Don't Waste Your Summer: Plan Your Seasons
During the busy summer season, we’re taking some time to look at some ways we can strive to use our summers intentionally, for the glory of God and the good of others.
Here’s what we’ve covered thus far:
- Don’t Waste Your Summer
- Plan Your Seasons
- 4 Ways To Vacation Well
- Snapshot
- Rest Rightly, Rest Well
- Reliving And Living
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Does your summer ever feel like it flies by and you didn't get a chance to accomplish any of the projects that are on your list of things to do? Or, do you ever feel like your summer flies by but you didn't get a chance to rest and rejuvenate before the upcoming year starts up again because you had to much on your schedule?
Sadly, these two instances are exactly how our culture handles summer.
My hope from this blog post is that you would get a clear picture to how you can plan the different seasons of your life, specifically summer. But first, we’re going to look at some common objections to planning in general. There may be more, but these are two of the most common.
Objection #1: I Don't Want To Be Tied Down To Any Plans
When you hear someone say to you, "I don't like to be tied down to plans." What they are saying is they don't like to think about their next move. Unfortunately in this day and age, you can not throw care to the wind and wing everything. Everything in this world requires a plan. For example, children's school year is planned, college students are working for a degree that is planned out, parents who stay at home with their kids need plans to keep sane and lastly people who work in the business world know that if you don't have a plan you don't go anywhere.
Everyone plans, and I mean everyone. No one ever can just wing life. But plans you make show off your priorities.
Objection #2: I Am So Busy
Some people really love having a busy schedule, and when they're not busy, they don't know what to do with themselves.
We all want to be fruitful in our lives. Fruitful literally means producing good or helpful results. But before we can be fruitful in anything, we first need to be faithful. Faithful literally means loyal, constant, and steadfast.
Do you know what spheres God has given you to be faithful in?
If you don't know what spheres God has called you to, then it will be hard for you to determine what areas you are suppose to be faithful in. So make sure to write them down. Tell them to someone, so that they can keep you accountable.
Gospel Oriented Faithfulness Then Fruitfulness
Exert taken from a book "The Gospel At Work" by Sebastian Traeger & Greg Gilbert pg. 91 -92
"Every sphere that you have in your life, you can find in the Bible both a minimum standard for faithfulness and operating principles for pursing fruitfulness. By a minimum standard for faithfulness, we mean the basic requirements Scripture gives to our different spheres of our lives. If you are not accomplishing the basic requirements of your different spheres, then you are not being faithful in this area. Most of the time, this means you need to double-down on your attention there before looking anywhere else.
By principles for pursuing further fruitfulness, we mean those ways in which you can grow beyond this minimum expectation of faithfulness. Once you think you're meeting the Bible's standard of faithfulness in all your assignments, you are free to dream and consider how you can best invest your extra time and energy.
On either side of faithfulness and fruitfulness we will find the two pitfalls that tend to define the sinful patterns associated with our work (or spheres) - idolatry and idleness. Fail to meet the minimum requirements of faithfulness, and you fall into idleness. Push beyond fruitfulness, and you fall into idolatry.
So here's the guiding principle: pursue faithfulness, then fruitfulness, but not idolatry."
So, here are some things to think about when planning out your season:
Pray and ask God to help you list your spheres He has called you to.
List Your Top 5 Spheres (Example: God, Family, Church, Work...etc.)
Make a list from the different spheres in your life that God is calling you to be faithful in and write down what the baseline expectations are for you to meet these different spheres.
Determine if you're being faithful in the priorities within the spheres
Consider where you might be able to invest for greater fruitfulness
Avoid the trap of idolatry, where you are measured by your work instead of serving the Lord.
Accomplish And Rest
Yes this blog post is geared towards the summer time but you can take these principles into any season of your life and be able to plan well so that you can stay faithful to the calling God has for you.
As Christians, we are not called to be idle, but we are also called not to make things we do our idols. Applying these principles will help you to plan well and also rest well. And as always remember that the priorities that you accomplish will never make you right with God, it is through Jesus perfect righteousness and obedience that anyone will be right with God. The priorities that you try and accomplish are simply principles that God has called you to be obedient to do but rest well in the finish work of Jesus on your behalf.