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Christlife Posture: Submitting to God's Love and Leading

Topic: Time Management--Submission in the Margins

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Suggested Approach: Choose 1 thing from each of the three boxes

OR Choose 1 from Media or Reflection + 1 from Scripture 

Media Excursions           (Watch/read/listen and be ready to discuss Q's)

Images-

  • The Persistence of Memory (Dali) Ponder this painting with its “melting watches.” What, if anything, does it speak to you about time as an entity or about your own use of time?

​Video Clip

  • God Pie (Central Films) Do you ever feel like the man in this video? What do you think this film wants us to think God is feeling about the man eating his pie? How do you think God really does feel about the way we divvy up our time? 

Songs

  • Noise (Kenny Chesney)   What “noise” in your life hinders you from living life to the fullest? Are there any ways you might eliminate some of the noise from the margins of your life? 

Infographic

  • Perils of Multitasking (The Economic Times) What surprises you in this infographic? Does multitasking seem to give your more or less margin? 

Article

  • Busy Sickness (Lauren Mann) How has your own busyness hurt your quality of life or witness? What would it look like to prune some away?  What (if you have them) do your times to "just be" look like?

  • Ten R's for Renewal (Jay Sivits) Which of these have you practiced? Pick one or two to work on in the next few weeks and be ready to share what you notice from making space for them. 

​Devotional

  • The Bread of Anxious Toil (Marjorie Thompson) How does the "bread of anxious toil" strip you of having margins in your life? What does this article suggest that might help?

Video Teaching

  • Crazy Busy (Ken Shigematsu) Write down the three best insights you gained from this interview about integrating spirituality into a busy life.

  • How to Build and Keep Good Habits  Good habits can help us use our time wisely.  What habit can you start to work on using the advice from this video?

Reflection Options  

Journal: 

  • What kinds of “time wasters” or “noise” have you allowed into your life?  How do they detract from what you desire to accomplish with your time?

  • What is the hardest part of your day to submit to God? What makes it so difficult for you? How would you like God to meet you in that place?

  • Different seasons of life might mean different possibilities for margins.  Whether your margins are small or really small, what might it look like for you to value the margins you do have? Where might you have a margin of time that you had not considered before?

Quote Response

  • “Serve God by doing common actions in a heavenly spirit, and then, if your daily calling only leaves you cracks and crevices of time, fill them up with holy service.”  Charles Spurgeon

  • “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” – Abraham Lincoln

Exercises from the book, Shaping The Journey of Emerging Adults:

  • Read the section "Creating Space for Cooperating with God" (pp. 225-226).  React to the quote from that section: “Disciplining ourselves to make space is the art of yielding rather than the science of attaining."

  • Mentor: Read through the ideas for discernment, intentionality, and reflection in Chapter 11 (pp. 201-205).  Pray through which ones you might want to talk over with the young adult next time you meet.

Explore Scripture

Meditate on one or more of the following passages. Always look them up in context.  Take some time to really explore the verse in relation to this topic.  How do these verses help you think about how you create or use the margins in your day?  Make a note of what you discover to share later.  See "Learn More About Ways to Study Scripture" below for help in getting the most out of the verse.

  • Romans 12:1-2

  • 1 Corinthians 10:31

  • 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, 5:9,10

  • Ephesians 5:15-17

  • Hebrews 4:1-16

  • Psalm 39:1-11

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