God and My To-Do ListShembull

The gospel for productive people

Do you consider yourself a productive person? If those personality tests are true, my life is packed with productive people. My mom, mother-in-law, wife, lead pastor, and many of the Time of Grace team are high-achieving, driven, get-stuff-done Christians. If you are anything like us, your life moves fast, and there is little time for silence, stillness, and sabbath rest.

But we all need to slow down from time to time, and Jesus knows it. On the cross, our Savior didn’t cry out, “Here’s your to-do list!” or “Be productive, and you’ll see me in paradise!” Instead, knowing exactly what we needed, Jesus cried, “It is finished” (John 19:30). Ah, finished. Such a life-giving word, isn’t it? The work of saving us is done. There are no commandments that we must keep to be saved. No list of loving deeds we need to do before we die. Jesus did everything that needed to be done in our place.

That doesn’t make us lazy Christians. It does, however, offer rest to our running souls. We can slow down. We can be still. We can sit and enjoy the God who didn’t make us work for it but instead gives us everything by his grace.

I know you, and I will be going after our goals soon enough. For now, how about we both take a deep breath, fix our eyes on the cross, and enjoy the Savior who said, “It is finished!”?

Find more helpful resources like this here!