Looking back over the past few months I’ve seen the Lord help me make many personal decisions that prepared myself for sharing the Gospel in St. Vincent and other Countries. But none were more important than deciding to work out of home.
And it’s one I hated with a passion
Allow me explain…
I’m a person who loves being busy…to the point where my effectiveness on a day would be decided by how many things I was able to accomplish. Now there’s nothing wrong with this, however I took the added step of defining effectiveness as “doing work outside of home.”
As this definition of effectiveness grew I began looking for ministry (any ministry) that kept me from being at the house [1].
- English as a Second Language teaching
- Mentoring
- Reading Help
- After School Programs
- Computer Tutoring
- You name it, I would do it
The thing is no matter how many ministries I was involved with there was always a desire for more…
Just a few more hours in the afternoon
Just one more hour in the morning
Just two more ministry opportunities that week and I would be happy
As the school year came to a close God did something really scary…He called me to walk away from all of those ministries. And instead invest my time at home on things that prepared me for a future teaching ministry
- Bible Study that became the foundation of a sermon series from the book of James
- Turning a recent class I taught on Christology [2] into handouts for a small group Bible study
- Development of discipleship material on Evangelism, and Leadership
- Reading of Christian books
- Furthering my education through study of Greek and Theology
- And taking my writing very seriously [3]
In other words doing things that focus on teaching the truths of Scripture.
It is true that spending my day on research, Bible study, and writing means there isn’t a whole lot of interaction with other people. And yes there are moments I get bored and just have to “leave the house” [4]. But being able to place all of my energy on the one thing God has called me to do (teach the Bible) makes it all worth it.
And guess what I learned…there’s a big difference between busyness and effectiveness.
As an illustration allow me to use a normal Wednesday morning when my time revolved around volunteering with one now:
Before:
- 8:00–8:30 Travel to School
- 8:45–9:30 Reading tutoring with student
- 9:30–10:00 Drive Home
Now:
- 8:00–8:30 Communication with prayer supporters, news article reading
- 8:30–9:30 Bible Study for James Sermon
- 9:30–10:00 Bible Study for Foundations [5]
- This is after my 4–5 mile run at 7:00 (devotions at 6:00)
Do you see the difference?
I’m not saying that everyone in the world should work from home because they can’t. But instead want to remind you busyness (doing many things) doesn’t necessarily mean happiness. It’s much better to invest all your time and energy into the thing that God has called you to do
[1]: this is by no means a disrespect to my parents who I live with, or individuals who work out of home. God has since shown me this was a selfish attitude that only wanted to feed my own pride
[2]: doctrine of Christ
[3]: as many as three posts a day
[4]: I’m well aware there are many parents who dream of being bored someday
[5]: small group material from Christology notes
Johnhwilburn.org 