Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / When I’m Too Weak to Be Productive

Transcript

When I’m Too Weak to Be Productive · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: We live in a culture obsessed with productivity and we
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: put a premium on output. The more we get done,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the more successful we feel, the happier we are with ourselves.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: And that may feel like a workable equation when you're
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: healthy and full of energy and zeal. But this productivity
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: equation is horribly deflating when your body literally will not
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: let you do much of anything. We see this tension
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: in our reading this week. We just read Hebrews 12,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: where the writer rouses us to lift your drooping hands
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: and strengthen your weak knees. That's Hebrews 12, verses 3
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: to 17. In the context of facing hostility for the faith,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: an opposition that threatens to drain believers of energy and
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: leave us faint-hearted and exhausted. That deflating feeling of having
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: no energy to initiate anything. Fight that, right? By stark contrast,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: tomorrow we read about the average day of the Proverbs
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: 31 woman. Tireless strength, effortless productivity, all of it unintentionally
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: heaping guilt on weary moms. That's the tension today on
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Ask Pastor John when you're too weak to be productive.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Sarah listens to the podcast as a 35-year-old mother of
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: two who often relies on a wheelchair when shopping or
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: out in public. She writes to say that reading Proverbs
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: 31 makes her want to cry. Quote, it describes a
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: woman who is constantly on her feet, planting vineyards and
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: working with her hands, rising before dawn with incredible physical strength.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: But due to my own disability, Sarah says, I can't
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: do the basic things other moms do every day. Sometimes
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: I'm stuck in bed and I feel like I'm failing
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: God and my family. How can I be a Proverbs
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: 31 woman when I can barely walk? Here's how Pastor
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: John answered a similar question in 2021.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: I've been thinking recently about the caution that C.S. Lewis
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: gave to the person who was judging a Christian's patience
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: or gentleness without taking into account his natural temperament that
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: he was born with, the problem had arisen from the
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: fact that there was an unbeliever who seemed a lot
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: more patient and gentle than this particular believer. So the
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: critic wondered, Well, what good is it to say that
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: God has saved this person and is in the process
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: of sanctifying them? They're no better than an unbeliever. Suppose
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: you have a scale of 1 to 10, and the
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: 1 represents a person who is totally impatient and completely
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: without any gentleness at all, a perfect hothead. And 10
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: represents a person who is perfectly patient and perfectly gentle
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: in all the ways that we should be. Then you
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: find that there's a Christian who's a five on this
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: scale between one and 10. And there's an unbeliever who,
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: as far as you can see outwardly, is a seven
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: on the scale of one to 10. And Lewis asks,
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: can you say from this that the Holy Spirit is
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: a weaker sanctifying influence in the life of the believer
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: than the natural influences are in the life of the unbeliever?
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: And his answer is no, no. You can't say that
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: because as far as you know, the unbeliever was born
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: with a temperament of seven. He's simply by nature phlegmatic
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: in his personality, while the believer may have been born
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: a one and is by nature a Vesuvius of bad
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: temper so that being a five is an incredible miracle.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: I'll tell you, when I read this years ago, I
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: was just blown away with helpfulness. I wonder why, right?
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: I wonder why I look in the mirror. Now, I
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: think that caution, that wisdom, not to judge without knowing
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: all the factors that shape a person's personality and achievements
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: applies to lots of areas of life. besides patience and gentleness.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: And the principle is very relevant when it comes to
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: this particular case of our young mom with a disability.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: And the principle is God doesn't measure the form of
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: our faithfulness by the form of somebody else's faithfulness who
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: may have started from a very different place. Faithfulness always matters.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: The form of the faithfulness differs according to hundreds of circumstances.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: So Proverbs 31 describes the form of faithfulness in the
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: life of an ancient woman that is a a woman
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: from antiquity, in the full bloom of her health and strength.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: It doesn't describe the form of faithfulness for a woman
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: who is deaf and blind in her 80s or a
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: woman who's recently married at age 16, just beginning to
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: discover what wisdom is. And it doesn't describe the form
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: of the faithfulness of a woman with disabilities that might
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: keep her from planting a vineyard or putting her hand
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: to the spindle or rising while it is still dark
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: or even clothing herself. So a woman with such a
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: disability must search the scriptures to find the form of
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: faithfulness that applies to her. And she won't have to
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: look far, because right here in chapter 31 of Proverbs,
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: there are beautiful forms of faithfulness that she can pursue. Trustworthiness,
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: verse 11. Not harming her husband's reputation with an idle tongue.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: Being financially astute, verse 16. Being generous with the poor
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: as much as her resources allow, verse 20. Laughing at
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: the time to come because her faith is unshakable in
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: the goodness and sovereignty of God, verse 25. Overflowing with
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: the teaching of kindness and wisdom, verse 26. And finally,
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: the beauty that really counts, captured in verse 30. Charm
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: is deceitful, beauty is vain, but a woman who fears
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: the Lord. is to be praised. I don't discount the
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: difficulties and challenges that test this woman's faith as she
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: is unable to do some of the things that other
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: mothers do. But I would encourage her not to begrudge
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: the thorn that God has apparently given her, at least
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: for now. He's a great healer. Who knows? But for now,
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: this thorn, like Paul's thorn in the flesh, that thorn
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: in 2 Corinthians 12 limited what Paul could do. It
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: changed the form of his faithfulness. He will not be
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: held accountable to be productive in the same ways. The
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: test now is not, would he be productive, but would
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: he be content? That's how the sufficiency of Christ will
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: be magnified. God does not put as high a premium
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: on productivity as we think he does. He puts a
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: much higher premium on the qualities of character, the fruits
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: of the Spirit, that you can exercise flat on your
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: back in a hospital bed. I don't say it's easy.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: I do say it's possible. The form of faithfulness for
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: a paraplegic, for example, is different than the form of
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: faithfulness for an Olympic athlete. One person is given ten talents,
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: another person is given five. The form of their faithfulness
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: is not measured by the same set of achievements. I
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: would encourage our dear friend to focus on a text
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: like Psalm 147.10. God's delight is not in the strength
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: a man. But the Lord takes pleasure in those who
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: Strength and beauty are wonderful gifts, but they are as nothing.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: Let me say that again.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: They are as nothing.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: Compared to the fear of the Lord and the heart
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: that hopes in God's steadfast love. So when this young
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: mother looks in the mirror or measures herself by the
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: strength of a horse or the legs of the healthy supermom,
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: remember the words of Samuel in 1 Samuel 16, 7.
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: The Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: the outward appearance. But the Lord looks on the heart.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: 1 Samuel 16, 7. There is a kind of beauty
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: and there is a kind Yes, God has a design.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: He has a design in our weakness.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: God does not put as high a premium on productivity
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: as we think he does. He puts a much higher
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: premium on the qualities of character, the fruits of the
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: spirit that you can exercise flat on your back in
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: a hospital bed. That's well said. God does not gauge
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: our faithfulness by comparing our visible achievements. Each of us
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: are different. We have different skills, different limits, different capacities,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: different callings, and our different bandwidths of what we can do.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: And it's all governed by God. Um, What is precious
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: to God is the inner man, where we trust him
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: and we seek him in whatever condition we find ourselves.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: We've looked at chronic pain from this and other angles,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: as you can see in the Ask Pastor John book
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: in that section on trial, sorrow, and chronic pain on
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: pages 365 to 394. There's a lot to see there.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: See the book for many other related themes to this one.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: And on this topic of patience in weakness, there are
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: great perils to seeking out quick fixes. Great dangers in
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: seeking out quick fixes. And we're going to see that
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: next time, the spiritual perils of a quick fix. I'm
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: Tony Reinke, Pastor John, and I will see you back
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: here on Monday.