Many, many, many people have written about the importance of having a time each week when you review your commitments, calendar, and next actions toward goals. Right now I have fallen out of the practice in a terrible way, and I'm seeing the consequences...I'm forgetting things, missing needed actions, slipping on my commitments to people, and frittering away time unproductively. Why does this happen? If I know that setting aside a couple of hours each week will make me more Kingdom effective ,and save time in the long run, why is it so hard to do it consistently?
With regard to sin, the apostle Paul, in his letter to the Romans, said this: "For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate." His idea is that his heart does not follow what his head knows to be good, true, and right. The prophet Jeremiah said it this way, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick. Who can understand it?" (Jer 17:9) A colleague told me this week that there is a Korean saying that there is no greater distance than that which is between the head and the heart.
Paul and Jeremiah are most directly talking about the way that pride works to undermine our judgment and lead us to sin. Not having a weekly review is not "sin" in and of itself, but it is a neglect of a discipline that can lead (and does in my life) to poor stewardship of time, lack of diligence, lack of fruit and good works, failure to honor commitments (integrity), and poor leadership in my family.
When I look at this list of outcomes, I wonder what role Satan plays in stealing my weekly review. The devil is prowls, seeking someone to devour (1 Pet 5:8) and he wants to render me ineffective--wants me to forget that phone call to a brother in need who I promised to call. I do not pray against Satan nearly enough--and hardly ever about things like weekly reviews! But I need to take a stand in prayer for my disciplines.
Father, restore me to diligence in my disciplines. Show me how to find time for weekly review. Defeat Satan who wishes to render me fruitless, flailing, and purposeless. Give me every tool to stay focused on you and the good works you've prepared in advance for me to walk in. Amen.
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