Your Calendar

Stafford Greer, Bearspaw Lead Site Pastor

In some ways, the start of September is more of a start of a new year than January is. The cooler nights, shorter days, and turning leaves all give indication to the precipice of a new season. It is reinforced with children returning to school, young adults leaving for college (we’re weirdly old enough to be sending our daughter to college in a week or so!), the hurry to get the last vacation days in, and the gearing up of all the programs and routines of life.

Each fall, we get to set the trajectory for our schedules that will last for the next 6-8 months: which sports will we sign up for, what programs are being run, which clubs do we want to participate in, and so on. If you’re anything like me, I can very easily overestimate my future self’s capacity to pull off or even participate in all the things I commit to today: “That’s future Stafford’s problem to solve,” I might say.

The problem is, present day Stafford has really limited Future Stafford’s ability to respond to needs around him, to be present with family, to follow through on commitments, and so much more by not critically thinking through what I’m saying “yes” to today.

I do not have this figured out well - and in fact consistently make decisions today that negatively impact the kind of life, person, and disciple that I want to be. I can get caught up in the busyness of life, the dopamine rush of doing, or the people pleasing of saying yes to opportunities that I clearly don’t have the space or capacity for. And I regularly fill my time too full with good, but ultimately not great decisions.

Past Stafford signed me up for a Seminary course beginning this fall that while it fits with my goals of finishing my Masters Degree in a reasonable time frame, is very much an obstacle to being present, rested, and abiding in Jesus.

Chances are, most of the things that we have the opportunity to say “yes” to in life are actually good things. Rarely are we deciding between filling our calendar with evil or wrong things. They are often tied to fun, leisure, careers, etc., yet uncritically saying Yes to these good things will inhibit us from saying yes to the God things that will come our way.

This week we’re concluding our sermon series The Everyday Disciple where, at each of our sites, we will be examining what it looks like for a disciple of Jesus to evaluate their calendar and work to better align our commitments with our desire to fully follow and trust Jesus.

The culture we are immersed in values being busy. The question, “how are you doing?” is often met with “I’m so busy!” If someone has spare time, we often respond with an attitude of “must be nice!” Naps are luxury items few of us can afford due to our schedules. Time with our family, with our church, with our small group, is often crowded out with rushing.

That is the way of the world, but is it the way of Jesus?

This fall, I encourage you to evaluate your calendar in light of Jesus’ call on our lives to follow him. How would that call change the decisions we make with how we use our time? Join us this weekend and remain open to how the Spirit would lead you in this season on how you are to be using your calendar.