Unproductive “Productivity”

By: American Decency Staff

 

Who hasn’t thought to check Facebook or some other social media outlet for “just a minute” only to find themselves still typing or reading an hour later? Haven’t most of us thought to just do a few minutes of research and found ourselves – hours later – still surfing the internet? Perhaps we find ourselves tied to cell phones that interrupt or seemingly put us at everyone’s beck and call.

The digital world should be a tool to display the glory of God; when in fact, it’s often a leash that ties us to unimportant worldliness. As technology advances, for most, productivity diminishes. New technology and this digital world we find ourselves in are not inherently evil. The challenge is to be masters of it instead of slaves to it. That requires setting boundaries, recognizing our own weaknesses, and consciously limiting our devices and our distractions.

Looking at productivity from a Biblical worldview, Tim Challies gave a short presentation entitled “Productivity in a Digital World” at The Gospel: 2016 West Coast Conference sponsored by Ligonier Ministries. To hear this 19 minute presentation click here.

Mr. Challies began his presentation with a quote from renowned missionary William Carey, “I’m not afraid of failure; I’m afraid of succeeding at things that don’t matter.”

That is simply a most beautiful way to begin a talk on productivity. It forces us to think about what is important and what isn’t – or only momentarily seems important. It drives us to Jesus’ all-important, life-searching question: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36)

If the above doesn’t put things in perspective, his next statement certainly does: “Succeeding at the lesser things, at the cost of the greater things, is its own form of failure.”

As Tim Challies continued his presentation, he defined productivity by the Word of God:  “Productivity is effectively stewarding your gifts, your talents, your time, your energy, and your enthusiasm for the good of others and for the glory of God.”  What matters most—what true productivity is—is the glory of God.

Psalm 19:1-2, the heavens declare the glory of God…, tell us that all things exist for the glory of God. That being the case, “how much more we—made in the image of God—are meant to glorify God.”

“You and I exist to display God, to deflect all glory and honor away from ourselves and on to Him.” If we are failing at this great task, given to us by our Creator, then our productivity quotient is very low, regardless of what we are doing.

Reflecting on Romans 11:36 (God receiving glory from all things), Mr. Challies asks, “How do we do this? We bring glory to God when we do good to others.” “All through the Bible we see this link, we do good for others, that brings glory to God.” He then proceeded to give several scriptures which support this: Matthew 5:16; I Peter 2:12; Galatians 6:10

“God gets the glory through the good things we do. That means that the greater things we do in life are the things we do for others, not the things we do for ourselves.”

He aptly points out that good works do not merit salvation; they are good works that flow out of our salvation from God. “God has freely saved us through the gospel. He saved us by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. He’s given us these great gifts, the gift of peace with God, the gift of justification, the gift of security forever. Best of all, He’s given us the gift of Himself.”  This moves us to make sure He gets the glory due His name.

“God saved us so we can do good works. God saved us so we could do good to others; this is God’s purpose in saving us.” (Ephesians 2:10)

“Do you want to succeed at the greater things in life?  Then you need to direct your life at bringing God glory by loving other people, by doing good to other people.”

“Productivity is taking everything you are, everything you’ve got, and consecrating it to God and to His service.” Using everything—your spiritual gifts, your natural talents, your time, resources, and even your enthusiasm—deliberately directing it to do good for others and trusting that you are glorifying God, this is productivity.

When we look back on our life, what will we see? What will we think?

“Are you stewarding all that God has given you for the good of others and God’s glory? Would your family be able to say, ‘He devotes himself to good works’? Would your church be able to say, ‘She does good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith’? Because that’s the life God calls us to. That’s the productive life according to God’s definition of productivity.”

Mr. Challies admits that it’s hard to live this kind of life and briefly lists three things which hinder our productivity:

1) Distraction:“Distraction haunts us in this always-on digital world.” The devices of the digital world are “made equally for mindful productivity and mindless entertainment.” “Distraction really just masks laziness.  We want to be distracted because it’s hard to be productive.” It’s easier to be distracted. We need to shut out distractions. We need to remove them so we can focus on the things which are truly significant.

Entertainment is not wrong. Rest is not wrong. But these distractions need to take their proper place.

2) Procrastination:Will we do our work or delay our work? “Too many times we put off our responsibilities until tomorrow, so instead we can feed on a million little digital snacks, little forms of entertainment. How many times have we set out to do good to others but then be distracted.” “Procrastination works hand in hand with distraction becoming an even deeper form of laziness.”

3) Busyness:“We measure ourselves by our busyness. We think that busier is better and really the only alternative is busyness or laziness.” We chase after so many tasks and it all displaces the things that matter most. “So much of busyness is simply not understanding our limitations.” God doesn’t call us to do everything; He calls us to do a few things and to do them very, very well.

Rather than getting swallowed up in the various forms of distraction that eats up our productiveness, we need to recover the middle ground of diligence. Pursue the important things and do so diligently. Think of all God has given us, effectively stewarding each part, and doing ALL for the good of others and to the glory of God.

---