Aug 25, 2026 · 14 min · 5 segments
When free time finally opens up, where does your heart go by default? In this episode, Ryan Swanson opens Philippians 2 and challenges us to exchange self-serving patterns for the humble, intentional…
Ryan SwansonHost
So let's go here to Philippians chapter number two, and let's just read a couple verses starting in verse three.
It says, "'Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves.'" Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
How much time do you spend intentionally serving someone else? I'm sure we have opportunities that come here and there where we are willing to put something down and help get the door for somebody, or maybe we get a call and someone needs help moving, and so we go over and help them with that because they asked.
But what is your default? When you have free time available, do you default to serving others or to serving yourself? I think the first time I thought this through specifically for myself, I was in college, or actually summer break, and I had a pretty stressful and intense day job that was out in the sun and required some physical effort.
And during that time, you know, getting off a day of work like that, the first thing that I would default to do when I finally come home and crash, for whatever reason, I was kind of in a kick at that time in which I really was spending some time learning and enjoying the guitar.
And my default, I found... is that I would come home, crash, drop my things, go down into my room, grab the guitar, sit on the couch, and start
strumming through some chords.
Now eventually the Holy Spirit pointed out a concern with that, but it wasn't in any certain chord that I played.
The issue was, what was my default? When I came home after being stressed in a long day, my default was to spend 20 minutes just focused on me.
And a good question I found to ask myself, and you can ask yourself, is, what things do I do just because I want to? That's really the only reason why I'm doing this right now.
Maybe projects that my parents could use help on, or things I could help my siblings with, or maybe I didn't spend very much time with the Lord that morning rushing off to work, and I know that I need to spend that time with Him.
But what is my default? It's to do something that brings me joy, because I feel like I deserve it at the end of a hard day.
Young person, when your default is to serve yourself, it's a very dangerous place to be because you know that that attitude is not going to end with that moment you finally get done playing the guitar.
When you're doing things just because you want to, you are training your body that it can have what it wants when it wants it.
When it feels like scrolling through social media, pulling up your favorite YouTube channel and binge-watching, what is your default? You go to that just because you're tired, you're bored, you need something to relax, and so you take a moment, however long, to serve yourself, and notice those moments end up sometimes being quite extensive.
So let's go here to Philippians chapter number two, and let's just read a couple verses starting in verse three.
It says, "'Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves.'" Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
How much time do you spend intentionally serving someone else? I'm sure we have opportunities that come here and there where we are willing to put something down and help get the door for somebody, or maybe we get a call and someone needs help moving, and so we go over and help them with that because they asked.
But what is your default? When you have free time available, do you default to serving others or to serving yourself? I think the first time I thought this through specifically for myself, I was in college, or actually summer break, and I had a pretty stressful and intense day job that was out in the sun and required some physical effort.
And during that time, you know, getting off a day of work like that, the first thing that I would default to do when I finally come home and crash, for whatever reason, I was kind of in a kick at that time in which I really was spending some time learning and enjoying the guitar.
And my default, I found... is that I would come home, crash, drop my things, go down into my room, grab the guitar, sit on the couch, and start
strumming through some chords.
Now eventually the Holy Spirit pointed out a concern with that, but it wasn't in any certain chord that I played.
The issue was, what was my default? When I came home after being stressed in a long day, my default was to spend 20 minutes just focused on me.
And a good question I found to ask myself, and you can ask yourself, is, what things do I do just because I want to? That's really the only reason why I'm doing this right now.
Maybe projects that my parents could use help on, or things I could help my siblings with, or maybe I didn't spend very much time with the Lord that morning rushing off to work, and I know that I need to spend that time with Him.
But what is my default? It's to do something that brings me joy, because I feel like I deserve it at the end of a hard day.
Young person, when your default is to serve yourself, it's a very dangerous place to be because you know that that attitude is not going to end with that moment you finally get done playing the guitar.
When you're doing things just because you want to, you are training your body that it can have what it wants when it wants it.
When it feels like scrolling through social media, pulling up your favorite YouTube channel and binge-watching, what is your default? You go to that just because you're tired, you're bored, you need something to relax, and so you take a moment, however long, to serve yourself, and notice those moments end up sometimes being quite extensive.
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