Tranquility

W. Henderson David

Description

There's never enough time. So we try to cram as much as possible into what little time we have--work, friends, play, rest. But what if How do I fit it all in? isn't the right question?Scripture has a lot to say about time. Taking a cue from Ecclesiastes--"Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind"--and drawing on everything from Augustine's Confessions to conversations with air traffic controllers, David W. Henderson encourages us to move beyond merely trying to open up a bit of margin or to say no once in a while, and to take a purposeful step back from our lives to examine those internal and external dynamics that propel us into busyness and hurry. Sharing honest stories about his own struggles with busyness, he helps readers explore the way the Scriptures frame our time--understanding the times, making the most of the time, and trusting God with the rest.For anyone who is tired of feeling the push and pull of our time-bent culture, this book will be a welcome invitation to rest and to live artful and faithful lives marked by peace and tranquility.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 01 septembre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781493400539
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

© 2015 by David W. Henderson
Published by Baker Books
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakerbooks.com
Ebook edition created 2015
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-0053-9
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
Scripture quotations labeled CEV are from the Contemporary English Version © 1991, 1992, 1995 by American Bible Society. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations labeled ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2011
Scripture quotations labeled GW are from G OD ’ S W ORD ®. © 1995 God’s Word to the Nations. Used by permission of Baker Publishing Group.
Scripture quotations labeled KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.
Scripture quotations labeled NLT are from the Holy Bible , New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations labeled Phillips are from The New Testament in Modern English, revised edition—J. B. Phillips, translator. © J. B. Phillips 1958, 1960, 1972. Used by permission of Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.
Scripture quotations labeled TLB are from The Living Bible, copyright © 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Time always seems scarce. Money, capacity, labor—these things can be stretched. But not time. Its very march can cramp us and leave us desperate. David Henderson knows all this—and offers a profound reminder of living out of the abundance of God’s life and eternity. God’s gift of tranquility does not stretch time but makes our time enough. I need—we need—this deep wisdom!”
— Mark Labberton , president of Fuller Theological Seminary
“I honestly can’t think of a more difficult topic to write about than time. Time itself is given to us as a gift, but we find it a threat. We relish time if it opens up for us and despise it when it is limited. David Henderson is a wise sage, guiding us gently against the fierce tides within our hearts which war with time. David invites us out of our attempts to master time and into the gorgeous spaciousness of entering time in order to listen to God’s heartbeat. If you desire more pleasure in life, then you’ll be glad you read this book. Yes, this book is worth your time.”
— Janice Meyers Proett , coauthor of The Allure of Hope and national conference speaker
“If you don’t have time to read this book, I am sorry for you. And I would advise: take time! David Henderson writes with profound insights and practical directions about redeeming time. As he points out, the deeper concern ‘must not be how we manage our time in a busy world but how we manage our inner world in a busy time.’ This is thoughtful, practical, wise. Take time to read it. You may find the time of your life.”
— Leighton Ford , president of Leighton Ford Ministries
To my beloved Sharon Joy with deepest gratitude to God for the inexpressible gift of spending time and sharing life with you. How much richer the journey for your presence in it. I love you so.
Better one handful with tranquility
than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.
Ecclesiastes 4:6
Contents
Cover i
Title Page iii
Copyright Page iv
Endorsements v
Dedication vii
Epigraph viii
Preface xi
Introduction: The River People 1
Prologue: The Busy Young Ruler 6
T WO H ANDFULS WITH T OIL AND C HASING AFTER THE W IND 9
1. Busy, Busy, Busy 11
2. The Busyness Factory 17
3. The Inner Hurricane 29
4. Toward a Solution 45
O NE H ANDFUL WITH T RANQUILITY 57
5. Deep Time 59
U NDERSTANDING THE T IMES 69
6. While There Is Time 71
7. The Circle and the Arrow 81
8. The Vanishing Point 98
9. Whose Time Is It? 108
10. A Single Eye 119
M AKING THE M OST OF THE T IME 133
11. Moments Burdened with Glorious Purpose 135
12. The One Thing 149
13. Waiting 157
T RUSTING G OD WITH THE R EST 167
14. Soul Rest 169
15. The Beautiful Life 181
16. Still Life 195
17. Deeper Still 210
Conclusion: On Wings like Eagles 219
Notes 225
Select Bibliography 233
Back Ads 239
Back Cover 241
Preface
Do you not rush through the world too hard, Mr. Henderson?
Saul Bellow, Henderson the Rain King
Surely if there is anything with which we should not mix up our vanity and self-consequence, it is with Time, the most independent of all things.
William Hazlitt, “On a Sun-dial”
And what, in God’s name, is all this pother about?
Robert Louis Stevenson, An Apology for Idlers
I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.
William Shakespeare, Richard II
Time is a storm in which we are all lost.
William Carlos Williams, preface to Selected Essays
A bout fifteen years ago, I was asked by a publisher to write a book about time, busyness, and hurry. I was too busy. I suggested we talk later.
A year or so passed, and I was ready—or so I thought. But then God took me from serving as the associate pastor of a church of three hundred to serving as the senior pastor of a church several times that size.
The deadline for the book came and went. I was just too busy. My publisher extended the deadline, and I tried again. Still too busy.
A dozen more years of starting and stopping went by.
At first, it was funny. “Get this! I’m writing a book about busyness, but I’m too busy to write it!” Then it became sad. Then exasperating. At times, it was embarrassing. Several times I came close to giving up.
When I finally finished the book—years after that first contact—the old editor was long gone and the new editor, while gracious, was no longer interested. That God brought Baker Books along at that juncture, and moved them to see something of value in the pages that follow, is tribute to his tenacity, not mine.
As I look back, God has shown me his broader purposes in all of this deferring and delaying. It turns out that when it comes to time, as with all else, God knows just what he is doing. Ten or fifteen years ago, had I managed to finish it, I would have written a very different book, a much tidier book, the sort that comes from merely sticking one’s toes into a subject. It would not have been much worth reading.
During the intervening years, God led me farther from the relative safety of the shoreline into the deeper, choppier waters. There, for over a decade, I have been trying to negotiate the more temperamental currents of time, sometimes treading water, sometimes fighting the riptides, often sputtering. And I’ve become convinced of two things. One, Scripture has more to say about this theme than we think it does. And two, our dealings with time lie much nearer the core of Christian discipleship than we typically think.
In fact, time occupies a unique place in the mind and purposes of God. He uses it to break us and to bless us, to weary us and to bring us rest, to expose our need and his sufficiency, to thwart our ends and accomplish his—all to carry us, in the end, to him.
If it is true, as Thomas à Kempis writes, that God directs all things that direct us to him, 1 then surely time is one of his greatest agents and our frustration with time one of his greatest gifts.

Thanks are due in myriad directions.
Rebekah Guzman, my acquisitions editor at Baker, together with my wonderful team in Grand Rapids—Lauren Carlson, Heather Brewer, Mark Rice, James Korsmo: for your valuable contributions to this book and your hopeful sense of its promise.
Sue Kline, my manuscript editor: for the joy of collaborating anew and for your amazing Michelangeline ability to make more of a work by making less of it.
The elders of Covenant Church: for pressing me to see writing as part of my calling and graciously freeing a portion of my time to fulfill that call.
Andrew Patton, Jan Schirack, Radonna Fiorini, and the rest of the Covenant staff: for your support and encouragement. I love being a fellow worker in the kingdom with you.
Covenant Church, as well as my brothers and sisters in the church of Romania, with whom I have been privileged to share some of these insights: for teaching me so much of what it means to love, serve, and follow Jesus.
Tom and Beth Bridge: for sharing a sweet haven for rest, reflection, and writing.
Paul Gould: for your careful reading of several sections of this book as well as your valued friendship.
Dick and Sibyl Towner: for your insights and perspectives and for the eagerness with which you encouraged me to share these thoughts with others.
Scott Freeman and your team at the IARTCC: I’m so impressed by what you guys do!
My Covenant Group: for the ways your lives have compassed mine—in both senses of the word—for nigh on thirty years.
The Mead Men (or the Wrinklings, as I prefer to call you)—Lon Allison, Jerry Root, Rick Richardson, Walter Hansen, and our dear late brother Chris Mitchell: for freely widening your writing group to include me and for your welcome advice and gracious words.
Paul Tripp: for your timely insights all those years ago and for your example as a faithful steward of God-given ideas and insights.
Jim Martin and John VonErdmannsdorff at Von’s Booksellers in West Lafayette, Indiana: for the best new arrivals section anywhere. Your exceptional wor