Levi Lusko: Finding Time for God in an Increasingly Busy World
This week I was fortunate to spend some time with Levi Lusko, a prominent and well-known Christian leader in the States. Levi, the lead pastor at Fresh Life Church – a multisite church located in Montana, Utah, Oregon, and Wyoming – is a well-traveled and highly requested speaker, and is also the author of bestselling books Through the Eyes of a Lion, I Declare War, and Swipe Right. We talked about how to make time for God in this crazy busy world and I’m sure you will gain knowledge from his insight. Enjoy!
Levi Lusko, lead pastor, speaker and author
SFW: You lead a large, multi-site church, are a highly requested speaker, author of several bestselling books, husband to one and father to four. I can imagine you have a pretty packed schedule. How do you find time for God in an increasingly busy world?
LL: Well, first of all, you will never find time — you have to make it. The same 24 hours roll around every day. When the clock strikes midnight, you know you’ve got 24 hours and you get to spend it how you want. The idea that “I just don’t have time” is such a misnomer because everyone has the exact same amount of time each day, but we all steward it differently.
For me, everything starts with proper sleep. I think of my day more on the Jewish calendar, and they start the day at sunset. So in that sense the first thing I do is rest. Then I wake up rested and I’m ready to attack the day. And I attack first, and most importantly, by growing in my relationship with Jesus. The tranquility that comes from quiet moments before the sun rises — cup of coffee, journal, Bible, and a walk outside — that’s how I start every day. I just really believe you can’t have a quiet soul without quiet time.
And then whatever the day brings, I’m going forward out of the strength of the sleep and the strength of my time with Jesus.
SFW: So would you say routine/structure is an important thing for you? Or do you thrive more off of spontaneity?
LL: I would say a mixture of the two. I fight hard to keep the first things first, and that’s not spontaneous, and by doing that it allows me to be free in other ways. I’m big on giving myself the creative space to let my mind wander and be free and curious about things.
SFW: You're a gifted communicator, both as a speaker and as a writer. I imagine there's been a few books along the way that have impacted you quite a bit.
LL: Oh definitely. I read pretty widely and pretty weirdly. I mean one of my favorite books I’ve read in a long time was a 600-page book about the history of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge which is so random and arbitrary. It never found its way into any sermon, I didn’t have a big reason to read it, but I absolutely loved it and I think about it all the time.
Then, you know, some of the normal world-class leadership books like Maxwell’s The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Covey, How to Win Friends & Influence People by Carnegie. Those to me are like iconic, incredible books.
Mere Christianity by Lewis, moving on to a more apologetics vain. I love Tozier; The Pursuit of God and Rut, Rot, or Revival shaped me in Bible college in my formative, theological days. I read a lot of old sermons by Charles Spurgeon. I loved how he would find little funny quirks in a text and just really use his imagination as he read the Bible. I really love that.
I listen to fiction a lot. I was driving yesterday and I finished an Audible book about crime stories. You know how they tell athletes “you gotta eat big to get big” and I feel like if you want to write you have to read a lot to be writing well. Certain sentences just grab you and I love the rhythmic quality of that. I love the verbal picture. I love how a concise paragraph can just take you into a moment.
SFW: I love this quote from author Elizabeth Gilbert on time management: “If you’ve reached a certain age then you know what works for you. You should know by this point in your life what time of day you’re ‘good’ — like what time of day is your brain at its best. Because the reality is we all get, maybe, two good hours a day where we actually feel awake and alert. And the big, important question is: Who currently gets that time from you. The best time from your brain every day—who or what currently gets that?” So I’m curious what time of day are you at your best? Who or what gets to be the beneficiary of that? Is that usually your 'get stuff done' period or your 'spend time with God' period or something else?
LL: You know, it’s morphed over the years. I’ve been very consistently a morning person; my general wake-up time is 5:30am. But it also does change. Like I have to deliver a message every single week, which is kind of the bread and butter of what I do. Obviously there’s the leadership side and big, strategic planning side as well, but that message is, at the end of the day, probably my most important contribution to the organization other than the leadership pipeline.
And so I usually would say when I’m at my brightest I’m allocating and dedicating that period of the day to message preparation. Which I would say is, normally, in that 9:00-11:00am window.
SFW: Kevin DeYoung, when breaking down Mark 1:35-39, discusses how fascinating it is that Jesus never uttered a thoughtless word, never spent a wasted day, and never strayed from his Father’s plan. In his book Crazy Busy, DeYoung says "I have often marvelled to think that Jesus was so terrifically busy, but only with the things he was supposed to be doing." Would you say that you are busy "only with the things you are supposed to be doing?" Or does your busyness sometimes prevent you from getting done what really needs to get done?
LL: So, one year ago today, ironically, and I only know this because I journal, I was preaching in a sermon series at our church called Morning Noon and Night and the whole purpose of the series was to develop rhythms for health in your soul. And it was one of my favorite message series I preached last year because I needed it for myself.
And I think, culturally, there is this chronic burnout sensation. Everyone’s favorite question is “How have you been? Been busy?” Like it’s an assumption. And it’s not just that everyone’s busy, but that everyone assumes everyone else is busy so much so that it becomes part of the question.
One of the things I told our church is that I think we should reject that; busy is a choice. And the reality is, we can only do one thing at one time. So ‘busy’ is an illusion. Am I busy right now? No, I’m having a conversation with Spencer. I’m not busy. Earlier today I was walking with my son to throw rocks in a pond and I wasn’t busy then because I was only doing one thing at one time.
And I think we feel busy because oftentimes we are in one moment but pulled into ten others because of our phones. And so maybe we leave our phones behind or maybe we just choose to be present. Obviously there’s different worldviews that talk about ‘mindfulness’ or this, that, or the other but I think it’s biblical through and through to be where you are and to focus on what’s in front of you.
I’m as guilty as anybody of becoming overloaded and stressed but I know what it triggers in me when I get that way and I don’t like it. So I try to choose to be present and obedient to what God has placed in front of me.
SFW: I want to talk about priorities. Growing up I always heard the phrase "actions speak louder than words" and, although I think it's true, oftentimes we say we're going to do something or we say we're going to change our behavior but we don't. One of the things I'm learning is that my actions should reflect my priorities. If someone could only see your actions and not hear your words, what would they say are your priorities?
LL: Well, I think if they were looking at my screen time they would think I worship this Apple device. No but I think, like I mentioned earlier, your time doesn’t lie. Your calendar doesn’t lie. Your money doesn’t lie, right. So if someone were to look at my time they would see that yes, there’s things that get frittered away on Netflix and whatnot, but then there’s also a deep awareness of my need for Jesus. So I’m going to spend time with Him and do it daily and give Him the primetime.
And then I think my actions hopefully would show that I love my children individually and spend time with them uniquely. Obviously you’re going to see a commitment to the local church, whether I’m on vacation or not, we want to worship and gather with God’s people because we need it. Not because I’m a pastor, but because I’m a human. I need Jesus and I need His people.
Yeah so I mean I think hopefully you’re going to see that I care about people. What I want to do is always recognize the worth and value of whoever is in front of me and do whatever I can to encourage people on their journey.
SFW: I imagine everyone reading this would say they are quite a busy person. What's one final piece of advice you would give to someone who loves God, wants to make time for God, wants God to be a priority, but just doesn't quite know how?
LL: It’s like tithing. The Bible promises that there’s a blessing on what you have left when you give that tithe, that ten percent. How I’ve always heard it put, is you can do more with 90% of your money and God’s blessing than you could with 100% of your money but not have that blessing on your finances.
And I think it’s the same way with time. So if you were to say “man I’m so busy I don’t have time to pray” or “man I’m so busy I don’t have time to read my Bible” then I would say, you know, imagine how much better you would be with 23.5 hours of your time with that 30 minute period to get your mind right and to get your heart right and let God encourage you.
On the days when I’m too busy to pray, are the days when I need to pray. Because that’s when I need Him more than ever.