Once again I find myself shaking my head at how much time has elapsed since I wrote my last blog. Time rushes by so quickly it almost seems like something has been stealing it away from me. Oh that’s right, it has. What makes things even worse is, in most cases, I have allowed it to take time from me.
I’m growing more and more aware of how time gets stolen away from me. I started paying attention to where I spend my time and how precious moments are wasted on things that don’t add anything to life. In fact, some of the places I squander my time actually detract from the fullness of life.
Here’s a challenge for you, keep track of where you spend your time for seven full days. For example how much time you spend sleeping, getting ready, driving, working, eating, exercising, reading, watching TV, being with your family (watching TV with them doesn’t really count), etc. Take that time and put it into a pie-chart, very much like we do with our budget. This will show us where the major chunks of our time goes.
For me, if I’m not careful, watching TV and movies can become a large piece of pie than my active time with my family or God. I’m not saying you can’t watch TV or veg out with Netflix. I am saying, these things shouldn’t steal critical time away from my relationships with others and with God on a continual basis. Hanging out with friends to have a Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, or a “24″ marathon once in awhile is my idea of a good time. Hanging out with Netflix most nights while I neglect to engage your heart, mind, soul, and strength into loving God and loving others is not.
I tend to be a homebody, but there are also those who never see any down time. Always running the kids to their next activity can also steal your time away. If you find that your pie is lopsided in the “always busy with something” slice, you may need to look into that as well. Business can also steal precious things from us too. If the only time you get to interact with your family is in the car, yelling from the sidelines, or waving from the stands, there may be a problem.
Again, I’m not saying there aren’t busy seasons everyone goes through where school, sport, church, and other activities take up a lot of time. I loved that season when my kids were in it. I am saying though, if we aren’t carefully guarding our time, these activities can steal away our focus from God. I’ve seen parents make their children and their child’s activities an idol. I’ve seen people without children allow their busy schedules to become a god.
We need our activities and we need our down time. Our “where we spend our time” pie chart should reflect a healthy balance of both. Our careers should be in healthy balance with our home life. Our running hither and thither should be balanced well by our Sabbath rest.
Lastly, every aspect of our lives should be seeped in our relationship with Christ. He is the foundation of all we do whether at work, play, or rest. Do we open our lives up to Christ in every aspect? Is He present when you’re driving? Is He present when you are eating? Is He present when you are watching TV? At the soccer game? Playing with our kids? Engaging our spouse? At the Super Bowl party with our friends?
In that pie chart, however it looks, do you allow Christ to be unleashed throughout your day? How do you do this? Well, that will be another blog coming soon….