think I have a secret system, magic tool, or I know something that they don’t. As I smile at them and try to be kind and encourage them, the whole time though I am thinking I am actually dying inside. If they only knew how burnt out, tired, and exhausted I am.
The thing is I know productivity, I train in productivity, and I maximize productivity. I am somewhat of an expert in this category, I am able to take things apart and find ways, options, and ideas on how to improve and maximize. How to eliminate free space, off time, or downtime. I am a professional productivity consultant. I’ve personally been guilty of telling people they are not productive and they need to fill their time better.
However, even though this has been one of the most productive years of my life, this past year has also been one of the hardest, most exhausting, and stressful years in my life. Managing everything I had going on to say the least was overwhelming. I have became a fine tuned employee, husband, father, and volunteer, but I now live in burn out.
I’m not alone… a study from Statista shows that 1 in 5 adults is experiencing burnout or someone directly linked to them is experiencing it.
Burn out is something we all know. Exhaustion, depersonalization, never being satisfied with performance. Feeling like all the work we do is not enough, not good enough, or even overwhelming us. We spend a lot of our time on trying to avoid it, trying to prevent it, or even try to stop it.
We know we can’t just always go, go, go. But how can we afford to take a break?
We have a suspicion that spirituality is an answer – mindfulness and meditation are new buzzwords. But in our overcrowded schedules, God is the first thing to go. The first things we cut are prayer, church, c group, rest, quiet time. Or is that just me?
We live in a world of factories, so no wonder ‘productivity’ is a value – that’s what a good factory does. But humans aren’t machines. We’re organic. So maybe we should worry less about being productive and ask how we can be FRUITFUL. Maybe there’s something in recognizing we’re not machines that can run 24/7/365 that can bring us life.
