Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 924 ｜ Is Busyness Ever Glorifying to God？｜ Guest： Dr. James Spencer

00:00:00.960 Whatever consumes us, controls us.

00:00:03.540 That is certainly true about technology.

00:00:06.440 Technology is always vying for our attention, in addition to the million other responsibilities

00:00:11.280 that we have in a day.

00:00:13.780 However, Christians are supposed to live differently. 0.97

00:00:16.380 We are supposed to have a different focus, different priorities.

00:00:19.220 We are supposed to be resting in the presence of Christ and drawing strength from his word.

00:00:24.820 It's very difficult to do that, though, when our mind and heart are pulled in so many

00:00:30.540 different directions.

00:00:32.440 Here today is Dr. James Spencer, and he wrote the book, Christian Resistance, Learning to

00:00:38.600 Defy the World and Follow Christ.

00:00:41.200 It's about resisting the urge to always be distracted, to always be in a hurry, to always

00:00:46.660 be busy, and to simply rest in the presence of God and the strength that we can draw from

00:00:53.500 doing that.

00:00:54.100 He's got a lot of biblical insight for us, but also a lot of practical tips that I know

00:00:58.340 that you're really going to gain encouragement from.

00:01:01.060 This episode is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers.

00:01:04.640 Go to GoodRanchers.com.

00:01:06.200 Use promo code ALI at checkout.

00:01:07.740 That's GoodRanchers.com, code ALI.

00:01:19.060 Dr. Spencer, thanks so much for joining us.

00:01:21.680 Before we get started, can you just tell us a little bit about who you are and what you

00:01:25.320 do?

00:01:27.060 Yeah, my name is James Spencer.

00:01:29.140 I currently serve as president of the D.L.

00:01:32.280 Moody Center, which is an independent nonprofit organization out in Northfield, Massachusetts,

00:01:37.880 and we're dedicated to preserving some of the historic properties and letters and papers

00:01:44.000 of and about D.L.

00:01:45.460 Moody.

00:01:45.660 D.L.

00:01:47.600 Moody actually lived most of his life in Northfield, Massachusetts, and there are several older

00:01:51.660 historic buildings, including where he was born, where he lived when he moved from Chicago

00:01:56.860 back to Northfield, and then a 2,300-seat auditorium that he built to host summer conferences and

00:02:04.080 various sort of Bible study gatherings on that Northfield campus.

00:02:08.240 And so we're in the process of preserving those and opening them to the public, and our digital

00:02:13.740 archives project is actually already up on our website.

00:02:16.980 So we do all those things.

00:02:18.800 We also run a campaign called Go Dark, Shine Bright that encourages Christians to hop off 1.00

00:02:25.960 social media for several days and really focus in on God's Word and prayer, sort of disconnect

00:02:33.240 from stories that are denying God and reconnect with the stories that affirm Him.

00:02:38.120 And so we're involved in a lot of discipleship ministry, as well as just preserving the property

00:02:44.720 and legacy of D.L.

00:02:45.740 Moody.

00:02:46.280 Yes.

00:02:46.580 And in case people don't know, D.L.

00:02:48.180 Moody, 19th century evangelist, and who really emphasized discipleship and pioneered discipleship

00:02:55.500 in a lot of ways for the modern church.

00:02:57.260 So just in case people didn't know that.

00:02:58.640 But the project of the D.L.

00:03:01.080 Moody Center, the Go Dark, Shine Bright, there's a connection from that to your book.

00:03:06.660 And your book is called Christian Resistance, Learning to Defy the World and Follow Christ. 0.98

00:03:12.080 And a big part of your book is about distraction.

00:03:15.940 The world is constantly distracting us.

00:03:18.740 And something that I always think of when I think of distraction is that quote in screw

00:03:25.380 tape letters that, I'll butcher it, but basically that the demons are talking about making the

00:03:31.500 entire world noise.

00:03:33.660 So we are constantly distracted from the things that matter.

00:03:36.720 So tell us a little bit about that, why you wrote this book, and why you decided to write

00:03:41.760 about distraction.

00:03:44.040 Yeah.

00:03:44.580 When we first started the Go Dark, Shine Bright campaign, what we were really trying to solve

00:03:48.460 was, how do we get God's people to read the scriptures and engage in prayer more often?

00:03:55.140 And so what we ultimately came to was this idea that prayer and Bible study are really

00:04:00.740 in competition with scrolling on social media, shopping on Amazon, you know, surfing the internet,

00:04:08.100 all those kind of things.

00:04:09.260 And so what we decided was that we needed to sort of get people to stop doing those things,

00:04:14.960 not completely, but for a time.

00:04:17.420 We're not really anti-technology, but we do recognize that oftentimes we can get a little

00:04:22.380 bit too inundated with the information that's coming through all those different channels.

00:04:28.660 And so what we encourage people to do was just to take a fast, essentially, from social

00:04:34.240 media.

00:04:35.360 This year, it's actually, we're broadening it out to any media that you may feel is hindering

00:04:40.380 you from spending time with God's word.

00:04:42.280 And as they take that break, we ask them to read through the scriptures, to have a specific

00:04:48.680 prayer time.

00:04:50.060 And then ultimately, the Shine Bright aspect of the project is going back out onto social

00:04:56.780 media or into your networks, your social networks, whether they're digital or in person,

00:05:01.780 and really proclaiming Christ by explaining to people how he met you as you gave these things

00:05:08.900 up and really started to re-engage with his word.

00:05:12.460 And so distraction has become something of a topic that I've been thinking about since

00:05:18.560 we started that program.

00:05:20.020 As you start to look around the world, what you really see is not just on digital or social

00:05:24.940 media, but almost everywhere.

00:05:27.320 We're just busy with the urgencies of the day.

00:05:31.100 And there are a lot of good things that can distract us.

00:05:35.100 And so I eventually found my way to the story of Mary and Martha.

00:05:38.320 And when you look at what Martha is doing as she is caring for Jesus in her home, she doesn't

00:05:46.040 seem to be doing anything particularly bad.

00:05:48.840 She's just busying herself with the expectations of the day, making sure that the hospitality is

00:05:56.960 cared for, making sure that things are getting done, and she becomes frustrated because Mary's 0.92

00:06:01.960 not helping her.

00:06:03.020 But it's the one time in Scripture where you really see the word distracted used.

00:06:07.860 And Jesus, you know, it basically says she's distracted with all these other things.

00:06:11.820 But when she comes to Jesus, he says, no, Mary's chosen a good portion and it will not be taken

00:06:15.920 from her.

00:06:17.380 And so I think there's something deep in this that there are many things that can pull us away

00:06:23.480 from the feet of Jesus.

00:06:24.520 There are many things that can distract us from following him and really moving forward

00:06:31.480 in our walk with Christ.

00:06:32.940 And so we need to resist those things and really focus in on imitating Christ and making sure

00:06:41.100 that our lives are conformed as much as possible and increasingly so to his image.

00:06:46.340 Yes.

00:06:46.780 And I just want to read a portion of that passage for people who may be unfamiliar or you just

00:06:52.060 need a refresher.

00:06:53.480 And that is Luke 10, 38 through 42.

00:06:57.600 I might not read the entire thing, but now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a

00:07:01.980 village and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.

00:07:04.800 And she had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching.

00:07:08.400 But Martha was distracted with much serving.

00:07:11.400 And she went up to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve

00:07:15.860 alone?

00:07:16.160 She's like so incredulous about this.

00:07:18.020 Tell her then to help me.

00:07:19.080 But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, which I just read is so compassionate and

00:07:24.220 understanding.

00:07:25.600 You are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary.

00:07:29.620 Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken from her.

00:07:33.620 So as you mentioned so well, Martha is not doing something in itself that is bad.

00:07:39.300 In fact, she probably has the right heart or maybe correct intentions in that she's thinking,

00:07:46.400 wow, I've got the Lord here.

00:07:47.840 I mean, I've got Jesus here.

00:07:49.440 I want to do everything I can to serve him.

00:07:51.300 And you said we can be distracted by good things sometimes.

00:07:53.980 Obviously, service is good.

00:07:55.540 Working hard is good.

00:07:56.700 Doing the things that God has called us to is good.

00:07:59.160 So how do we distinguish reading this passage and even just looking at our lives?

00:08:03.740 Like what is a good godly, I don't even want to call it distraction, I guess, form of

00:08:08.520 busyness and action versus something that is actually distracting us from what God has called

00:08:14.540 us to do and resting in the Lord?

00:08:17.980 Yeah, I think we have to think about it in terms of what time we're actually spending with

00:08:23.400 Jesus as opposed to, you know, is what we're doing good or bad, right?

00:08:28.140 This passage almost gives us a better litmus test to gauge some of our activities.

00:08:34.300 And when those activities begin to distract us or pull us away from really following Jesus,

00:08:39.440 when we're here's the way I think of it, when I find myself on autopilot, where I'm really

00:08:46.320 not engaging in prayer, discerning the Holy Spirit, or thinking about whether or not what

00:08:52.420 I'm doing is what God would have me do.

00:08:55.940 You know, if I'm not asking the question, I love this quote from Juergen Moltmann, he talks

00:08:59.720 about sin as being unwilling to be what God requires.

00:09:03.800 And so when I'm not willing to be what God requires, and I'm not really seeking that part

00:09:09.380 out, and I'm just running on autopilot, I'm meeting all of the expectations that people

00:09:16.220 would generally put on me, I'm being generally moral, you know, I'm sort of just going with

00:09:22.700 the flow of the conventions of society.

00:09:25.240 And I'm not really putting any intentional thought into, am I actually following Christ at

00:09:31.860 this moment, once I go for some time like that, I find myself sort of missing the mark

00:09:39.680 in a lot of ways, I'm missing opportunities for Christ to really form me and change me

00:09:45.660 and push me and pull me.

00:09:48.040 And so I think we have to be careful not to begin running on autopilot, because that suggests

00:09:54.360 a level of self-sufficiency that we really don't have.

00:09:58.220 And I think that's what's going on here in the Mary and Martha story, is that Martha

00:10:02.040 is very much going about the business of the day.

00:10:06.400 These are expectations that anyone who's providing hospitality would be, you know, sort of expected

00:10:12.260 to do.

00:10:14.000 But what she's missing is this element of centering life around Jesus.

00:10:19.480 And so the way, one of the ways that I often think about this is that God is the most relevant

00:10:27.080 actor and factor in any situation.

00:10:29.980 And so if we're not orienting ourselves to Him, it's a good chance that we're being distracted,

00:10:36.000 our attention is being drawn away from Him to other things.

00:10:38.980 And it takes, you know, I think a lot of small efforts to make sure that we are cultivating

00:10:45.840 a sense of God's presence in our lives, such that in any situation now, we are really more

00:10:51.940 capable or accustomed to responding to God as opposed to responding to the situation.

00:11:08.980 So tell me about some of the specific topics that are covered in this book.

00:11:15.460 You talk about resistance, imitation, time, response, attention, coordination, preservation,

00:11:20.240 discernment, effort, testimony, inclusion, and accountability.

00:11:23.800 And obviously, we don't have time to go through all of them.

00:11:26.000 People should go out and read your book to know what you mean by all of these things.

00:11:29.200 But let's talk about a couple of them.

00:11:31.440 When you're talking about imitation and when you're talking about response, what do you mean

00:11:35.920 by that in relation to distraction and focusing on the right things?

00:11:42.980 So when I think about imitation, much of the imitation chapter is really rooted in the work

00:11:47.620 of a gentleman named Rene Girard.

00:11:49.960 And he suggested that our human activities are really in relation to other humans.

00:11:57.660 So in other words, we're not really pursuing objects of desire.

00:12:02.320 We are seeking to emulate someone else.

00:12:05.920 And so we start to pick up their desires.

00:12:09.660 We start to, you know, sort of adopt their way of thinking and their way of being in the world.

00:12:15.880 And he argued that ultimately that creates a level of conflict.

00:12:19.960 And so you can imagine that if, you know, you're emulating someone, you're imitating someone,

00:12:24.220 and you're picking up what, you know, you're saying, okay, I want to desire what they desire,

00:12:29.560 that ultimately you're going to be in competition for what you both desire.

00:12:32.980 Now, with Christ, it's a little different, because as we imitate Christ and we adopt his 0.83

00:12:38.780 desires, as we allow him to determine what we should care about and what we shouldn't care

00:12:44.120 about, there isn't a competition there, because there's no, there's an endless supply of abundance

00:12:49.960 that God can provide.

00:12:51.640 And so we're not competing with Christ when we imitate him.

00:12:55.040 What we are doing is we are orienting ourselves in the world in a way that we begin to see the

00:13:00.360 world as Christ sees it.

00:13:02.280 And so our imitation there really involves not only, you know, it doesn't involve at all,

00:13:08.800 you know, walking around in sandals or, you know, wearing, you know, Second Temple Jewish 0.98

00:13:13.200 sort of garb.

00:13:14.540 That's not the sort of imitation we're looking at.

00:13:17.080 But what we are trying to look at is how is it that we can emulate Christ and live the

00:13:23.160 sort of life that he lived?

00:13:25.080 In many ways, it's about fulfilling the one of the components of the Great Commission,

00:13:31.000 which is learning to observe all that Christ commanded and really living that out.

00:13:36.540 And so that's imitation.

00:13:37.920 When we think about response, I usually go to something like the David and Goliath narrative,

00:13:46.780 or there's this fascinating narrative in 1 Samuel where, you know, Saul is pursuing David,

00:13:52.420 trying to kill him because he knows that David has been anointed king of Israel.

00:13:56.640 Saul goes into the cave where David and his men are hiding, and David has opportunity to

00:14:01.760 kill Saul and take over the throne.

00:14:04.140 And despite the encouragement of David's men, David refuses to raise his hand against the

00:14:08.880 Lord's anointed.

00:14:10.360 And what I see in that narrative is David really focusing in on not just his situation at the

00:14:16.280 moment, where Saul's been chasing him around.

00:14:19.080 He's obviously in an uncomfortable situation.

00:14:21.040 Now he has an opportunity to remedy that.

00:14:24.780 But instead, David, instead of responding to the situation, David responds to God and says,

00:14:30.180 no, I will wait for God to do this for me.

00:14:34.040 This is not mine to take.

00:14:35.640 It's God to give.

00:14:37.540 And so as we look at response and think about how we would cultivate a sense of awe and reverence

00:14:46.740 and respect for all that God is doing, as opposed to trying to enact sort of God's justice on

00:14:53.940 our own or to sort of move forward in ways that would maybe use a great place to go is Ephesians 6.

00:15:00.880 You know, we do not fight against flesh and blood.

00:15:03.660 You know, we fight against the powers and principalities and spiritual realms.

00:15:08.280 Well, if we're using fleshly efforts to sort of try to change the world into our vision of what it

00:15:13.700 should be, we're probably not responding to God in those moments.

00:15:17.240 We're really responding to a situation we find uncomfortable.

00:15:20.680 And so there's a balance there between being patient and being proactive that I think we

00:15:27.040 need to think through and cultivate.

00:15:29.400 And I'm guessing that's probably what you cover in the discernment chapter, because I am thinking

00:15:34.080 as you're talking about this, wow, this takes a lot of discernment, which I think just emphasizes

00:15:38.320 your point even more of the importance of being connected to Christ and resting in Christ,

00:15:43.040 sitting at his feet, proverbially, and hearing his teachings, because that discernment is

00:15:48.920 empowered by the Holy Spirit.

00:15:50.960 And whatever fills us controls us, whether we are filled with the dopamine hits that are

00:15:58.460 coming from scrolling and being addicted to our phones, whether you're filled with alcohol,

00:16:02.720 whatever you are filled with is going to control you and determine the decisions that you make.

00:16:07.740 Being filled with the Holy Spirit empowers you to make these kind of discerning decisions,

00:16:12.360 because it's not always as easy as black and white.

00:16:15.760 Sometimes busyness is glorifying to God.

00:16:18.560 Sometimes it is just sitting and resting, but it does.

00:16:22.440 It takes a lot of honest analysis of the motivations of your heart, the outcomes that you are trying

00:16:28.320 to produce, and really what God is calling you to in that moment.

00:16:32.860 It's very easy for all of us, and a large portion of this audience is moms.

00:16:38.400 It's very easy for all of us to call our sinful busyness by different things, whether we call

00:16:46.040 it service or whether we just excuse it because, well, we're moms.

00:16:50.120 Of course, we're just going to be busy all the time.

00:16:52.060 Of course, we're not going to be able to read our Bibles.

00:16:53.740 Of course, we're not going to be able to pray.

00:16:55.040 That's just the season of life that I'm in.

00:16:56.660 And I'm not trying to diminish the real busyness that comes with the responsibility of parenthood.

00:17:01.560 But the reality is, is that we are all called, just as Mary and Martha were called in that

00:17:06.100 passage, we are all called to prioritize rest, to prioritize connection.

00:17:11.580 And some of the busyness that we have in our lives is not as necessary as I think we think

00:17:17.140 that it is, and we tell ourselves it is, right?

00:17:20.440 Yeah, I think that's absolutely right.

00:17:22.460 I think usually when I'm counseling people on how to go about doing this, I say two

00:17:26.660 things.

00:17:27.440 Number one, it doesn't take big efforts.

00:17:30.000 It takes consistent efforts over time.

00:17:32.520 I do a lot of weight training.

00:17:34.280 And so, you know, it's consistency and progressive overload.

00:17:37.340 You know, if you're bench pressing 225 pounds and you need to add five pounds to the barbell,

00:17:42.780 you know, there are certain places people in the gym will kind of laugh at that five pounds.

00:17:46.640 But I can guarantee if you continue adding five pounds to the barbell, there's a point at which

00:17:51.460 that five pounds is going to make the difference.

00:17:53.440 Right.

00:17:53.880 And so it's about small, incremental, consistent changes and ways of focusing in our daily life.

00:18:00.340 D.L. Moody has a great quote and sort of like you quoting C.S. Lewis, I'm going to butcher it.

00:18:05.080 But he says, you know, many people miss out on working in God's kingdom and really being productive

00:18:12.240 parts of God's kingdom because they're so focused on doing great things as opposed to doing little

00:18:17.460 things. And so what I encourage people is not to view this as this huge monumental task that,

00:18:23.640 you know, you may or may not feel capable of doing, but to hone in on these small little practices.

00:18:30.660 And as we practice, as we obey in the small ways and we allow God to sort of enter our lives and

00:18:35.980 prove himself to us, sort of that idea of Malachi 310, you know, God calls the Israelites to test him

00:18:42.880 through obedience. And as we do that in those little ways across time, I think God shows up.

00:18:49.000 The other thing I usually recommend to people is just keeping in mind, you know, 1 John 1, 9,

00:18:53.720 confession is a part of our everyday lives as Christians. We're going to get this wrong.

00:18:59.180 And that's OK. The point is not getting it right every time. The point is recognizing when we get it

00:19:06.140 wrong, confessing that and growing from it. And so luckily, God gives us the grace to miss the mark

00:19:12.880 and to recalibrate and to reorient ourselves so that we are more focused on him. But we need to be

00:19:19.600 cognizant of these things. And I think that's the main reason I chose to write on the topics that I

00:19:25.760 did in the book, is that I wanted to provide some broad frameworks for people to begin thinking through

00:19:33.320 that they might not get another devotional literature. And so that's really what these

00:19:38.120 chapters are designed to be, is to help people think through those sort of non, those topics

00:19:44.780 that aren't as regularly treated in Christian circles.

00:19:48.520 Something that stands out to me about that passage, too, is just Jesus is, as you said, his grace for

00:20:08.180 Martha, his kind of understanding of where she's coming from, and that he sees underneath her service

00:20:15.400 what's going on in her heart and mind, that you are troubled and that you are anxious. And so he sees

00:20:21.680 that really the motivation behind these things isn't so much this kind of like just peaceful,

00:20:27.040 joyful worship that she's doing through acts of service, but it's actually she's worried, like she's

00:20:32.620 she's wound up in those moments. And so you see that God is trying to relax her and release her from

00:20:40.020 those unnecessary obligations for her good. It's not just that we're trying to live this stoic Luddite

00:20:47.100 life as Christians, that we can't engage in any kind of technology or any modern form of fun.

00:20:53.440 He releases us from the things that burden us. I mean, Jesus's yoke is easy. His burden is light.

00:20:59.620 And so releasing distractions is actually like a gracious gift that God gives us that I know for

00:21:03.800 myself. I don't always take that gift. For some reason, it's like I want to carry this heavy

00:21:08.840 burden of the distractions that I have in my life. I guess it's just an addiction.

00:21:16.700 Yeah. And I think, you know, I struggle with a lot of this whenever I work. And in many ways,

00:21:23.640 I am a workaholic. I still, you know, sort of struggle with it and making sure that I

00:21:29.100 balance sort of, you know, create that sort of work life balance that everybody talks about,

00:21:34.440 which I think is sort of like a unicorn. It's fictional. Yeah. But the reality is, I do, I think

00:21:41.980 I tend to take a lot more on myself than I probably need to. And I would say, through the development of

00:21:48.640 the Go to Art Shine Bright campaign, through the writing of this book and various other things,

00:21:52.600 what I've come to realize is that I can have a great deal more peace and satisfaction in my life

00:21:59.600 and still be as productive as I ever was without feeling that pressure and stress and urgency.

00:22:08.340 And like you said, the deep weight that sort of comes from taking it all on me.

00:22:14.340 And so I think as I've allowed myself to say, you know, God has gifted me with a certain capacity.

00:22:23.600 But the reality is that that capacity, while I should exercise it, it isn't the end all be all of who I am.

00:22:31.600 And I need to be tying in with God because he can do far greater things through my weakness

00:22:38.080 in a lot of ways than he can through my strength. Yeah. And so there's a balance there that we have to,

00:22:45.180 I don't think it's a, I don't think it's an either or, I think it's a both and. But I think the

00:22:50.800 unfortunate part is we usually emphasize the part where we say, well, God's given me these gifts,

00:22:56.060 I have to use them. And we ignore more often than not these areas, or at least I did,

00:23:03.600 these areas where I was weak, but God could use me through my weakness. I didn't want that to happen.

00:23:09.320 Of course.

00:23:09.460 I wanted to always be operating out of my strength. And I think that kept me sort of

00:23:13.820 in a frenzy, in this sort of relentless, unrestful frenzy. Whereas now I'm a much more,

00:23:22.780 I've found a much more calm place to be productive in the kingdom and a much more connected place

00:23:29.600 to understand who Christ is and what my relationship with him should really be doing in me,

00:23:34.960 transforming me.

00:23:48.080 Tell us a little bit more about the practical steps that you take. You mentioned that you're

00:23:53.760 a workaholic, like a lot of us are. And so I appreciate that this is like a real everyday

00:23:59.620 struggle for you. I'm sure as you used the metaphor of weightlifting, it's gotten better and

00:24:04.760 better. But I imagine when you first kind of started thinking through this, it wasn't very

00:24:10.160 easy. And you had to just take some very tangible steps to say, okay, this is how I'm going to

00:24:15.620 eliminate this needless distraction in my life. Tell us just a little bit, maybe, I don't know,

00:24:21.320 two or three things that all of us can do starting today to help us.

00:24:27.260 Yeah, absolutely. I think number one, you sort of have to take a step back,

00:24:31.900 look at your life and recognize what you're using as a crutch. So for me, my crutch was

00:24:37.600 academics. Studying the Bible is something that I really love and enjoy. And it's obviously a good

00:24:44.040 thing. But I was using it as a crutch to say, see, I'm in good shape, right? I'm in good spiritual

00:24:50.680 shape. So I read my Bible all the time. I'm always writing or researching something. And so I'm in good

00:24:55.240 shape. I wasn't in good shape. Right? I was using my I was using that Bible studies and excuse not to

00:25:02.780 do other things. And so part of what I needed to do was sort of rightly diagnose myself. And so I

00:25:09.020 started once I realized, you know, hey, I'm using this as a crutch, what I started to do was take

00:25:13.940 more time out to pray. And I would basically set a minimum limit for myself every day that I was going

00:25:20.760 to pray. And it wasn't very big at first, it was like, you know, five to 10 minutes, right? I'm

00:25:25.900 always going to pray 10 minutes a day. And that may not seem like much. But when you go from basically

00:25:30.680 zero to 10, it's a lot. Yeah. And so, you know, I had to set those little small benchmarks for myself,

00:25:37.380 just so that I got it in every day. And I was opening that door to God using those moments,

00:25:43.740 where I was saying, okay, 10 minutes of prayer is better is, is me spending my time better than I

00:25:51.500 could and doing anything else. So I would say set small little benchmarks as you go. That'd be one

00:25:59.640 of my pieces of advice. And then the other piece of advice I would give that that I found really helped

00:26:04.980 me was changing the cadence of my day. So I recently started doing getting up earlier.

00:26:14.480 And then I'll set boundaries, specific boundaries on when I'm done working.

00:26:19.620 And so last night, I shut I work at home, which is even more challenging. Yeah, but usually,

00:26:28.660 you know, I'll get up at 530 in the morning, I'll do a workout, I'll work from 630 to about 730 when I

00:26:37.960 have to take my kids to school and, you know, different things like that. And then I'll come

00:26:42.300 back and work till around 330 or four in the afternoon. And then I'm done. Laptop, laptop stays

00:26:48.260 in my office. And I try to keep my phone out of my hands after four o'clock. And so, you know,

00:26:56.860 there, there are those kinds of things that I think are really important to set boundaries for

00:27:00.980 yourself. And to begin thinking that, you know, any email I get after four o'clock,

00:27:07.300 it's probably not so important that I can't wait to answer it tomorrow. Yeah. You know, it's just,

00:27:15.540 it's sort of that mindset shift and a discipline to reinforce it. And so I'd encourage folks to do that.

00:27:21.380 I think the last thing I'd say is, you know, getting other people involved. My family is

00:27:27.760 really supportive about the cadence of life that I'm setting for myself. And I'm supportive of the

00:27:33.240 cadence of the life that they set for themselves. And so I think having that sort of community and

00:27:38.480 encouragement around us is important. I usually tell the story, I lost 50 pounds in 2018.

00:27:46.980 Oh my goodness. Yeah. And, and you don't do that without help. Yeah. There have been a lot of

00:27:52.560 things that I've done in my life that I couldn't have done without help. Finishing my PhD was one

00:27:56.800 of them, you know, without my wife helping me along and really providing a good social system for me

00:28:02.140 while I was doing that, I would have never finished. I think the same was losing the 50 pounds.

00:28:08.840 And so you have to set your environment up for success and you have to have that social structure

00:28:13.820 and system to really help you do these things. And so that would be my encouragement is to find

00:28:18.480 that community and social structure that's really going to help you through.

00:28:33.720 I love the comparison that you've made a couple of times of physical fitness, even when you're

00:28:37.820 talking about setting up your environment for success, if you're trying to lose weight and your

00:28:44.400 counters are aligned with junk food, or if you're an alcoholic, you're trying to give up alcohol and

00:28:49.960 you're constantly walking into a bar, you're seeing handles of liquor, whatever it is, that's going to

00:28:55.060 make it a lot more difficult. And I think sometimes we don't think about that, about our tech devices

00:28:59.880 that, okay, if we don't want to be distracted, then walking around with our email, with our social

00:29:05.480 media, which is something I do, so I'm talking to myself, is probably not going to set us up for

00:29:10.860 success when it comes to those things. And so we have to, as you mentioned earlier, recognize our

00:29:16.160 weaknesses and set up safeguards and have other people as well help us set up those safeguards so

00:29:23.860 we can remain focused on the things we need to be focused on. Yeah. I mean, there's so many little

00:29:28.920 things that we can do. They're just, they're really no effort. I mean, I don't use my phone as an alarm

00:29:33.320 clock anymore. Yeah. I have a old school analog alarm clock that goes off in the morning if I feel

00:29:38.840 like I need to wake up and my phone's charging in another room. Yeah. And so, you know, those kind

00:29:44.080 of little things can really be impactful. And one of the ones that I found out recently as we were

00:29:49.620 designing the Go Dark, Shine Bright program this year is, you know, prolonged, consistent use of any

00:29:55.640 screen after dark can, uh, is now been correlated with increased levels of depression. Yeah. I

00:30:03.560 believe that. And it's related to, yeah, I mean, it's just related to your brain, not knowing light

00:30:07.760 from dark. And so these are like subtle ways that we're not even necessarily trying to hinder our

00:30:14.540 discipleship, but we may very well be. And so we just have to be cognizant of these things.

00:30:20.180 Yeah. There's definitely a spiritual metaphor to be explored there when you don't know the

00:30:24.200 difference between light and dark, all kinds of confusion and chaos can be, uh, can show up in

00:30:29.340 your life. Well, thank you so much. This has been so insightful, very encouraging. And your book again

00:30:35.240 is called Christian Resistance, Learning to Defy the World and Follow Christ. People can get it 1.00

00:30:41.740 wherever books are sold. I'm guessing it's probably on christianbooks.com, maybe at your local bookstore as

00:30:46.820 well. And I'm sure on all the places where, uh, books are sold and where can people find out

00:30:53.340 more about Go Dark, Shine Bright and the DL Moody Center? So they can go directly to

00:31:00.400 GoDarkShineBright.org and sign up for the, um, campaign this year. We've got over 12,000 so far

00:31:08.100 signed up, which has been great. Um, all they have to do is put their email in and then they'll download

00:31:13.100 a guide, um, with, uh, this time we formatted as 20 questions about Christianity and digital

00:31:19.420 technology and, uh, also gave 10 days worth of devotionals to kind of last people through their

00:31:25.160 social media fast. So GoDarkShineBright.org, um, to do that. And I should say that, um, all the

00:31:32.400 profits from the book sales actually go to supporting our ministry. And so, um, when they purchase Christian

00:31:39.600 Resistance, all of that goes to supporting the Go Dark, Shine Bright program and, uh, and the DL Moody

00:31:44.800 Center more generally. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate you taking the time to come on,

00:31:49.740 Dr. Spencer. No problem. Thanks for having me.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - December 21, 2023

Ep 924 ｜ Is Busyness Ever Glorifying to God？｜ Guest： Dr. James Spencer

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - December 21, 2023

Ep 924 ｜ Is Busyness Ever Glorifying to God？ ｜ Guest： Dr. James Spencer

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript

Ep 924 ｜ Is Busyness Ever Glorifying to God？｜ Guest： Dr. James Spencer