We all have seasons when we are “Overwhelmed by
work, family obligations, and the fast-paced nature of a run-ragged world.”[1] In a time poor world, time seems to be the new
currency. The external pressures can tend to squeeze the life out of us. The
following are some of the pressures that place great demand on our lives:
·
Job
pressures: deadlines, meetings, overtime, and peak periods, etc.
·
Life
pressures: church commitments, voluntary works, working bees at the school, and
social events, etc.
·
Home
pressures; cooking, cleaning, time with the children or spouse (particularly
when there is a clash of things to be done), helping kids with homework, and
repairs around the house, etc.
As Christ-followers we are encouraged to
“redeem” our time (Eph 5:16; Col 4:5). It has been said that, “Time is like
money; the less you have of it to spare the further we make it go.”[2] There is a danger of permitting the urgent to
crowd out the important. Comedian Groucho Marx humorously once said to a friend
in a letter,
“I’m sorry I did not answer your letter sooner,
but I was so busy not answering letters that I did not get around to not
answering yours in time.”[3]
We are all given 24 hours per day to do the
things that we need to do. So, we need to be good stewards, especially in our
time-pressured world. We need to figure out our priorities and stick to them,
while still enjoying life. “If you want to kill time why not work it to death?”[4] Remember that,
“Time
is a resource that is non-renewable and non-transferable. You cannot store it,
slow it up, hold it up, divide it up or give it up. You can’t hoard it up or
save it for a rainy day, when it’s lost it is unrecoverable. When you kill
time, remember that it has no resurrection.”[5]
A possible solution for freeing up and finding
more time could be found in the following:
“Those
who donated time, doing tasks for others, felt more time affluent than those
who wasted time, gained a sudden windfall of free time, or lavished extra time
on themselves, reading a book or getting a pedicure.”[6]
Andrew Murray is a well know Christian author
who has said,
“Time is a quality that accommodates itself to
our will, what we really consider of first importance, in the day we will soon
succeed in finding time for.”[7]
[1] Florida, Rana. Upgrade: Taking
Your Work and Life from Ordinary to Extraordinary. (US: McGraw-Hill, 2013), 104.
[2] Garner, Eric. The Art of
Personal Effectiveness.
(Bookboon. Com, 2012), 57.
[3] Miller, Rabbi Jason http://www.rabbijason.com/quotes.htm (22nd March
2016).
[4] Doyle, Charles Clay.
Mieder, Wolfgang, & Shapiro, Fred R. The Dictionary of Modern
Proverbs.
(Yale: University Press, 2012), 271.
[5] Smalley, Gary. &
Cunningham, Ted. Great
Parents, Lousy Lovers: Discover How to Enjoy Life with Your Spouse While
Raising Your Kids.
(Carlos Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2010), 59.
[6] “How to make time
expand.” http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2012/09/08/how-make-time-expand/26nkSfyQPEetCXXoFeZEZM/story.html?event=event12 (22nd March 2016).
[7] Murray, Andrew. The Ministry of
Intercessory Prayer.
(Bloomington, MN: Bethany House Publishers, 2003), 116.
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