Skip to main content

Who Does Have the Time?


‘I don’t have the time.’ I hear those words…a lot. It’s almost become part of the standard greeting. It comes just after hello and often instead of how are you. It is as if we want to preempt any favor the other person may want to ask. Or perhaps we just want the other person to know, right up-front, that we are very busy. 

Why? Because busyness is next to godliness, or so they say. Isn’t our importance found in how busy we are? The best doctors are tough to schedule an appointment with because they are so busy, right? So that should apply across the board in every area of life. Right?

I’m not so sure.

Weren’t our new gadgets supposed to be saving us time? How do they take more time from our lives? More capability means more time to get more things done on our ever-growing to-do lists. If only it worked that way. It doesn’t.

Where does this leave Jesus? It can be really easy to let a week or two pass by, maybe even longer, and all of a sudden realize that you haven’t given much time or thought to God. We can give lip service all we want to where our priorities are, but one look back at our actual calendar reveals the truth.

I have also heard it said that if you want something done, you find a busy person to give it to because they clearly know how to schedule their time. That brings us back to feeling significant and capable when our plates are full.

I would put forth that significance happens when you have free time. Free time leaves us available for God, available for friends and family and available for new experiences that come along. If you can spare the time, consider what new adventures may come along, if only you have the time to see it.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Accountable

I recently officiated a wedding. The ceremony was simple, lovely, and ended with another couple professing to keep the covenant of marriage. But it all started with a clarification...from me. At our first premarital counseling session, as I have done with every couple I have agreed to marry, I clarified a couple of matters. First, I officiate Christian weddings, where both spouses-to-be are professing Christians. I firmly believe that marriage is difficult enough, without adding disagreements about God into the mix. Second, as a minister of Jesus Christ, I believe the pastor’s role in a wedding is to represent the blessing of God on that union. So we have several sessions of premarital counseling where we discuss married life. It’s not that I have this imaginary card in my head, with a picture of me on the front and my stats on the back. (You know, like a baseball card.) Ok, I do picture cards. Pastor cards! And being a competitive guy, I want my stats to look good. The number of coupl

Patience

I am more than halfway through the last year of dropping one of my children off at school. It's my eighth grade daughter, for anyone keeping track of my family.  See, next year she will be at the high school, and her brother will drive her. He says that it's not cool for seniors to drive their freshman sister to school, but I bet it's cooler than being dropped off by your mom in a minivan.  So rather than groan about this daily responsibility, I've been reminiscing about what the drop-off line used to look like, way back in elementary school. Once our children were about halfway through their elementary years, the drop-off line became a test of patience.  Do you know which group you do not want to get caught behind in the parent drop-off line at an elementary school? The kindergartners. These little ones are barely able to walk, but now we put them in the high-pressure situation of trying to unbuckle their seat-belt, grab their backpack (which might be as tall as they a

Jury Duty

I was recently summoned to jury duty. I know, groan. Except I didn't. I had never experienced it before and was curious to see what it was like.   When the day to report arrives, they separate you into groups, asking various questions to decide if you will be selected to serve. Do you know the accused? Do you have conflicts that would keep you from serving? Can you stay focused?  I wanted to answer well, if only because my kids kept wishing me luck the day before, telling me they hoped I made the team. After all, who wants to be rejected? It occurred to me that there are things you probably shouldn’t say right away if you’re wanting to serve on a jury. I know, I know, people don’t typically want to serve on a jury. But that list didn’t seem nearly as humorous to me. Here are the things you probably shouldn’t say if you want to be selected for jury. I hold myself in contempt. You can’t handle the truth. We find the defendant guilty. I believe the judge looks pretty in his robe. I’d