Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Friday October 12, 2007

Over the course of my life I have experienced long periods of "emptiness" and spent an enormous amount of time wondering about the why of this recurring vacuum in my life. With the passage of time, thought and musing on the word of God the reasons have become crystal clear and I now take the time to deal with the root cause.

For most of my young life and into past the middle years I invested my time running from place to place, this meeting and that meeting and always saying, "Yes, I will come to your meeting and bring my vast wisdom with me."

As time passed it became obvious to me that I really had become a shell with no real substance, just preaching the same old same old. In my traveling experience I had very little time to study or pray or even think as in addition to doing what I went to do I was constantly being drug from this place to that place and in other ways being entertained. I flew on empty for years. And this troubled me to no end.

Through reading the biographies of what we Christians call "the great ones" I became aware of the unending battle they fought against spiritual drain with no program to refuel. While taking a beating financially, I now go less and accomplish more true results.

John Pollock wrote concerning one of the most effective religious leaders of his or any time who has a reputation for being super busy:

"At the moment of reaching the height of influence in the United Sates he stood in danger of spiritual insolvency."

Mr. Pollock was writing of D.L. Moody often known as "the man who shook two continents for God." Yet at the pinnacle of this high mountain of success Moody knew he was empty and made a radical adjustment in his schedule and for the remainder of his fruitful life refused to be so busy that he had no time for prayer and study. Thankfully Mr. Moody made this decision before he crashed. Legion is the former workers who failed to make this simple, but hard adjustment to their schedule.

Mr. Moody, yours truly and myriads of others have learned the truth of the old Pennsylvania Dutch saying, evidently by a farmer's wife:

"The hurrier I go the behinder I get."

As I age I am finding that I get more done by doing fewer things and concentrating on doing what I do reasonably well. Many other things do not get done, and that is something for someone else to deal with. Peyton Manning cannot play quarterback and right tackle on the same play. And neither can you.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2007 Use with credit

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