A Different Kind of Hustle
Hustle. To me it’s a word that has always meant to hurry. My dad (ever the sports coach) would always tell me I need to hustle. It meant I needed hurry up and get whatever I wasn’t doing at the moment done.
Lately I’ve seen the word hustle showing up in social media, books, and blogs. The point of all these posts is to help the full time employee (most of us) get over the hump and finally write that book/finish that project/accomplish that dream that we’ve always been wanting to finish. What’s needed, we’re told, is not a new trick, but more hustle.
This type of hustle isn’t always working faster like my dad use to tell me. This hustle is working hard to bust past the opposition that life undoubtedly throws at us. Learn to work a little bit harder, get up a little bit earlier when there are no distractions, watch less TV, and focus on those projects that no one knows about but you. The gospel of hustle is that hard work and focus will accomplish what your current pace could not.
An example of the kind of hustle you hear a lot about these day.
So, lately, as I’ve been looking at my life and thinking about trying to cross off some things the Lord has been asking me to do, I’ve been tempted to take the hustle approach. Some of the productivity approaches of others have made their way into my routine. And as someone who is a son of God, a husband and father, a church planter, a full-time employee, and is trying to write a book* and blog posts, there is a lot to get done. Hustle has a lot of appeal.
The problem with hustle, at least for me, is that its costly. For me hustle causes me to focus on tasks instead of people in my life. The first place that typically shows up is my relationship with God. Hudson Taylor wrote “Do not work so hard for Christ that you have no strength to pray, for prayer requires strength.” So when I’m burning the candle at both ends, inevitably my prayer life suffers.
From there, I become more focused on tasks and marking off lists. I get so preoccupied with “Getting Things Done” that I do it at the expense of the people I try to get things done for. And while I help people in the process, Paul tells me if I can do all things but don’t have love in my heart for them, my works are pretty much useless.
One more problem with hustle: It’s typically presented in a selfish manner. It’s what you need to get done to find your fulfillment. Get your book written. Water that part time gig you’re doing on the side (the side-hustle) ’til it becomes full-time. Find fulfillment in what you can do for you. This makes others’ needs that pop up (at least in my mind) obstacles to my fulfillment.
But Christ told us the way to find our life was to lay it down.
So, I want to propose a different kind of hustle. This hustle is where you put Christ above everything else. We give Him the ability to set the agenda. We practice love where we lay down our life for others. It sets others’ needs above our agendas. It trusts in God’s work that happens when we sleep and because of this, we can rest (Mark 4:26-28). It’s a hustle that relies first on prayer, then on doing what we can, when we can.
It doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t work hard. You may still get up a little earlier and work to stay more organized than you are. Productivity hacks will have their place. They just won’t be the Lord of your life.
You will probably get your pet projects done slower. Things that seem like a priority to almost everyone else may take a back seat. In many ways, people will think that you aren’t working as hard as you can. The hardest part of this kind of hustle is that it will look unproductive to those around you and, truth-be-told, maybe even to you.
But that’s what we’re called to: an upside down kingdom where we look like we’re in last place. It’s the kind of hustle that will be rewarded in the future for putting ourselves last. It’s gold that will last through fires of persecution and hardship, because it’s fueled by love and faith in God, not in loving and trusting ourselves.
It’s a different kind of hustle.
*Yes, if you’ve carefully read this post, you’ve noted I am currently writing a small book/e-book. I hope to have a rough draft by the end of the year and get through editing and packaging the book sometime next year. More on that in a later post.
Photo Credit:
Running Shoes by Josiah Mackenzie
The Cost of Non-Discipleship
“In 1937 Dietrich Bonhoeffer gave the world his book The Cost of Discipleship. It was a masterful attack on ‘easy Christianity’ or ‘cheap grace,’ but it did not set aside—perhaps it even enforced—the view of discipleship as a costly spiritual excess, and only for those especially driven or called to it. It was right to point out that one cannot be a disciple of Christ without forfeiting things normally sough in human life, and that one who pays little in the world’s coinage to bear his name has reason to wonder where he or she stands with God. But the cost of non-discipleship is far greater—even when this life alone is considered–than the price paid to walk with Jesus.
“Non-discipleship costs abiding peace, a life penetrated throughout by love, faith that sees everything in the light of God’s overriding governance for good, hopefulness that stands firm in the most discouraging of circumstances, power to do what is right and withstand the forces of evil. In short, it costs exactly that abundance of life Jesus said he came to bring (John 10:10). The cross-shaped yolk of Christ is after all an instrument of liberation and power to those who live in it with him and learn the meekness and lowliness of heart that brings rest to the soul…The correct perspective is to see following Christ not only as the necessity it is, but as the fulfillment of the highest human possibilities and as life on the highest plane.”
-Dallas Willard, “The Spirit of the Disciplines,” as quoted in Devotional Classics
Guarding Yourself From Heresy: Three Responses
There is a way to guard yourself and your church from heresy. It’s called relationships.
Yesterday I shared the journey of how I came to understand that relationships centered around God’s word keep us from heresy. But different people need to respond differently to this idea. If you read yesterdays post, can I encourage you to do one of three things?
Build Relationships
Some of those reading this post have no committed relationships with other believers. As my two year old daughter would say, “This is a problem.” You may be smart or well educated in the historical beliefs of the church, but I guarantee that if you aren’t in relationship with believers, you are opening yourself up to error, the least of which is pride.
It’s become quite popular lately to say that you can be a Christian and not go to a particular church, be a Christian and attend church on-line, or be a Christian and attend no church at all. But none of these will save your life from falling into error. Frankly, for relationships to preserve you and your church from error, you and those you care for must meet with other believers in groups small enough for others in the group to know you. And I mean *really* know you.
So, if you want to build in a firewall of relationships that protect you from heresy, begin to meet and build relationships with a small group of believers submitted to Jesus and His word. Let them know you. Get to know them. This is step #1.
Leave Hierarchy
After building relationships, it’s important to purge hierarchy from them. This may sound even stranger than “relationships protect you from error.” The truth is one major source of deception in the body of Christ is our constant appeal to something else other than God’s word. When a believer who is considered a leader believes a lie or practices sin, that believer, left unchallenged becomes a source for others to appeal to. He or she goes from a person caught in error to a source to be appealed to. “I can do it because Pastor X says it’s okay,” is the lie we tell ourselves.
Instead, regularly gather under the leadership of Jesus and in submission to Him and His word. Don’t appeal to another’s authority. Appeal to the authority of Jesus and the Bible. All of the areas essential to life and godliness are covered in the Bible, leaving little need to appeal to another believer. Your testimony and opinion are great, but they’ll never rival the message of God, which is living, active, and able to separate between soul and spirit. I have fundamental concerns about any believer who is swayed by someone’s authority but not by the clear teachings of the Bible. If someone isn’t willing to listen to God’s revealed word, your persuasion or “rank” in the body won’t move them.
Learn to Encourage/Challenge/Rebuke
Finally, it’s important for believers to learn to lovingly encourage, challenge, and rebuke each other. This is difficult, particularly if you come from an environment where an authority was the final word on every subject. But the grand vision of the church in Scripture is one where believers “speak the truth in love” to one another (Ephesians 4:15).
This is the most difficult step. You, while equal in your standing before God, with humility, begin to encourage them to obey God’s word or bring to their attention where they aren’t. This will also require humility on their part as well. But it’s in this way that we achieve the mutual submission that Paul spoke of in Ephesians 5:21.
This will require of you that you learn to be patient, loving, and forgiving. Others will get it wrong. You will get it wrong. But the benefit here is well tested thoughts about God and Scripture, along with well tested lifestyles that stand strong in the face of persecution from the world. Your life isn’t perfect in your eyes but flawed in everyone else’s. You know what you believe because it was formed in the crucible of committed relationships.
Conclusion
None of these steps are easy. They all take time and intentionality. But if you build these three realities into your life and the life of the churches you are part of, the result will be a stronger lives in the Kingdom of God.
Cluster Map
Pursuing Glory 