Always On Never Present | Cornerstone Church | Pastor Linn Winters · Rewind

Always On Never Present | Cornerstone Church | Pastor Linn Winters · Rewind

Linn Winters · Jul 1, 2025

Big Idea

When we live in perpetual busyness we let good things crowd out the best thing, so we must clear a top shelf in our lives for whatever pleases God and let nothing else touch it.

Busyness itself isn't sin, but a life with no margin makes us susceptible to sin and disappointment. Jesus shows Martha and Mary, and His own example of withdrawing to pray, that we must identify the few non-negotiable things that please God, put them on the top shelf of our lives, and refuse to let even good things knock them off.

Key points

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1Busyness isn't inherently sinful, but a life with no margin makes us highly susceptible to sin and a disappointing life.
Pastor Linn opens the topic by clarifying that seasons of busyness aren't automatically wrong, but warns that perpetual busyness with no room to breathe sets people up to fall into sin and miss out on the life God intends.
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2There are two kinds of busyness: busyness forced on us, and busyness we allow.
He describes a single mom whose busyness is forced by circumstance, and shares that a church once relieved his own single mother's burden by fixing cars, cleaning house, and taking the kids for a night, tying it to the call to bear one another's burdens. He contrasts this with the busyness we choose by saying yes to things that get added to our schedule.
3
3A thousand competing voices tell us what a good parent, spouse, or employee must do, and trying to satisfy them all makes busyness a trap.
Using a rapid list of cultural expectations, sports, home-cooked meals, exercise, housework, career, screen time, church, Pastor Linn shows that trying to fit it all in leaves people perpetually guilty, and any bit of margin just gets filled with something new.
4
4In the story of Martha and Mary, Martha's busyness with a genuinely good thing, hospitality, caused her to miss out on the best thing, sitting at Jesus' feet.
He walks through Luke 10:38-42, explaining the cultural weight of hospitality in that era to show Martha wasn't doing anything wrong, just distracted from what was better. Jesus tells her only one thing is needed, and Mary chose it.
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5The one non-negotiable priority Jesus points to is whatever pleases God, and that should shape what we call faithful church attendance, bible study, serving, and daily devotion.
Pastor Linn applies Martha and Mary's story practically, naming church attendance, small groups or bible study, serving with one's gifts, and daily devotions as things Jesus would put on the 'one list.' He shares that he and his wife Lisa do devotions and pray together daily, and cites a statistic that couples who pray together divorce at a rate of one in a thousand.
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6The average American spends around seven hours a day on TV and phones, showing that the real obstacle isn't lack of time but misplaced priority.
He points out that reclaiming even one hour from that seven would provide enough time for church, bible study, serving, and devotions with time to spare, proving that what we allow is a decision, not an inevitability.
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7Busyness carries real costs: it diminishes patience, presence, perspective, and priorities.
He confesses that when he's overwhelmed he loses patience with people asking for help, loses presence with Lisa even while sitting next to her, and shares a story of losing perspective after a rough meeting, letting a small, pointed question spiral into fear and anger at a colleague and even at God.
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8When life gets too full, we instinctively pull from the things that feel least urgent, like marriage or church, and those small compromises quietly become permanent.
Pastor Linn shares that as a young youth pastor in California, he chose to keep pursuing his master's degree at Talbot Seminary even after losing his ministry help, and paid for it by robbing time from his marriage and his son Josh. He and Lisa still call those two years the driest season of their marriage, and he cannot recall a single great memory with his son from that time.
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9Jesus modeled the remedy by saying no to good ministry opportunities in order to withdraw and pray.
He reads Luke 5:15-16, where crowds gather to hear Jesus and be healed, yet Jesus withdraws to lonely places to pray. Pastor Linn frames this as Jesus refusing to let good invade best, recharging so He could actually do ministry.
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10People at the end of life never wish they had worked, cleaned, or hunted more; they wish they had chased God, their kids, and their marriage more.
Drawing on his experience standing at deathbeds of many in the church, Pastor Linn says the regrets he hears are never about busyness accomplishments, always about neglected relationships with God and family, reinforcing what belongs permanently on the top shelf.
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11Sabbath, a day to chase God and truly rest, is a command, not a suggestion, and most of us don't actually have one.
He ties this to the Ten Commandments, noting God set aside one day among the ten most important instructions for humanity. He clarifies that Sabbath rest isn't watching cat videos, and uses the airplane oxygen-mask illustration: put the mask on yourself first, because if you aren't good, you're no good to anyone else.

Application

Pastor Linn frames the charge as deciding what goes on your top shelf and refusing to let anything, however good, knock it off.

Identify what belongs on your top shelf
Take time this week to name the non-negotiable things that please God in your life, faithful church attendance, bible study, serving, daily devotions, and your marriage and kids.
Reclaim time from wasted hours
Look honestly at hours spent on TV or phone scrolling and give at least one hour back toward church, bible study, serving, or devotions.
Build an actual Sabbath
Set aside a real day or block of time, not necessarily Sunday, devoted only to chasing God and genuine rest, not more screens.
Say no to good things that threaten the best
Like Jesus withdrawing from crowds and healing to pray, practice turning down good opportunities when they would crowd out time with God or family.
Examine your heart before communion
Before taking communion, ask God whether you've substituted good for best or grown so busy you're missing Him, and let Him show you what needs to change.

Take it into your week

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Day 1

Pastor Linn began with a scene many of us know from the inside. Martha opened her home to Jesus and got busy doing something genuinely good — hospitality carried real weight in her culture, and she was pouring herself into it. That is what makes her story so unsettling. She wasn't sinning. She was distracted from the best thing by a good thing, working herself into a frenzy while her sister Mary simply sat at Jesus' feet and listened. "There is only one thing worth being concerned about," Jesus tells her. "Mary has discovered it" (NLT). This week isn't about proving how much you can accomplish. It starts here, with an honest look at where your attention actually goes. Good things — a clean house, a full calendar, a reputation for getting it done — have a way of crowding out the one thing that matters most. Notice that Jesus didn't scold Martha for caring. He gently named what she was missing. That same gentleness is offered to you today. You don't have to earn your way back to His feet. You only have to notice the pull away from them, and choose, like Mary, to sit down and listen.

For reflection

Where in my life am I busy with something good that has quietly pulled me away from simply being with Jesus?

Pray

Ask God to show you honestly where your attention has been landing lately.

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Topics

Prayer Priorities Rest Sabbath

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