Weather Report From Heaven: Sunny and bright, with an abundance of light and lots of singing and rejoicing.
Bible Verse of the Day: 2nd Peter 3:8 ” But do not forget this one thing, dear friends; With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and thousand years are like a day.”
Gandhi once said ” there is more to life than increasing its speed.” The Bible often talks about time from an eternal standpoint and focuses us on our need to understand time from God’s perspective. Psalm 46:10 tells us to ” be still and know that I am God.” God wants us to slow down and not hurry our way through life. To literally stop and take time to smell the roses. God is not constrained by the same time and space restrictions that limit our abilities here on earth. Sometimes I feel like the velocity of time is increasing and the corresponding pressure to fit everything into a day that needs to be accomplished seems overwhelming. But we still have the same 24 hours in a day that we have always had, so what’s changed?
We live in a fast paced, information driven age where our brains are always required to be “on” and where there is little time for relaxation and reflection. The world has taught us that if we want to get ahead in life, that we must work harder, longer and smarter than our competitors. Got to keep up with the Joneses. For the most part this is true. But at what cost? I know people that are extremely talented and hard working and they have gained much material success from their efforts, but the other areas of their lives have suffered greatly. Divorce, illness and substance abuse are some of the side effects of placing all of their efforts, or time, into being successful in the world’s eyes. They’ve spent so much time on one area of their lives, that they’ve had no time for the other areas, such as family, health, balance and enjoyment. Psalm 127:1-2 points to our need to depend more on God, and less on ourselves in order to find the proper alignment in our lives that leads to maximum balance and productivity: “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat— for he grants sleep to those he loves.”
How we prioritize our time I believe is very important to God. We all have the same 24 hours in a day, so we can quickly learn what a person prioritizes in their life by how they spend their time. I have seen that when I put God 1st in my life, my family second and everything else after that, there is a hierarchy to my life that flows very well. It is a Biblical alignment that seems to actually honor God and His intentions for how we should live. It seems like I am more patient and less rushed in my day when I start off the day alone in prayer with God and end it with reflection and thanks for all He did for me that day. I wish I did this everyday, but I don’t. It is a goal of mine, and I will keep pursuing it, until I crowd everything else out in order to make more room and time for God instead of visa-verse.
Time is the one thing that we can never get back, and the one thing that we never seem to have enough of. In this internet age, where information about anything is available almost at will, I struggle with being distracted by things that ultimately will prove to be of little worth. Ultimately, these distractions lead me to feeling more hurried and less peaceful as they crowd out more important tasks. It sometimes feels like an endless loop of time vs. fatigue. This year I have been blessed to have some time to really focus on the Lord and on my family, and it has been incredibly fulfilling and rewarding. There have been many moments where I have really tried to just enjoy the time alone with my family. It was investing time, not spending time, and a wide chasm exists between those two spectrums I found. I have seen how this time spent with them translates directly into a deeper love for them and also how they respond to the time spent in a like manner. Love is time spent. When you love something or someone, you prioritize it. I think the Bible verse of the Day above from 2nd Peter 3:8 lets us know that God’s view of time is a more patient view of time, less hurried. He wants us to know that He loves us and He prioritizes his relationship with us. He is willing to wait for us. As I live out my life, I want to try and have that mindset with the relationships that are most significant in my life. I want my God, my wife and kids, and clients and friends to know that I value my relationships with them. In order for them to feel this, I need to slow down. I need to be more patient. I think the whole world does.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, help us find a balance in our life between time and priorities. We need to gain a proper Biblical Alignment in order for our time pressure to dissipate, and time spent with You and in your word helps us to correctly calibrate our vision of how to best invest our time. Amen!
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