One of the most life-transforming statements I have ever heard came from a time management expert named, Charles Hobbs. He said, “the key to effectiveness in life is not GETTING MORE THINGS DONE; it is GETTING THE RIGHT THINGS DONE. It is shaping your life according to your mission.” I thought, “How do I do that?” And immediately a picture of Jesus flashed into my mind. He was returning from an all-night meeting with his Commander-in-Chief with the decision on his lips about who to make his 12 apostles. This episode looks at Jesus’ habit of escaping to the wilderness to pray about his mission and what we can learn from it.
On the night before he died, Jesus made an astonishing claim. He said to the Father, "I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.” How could Jesus have said his work was completed? His three-year ministry seemed all too short. For every prostitute whose heart he touched, hundreds remained untouched. For every blind man enabled to see, hundreds were still blind. Yet, on that last night, with many urgent human needs unmet and useful tasks undone, the Lord said he had completed the work God had given him. How did he do that? How did he stay focused on his mission?
Mark 1:32-39 gives us a significant clue. That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. And the whole city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. Can you imagine this? Everyone in the town wants whatever affliction he has to be healed by Jesus. When the exhausted Jesus finally sends them home to bed, I imagine scores of them not going home to bed but traveling to nearby sick friends and relatives’ homes, saying, “quick, get up, we have to get you to Capernaum, so you can get healed by a new prophet, Jesus, who has arisen.” Mark continues,
And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may PREACH there also, for that is why I came out.” And he went throughout all Galilee, PREACHING in their synagogues and casting out demons.
We are not told what Jesus talked to the Father about, but it had to be about his mission. The whole town wanted healing. Overnight the word about Jesus’ miraculous healing power would have gotten out to the surrounding countryside. No doubt many precious human beings with broken bodies had traveled in the wee morning hours to Capernaum to be healed. Yet, Jesus’ decision about his mission is to leave Capernaum and the opportunities to HEAL and go to other towns primarily to PREACH. I believe Jesus was talking over his mission statement with the Father. The mission of the Messiah is revealed in Isaiah 61:1-2a. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor (vs1-2a).
This passage pictures the Messiah’s DEED ministry, binding up the broken hearted perhaps by healing fatal diseases, and bringing liberty to the captives, by freeing bodies from disease, birth defects, or demon possession. Jesus ACTIONS free. It also pictures his ministry of the WORD, “proclaiming good news, proclaiming liberty to those held captive by sin, proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor.” I believe Jesus was talking with his CO, The Father, about how to balance his WORD and DEED ministries. In other words, just as Jesus withdrew to pray all night about his choice of disciples, he withdrew early in the morning to wrestle with his mission—whether to stay in Capernaum and heal or to go to other towns and mostly preach.
Returning to my story about the Charles Hobbs time management seminar, after the seminar, I returned home and combed over the various NT descriptions of our mission. I settled on:
I am called TO Christ (to enjoy a love relationship with Him)
I am called to BE LIKE Christ (to Christ-like character)
I am called to EXERCISE DOMININ for Christ (to implement Christ’s agenda in my role as husband, father, employer/employee, neighbor, church member, ambassador of the kingdom).
I organized my Day Timer around this mission statement and kept insights that would help me reach these goals. This material later became a tool we now make available to men—The Focus Notebook. I now had a game plan. But what use is a game plan if you don’t follow it during the game? I needed to build the habit of looking into the game plan—talking with my CO regularly about his mission for us, as Jesus had modeled. So, 40 years ago I began to put into my weekly schedule one hour (out of the 168 given to me by God) to meet with my Commander-in-chief to talk about my mission.
WhenI discovered the rich benefits of this practice in my own life, I began to challenge other men to follow this practice, especailly because God has called them to be leaders of their homes. Several years ago, I discovered that a man very close to me had picked up on this idea of having a Weekly Briefing with His King—my son Josh. Josh has tweaked the idea, made it his own to fit his own life. I asked him onto the podcast to talk about his efforts to build this habit into his busy life.
Interview With Josh Yagel, Specail Teams Coordinator, Centerville Wildcats
1. Josh, you are a busy high school teacher, the Special Teams Coordinator for the Centreville Wildcat football team. You lead Centreville’s FCA. You got married a little over a year ago and bought a house this past spring. Yet you have tried to build the habit of setting aside 60 minutes a week, to meet with your Commander-In-Chief—our Lord—to talk with him about his mission for you. Why?
First, let me say it’s an honor to be on the podcast with you today. I am biased since you’re my dad, but it has been incredible to watch the podcast and blog grow over the past 3 years and see all the time and energy that you put into it every week to make it as valuable as possible for Christian men. Thank you for having me today, and it’s exciting to be a part of the first interview-style Mission Focused Men for Christ Podcast!
To answer your question, let me first say that as full as my life does seem at times, I am surrounded by coworkers and friends who have young children at home or other life circumstances, so I realize that this is just the tip of the iceberg. But to be honest, it is exactly BECAUSE my life is so full, that I make it a habit to meet with my Commander-In-Chief each week. I have come to realize that if I don’t intentionally take time to slow down and refocus my efforts on God’s mission for me each week, I will inevitably miss opportunities to share my faith, encourage my wife, invest my time more effectively, or enjoy my love-relationship more fully with my Creator.
You’ve talked on the podcast before about the balance between important and urgent. My mission meeting helps me to see that more clearly. Meeting with God to refocus my life each week allows me to focus on the important things in life, and what God is truly calling me to do, as opposed to simply being distracted by all of the urgent things that come up on a daily basis.
In other words, my mission meetings act as guard rails for my life. In these moments, I am at my most sober-minded. I am able to reflect on what has gone well and what hasn’t gone well within the past week. I am able to chart my course for the next 7 days. If I get off course within that time, my mission meeting helps me to re-adjust so that I stay on target.
2. What do you actually do during this time?
This has certainly been a work in progress to figure out what works best for me. I started with the FOCUS notebook which is an incredible resource of yours that really helps us focus on the 3 main tenants of our calling as christian men, which you mention very frequently on the podcast. Those are our calling TO CHRIST–to pursue a love-relationship with Him, our calling to BE LIKE CHRIST–to cultivate Christ-like character, and our calling to EXERCISE DOMINION FOR CHRIST–to implement Christ’s agenda in each area of our life. The FOCUS notebook also has a wealth of resources to help men focus on each area of their lives such as marriage, parenting, work, stewardship, ministry, brotherhood, etc. From the FOCUS notebook, I decided to tweak it some, and essentially create a weekly worksheet for myself to fill out during my mission meeting. This acts as a journal/brainstorm space for me to write as I think and pray.
Each week in my notebook, I start with writing out the WINS that I had that week-- things I felt good about and that went well. Then I write down losses--instances where I cut a corner with integrity, missed an opportunity for an important conversation, slacked off on my devotionals or workouts for the week, etc. I want to make sure I write this down to track my progress towards consistent discipline in various areas of my life. As a football coach, I can’t watch the film from the previous game and only worry about the highlights. I have to look at my mistakes as well.
The next thing I write down is my success or failure in areas of personal accountability. How has my thought life been that week? Have I looked at any explicit material that week? Things that I am asking my Christian brothers to hold me accountable for.
Next is missions. What relationships am I building with non-Christians? How can I share my faith with them? Is it time to invite them to church? This keeps me focused on outreach.
Then I move into the 3 callings from the FOCUS notebook. For being called TO CHRIST, I go back through the FOCUS notebook and look at things that will help me grow in my relationship with Christ. How am I doing with my daily devotional? Am I spending enough time in prayer? Am I really trusting God with the circumstances of my life?
For my calling to be LIKE CHRIST, I spend time looking over a list of Christ-like characteristics (Beatitudes, fruits of the spirit, supplements of faith from 2 Peter, commandment to Joshua in Joshua 1, the armor of God). I think and pray about what trials I am experiencing in life, and what characteristics God might be building in me.
For my calling to EXERCISE DOMINION FOR CHRIST, I spend time looking at the various spheres of influence in my life. How can I implement Christ’s agenda for my marriage? How can I reflect Christ’s love as a teacher and a coach? What can I do to disciple my friends and family towards Christ?
Then I move into a reflection about what Biblical truth God is teaching me. This helps me to be more intentional about what I read each morning, or if I ACTUALLY pay attention to the sermon on Sunday or the Mission Focused Men for Christ podcast that week.
Next, I write down a practical life lesson that I have learned that week. This can be something simple or profound, either about myself or leadership, or work, etc. This helps me to keep track of what I am learning and allows me to go back and see what God has been teaching me throughout the month or year.
Then, I spend time writing out answers to prayer that I experienced that week. This allows me to bask in God’s love for me and remember that how much he provides for me each day. This also functions as a pseudo prayer journal so I can go back and see answered prayers later on.
Finally, once I finish writing each of these things out, I go back and pray through each piece. Now let me be honest, when I am extremely tired or short on time, this is the first thing to go. But on a good day, I try to go back and pray through each step of my worksheet.
3. What are the obstacles that get in the way of this practice?
Well, honestly, I believe that Satan hates that I meet with my King every week, so going into it, I have to know that he is going to throw anything he can at me to get me off schedule. But for me, laziness, busyness, and pride are my biggest obstacles. Laziness comes in the form of wanting to sleep in a bit more on Sunday morning as opposed to getting up as I do for work. This usually means that I either miss my meeting all together or try to rush it and fit it into a quick 20-minute ordeal.
Busyness seems to rear its head for me especially during the football season every fall. As a football coach, I spend a lot of time on Sunday’s working on the game plan for the upcoming week. If I am not careful and extra disciplined, I can allow myself to wake up and start working on the gameplan or any of life’s other demands BEFORE I meet with God. I’ve also realized that if I don’t meet with God in the morning before church, I will never do it. It just doesn’t work for me to do it in the afternoon or evening, or during the week. So, I have to work hard to protect Sunday mornings in my schedule.
The last obstacle I battle is my own pride. It is easy for me to think to myself that I am doing well enough on my own, or even before I started this habit, to think that I never needed such a thing in my life. But once I started this habit and realized how beneficial it is to my walk with Christ, I decided that I don’t want to go without it.
4. What are the benefits you have seen from this practice?
I certainly battle each of those obstacles every week, and I am far from perfect. But when I DO take the time to complete my mission meeting, I feel refreshed, refocused, and encouraged to keep striving towards all that God has for me. When I take time to connect one-on-one with my creator each week, I find myself reading my Bible more regularly throughout the week and being intentional about taking something away from what I am reading. I find myself being more intentional in conversations with my wife, my friends, my family, my coworkers, and my students/athletes. I find that I implement biblical principles in my life more consistently. I find myself more readily equipped to share the gospel with people around me. In short, I find that my weekly mission meeting helps me to actually accomplish the mission from my King each week. Without it, I’m honestly afraid that I would waste my life on things that don’t truly matter.
I am reminded of Paul’s words to the Romans in chapter 7 verse 15 where he writes, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” For me, setting aside an hour per week to meet with my Creator helps me to do more of what I ought to do, and less of what I ought not to do. As we mentioned, I coach high school football, so I’m going to run with a football analogy. Stay with me here. At one point in my life, I had been struggling with a very particular sin. I had a Christian brother in my life who noticed my continued failure in this area. At one point, he came up to me and said, “Yagel, you’re a football coach. How stupid would it be for you to go into a football game without a gameplan? And yet, you keep going into this battle with sin WITHOUT a gameplan. How do you expect to WIN?”
Honestly, Aaron’s words have changed my life. I now see my weekly mission meeting in the same way. I am in a fierce battle every day. I have specific instructions from my coach that I need to fulfill in order to win the game. If I don’t spend time with Coach Jesus to get my eyes on the gameplan for the week, how do I expect to WIN?
5. What would you say to other men about this practice?
I would say two things. Number one, start small. My weekly routine has grown a lot over the years as I have found some things to be more beneficial or I’ve added sections to my weekly worksheet to expand my focus. But that certainly wasn’t always the case for me. I started small, just waking up before church and doing a quick devotional. Then I started to look over the FOCUS notebook during my mission meeting. Then I started to pray over each of the callings of a man. But it wasn’t until January of this year that I realized a worksheet style journal would be the best fit for me. So start small and see what God will do.
Second, don’t get discouraged when you miss a week here or there. Building this habit isn’t about being perfect, it’s about striving towards the goal and seeing what God will do along the way. Just like anything else in life, distractions and roadblocks will pop up and try to steal your routine and your focus. Keep working at it, keep striving, and see what God will do in your life as the result of this investment of your time.
(End of Interview).
Jesus guarded his time like the treasure that it is. He did not spend it carelessly or haphazardly. The familiar warning, If you fail to plan, plan to fail is as true of completing God's mission for us as it is of any other part of life. Few men I know would try to run a business without a business plan. Even if it is not written down, they still have in mind the steps they will take to succeed. Few men, however, have a LIFE plan. But, which is more important, your BUSINESS or your LIFE? When God has ordained a world in which success in every other area of life requires a plan, why would we think accomplishing Christ’s mission for us would be different?
For Further Prayerful Thought:
- What insights have you gained from the example of Jesus coping with his Saturday night busyness by getting up Sunday morning to talk to the Father about his mission?
- What stood out to you about the way Josh goes about implementing this discipline in his life?
- What did Josh say about his reasons for implementing this practice that you found most persuasive?
- If you are persuaded that you should try something like this, what is the next step?
Ressource Mentioned In this Blog: FOCUS Notebook available on page 2 at our store.
