Who Are You Cheating On?

This past fall I came across a sermon series synopsis on line from Andy Stanley, a fantastic pastor in Atlanta. He was talking about how most of us cheat on God and/or family in order to give more time to work. The point of the sermon series was to call people to consider cheating on work in order to give more time to God and to family.

The new semester at UNC starts on Wednesday. I speak at large group on Thursday and then we head to leadership retreat on Friday. Last semester was a hard semester, probably the most difficult combination of inter-personal issues on campus, people in crisis, structural breakdowns and challenges in my personal life/on the home front that I've had since my second year on IV staff, nine years ago.

A highpoint for me about my Urbana experience was staying after for a day with two life-long friends, Marshall Benbow and Tripp Sanders. As I was processing the massive accumulation of blech on campus with them, I closed out by saying, "after all that we went through last semester, this leadership retreat next weekend has got to be good." I was anxious to fix problems, feeling tons of pressure to put together a magical leadership retreat weekend that would rally the troops and turn the proverbial ship around.

Being the good friends that they are, Marshall and Tripp pointed out my neurosis. What needs to happen this weekend is nothing that I can plan. I need the Lord to show up and do radically re-formational work.

And so I've been cheating on work this week in order to be with the Lord. Instead of squeezing in every possible minute for preparations and talks and schedules and trying to make things "work," I've spent disporportionate time with the Lord. I realized as I was praying this morning that unless I'm deeply connected to a larger story I will be of no use to all of us who are trying to meet the Lord in the midst of this one.

It's been good and re-centering to be approaching this semester in this way, although there are moments of brief panic as I look at what needs to be done. And I think that this whole cheating on work thing in order to be with the Lord and bless my family might be good fodder for a New Year's Resolution, if I were so inclined to make one of those things.