the precious gift of time

My church, Planetshakers, launched our new worship album this past week, This Is Our Time. I've had the privilege of being involved through our awesome church choir: recording crowd vocals for the album and being part of the crowd for the acoustic session videos. Anyway, the title of the album's got me thinking about one of the most finite and elusive part of our lives that seems to get a pretty bad rap these days, and that is time. 

I don't want to ruffle any feathers with this blog post but I do get a bee in my bonnet when I hear the term "time poor" thrown around as freely as confetti at a wedding. 

The word poor means to have a very small amount of something. As far as I am aware the time we all have in a day is 24 hours. Shouldn't this make time a great equaliser amongst people? I don't think time actually warrants the word poor when all around the world people are living in poverty struggling to meet basic needs like feeding their family, staying warm in winter and accessing clean water to drink. The team at the Melbourne-based company Thankyou (along with many other organisations) do an outstanding job shedding light on such issues and providing hope and resources for those who need a helping hand out of poverty. 

Time poor? I don't think so.

But maybe, we feel the limitations of there being only 24 hours in every day. We make ourselves so busy (and hey, I've been there, done that!) that all the joy is sucked out of life. For me, I am a prime candidate for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. For most of my life I have gravitated towards the Type A personality end of the spectrum. That is, until I became chronically ill. Type A's are very driven, don't like to waste time and struggle to stop for respite. Now I am moving along the spectrum towards the Type B end. My oh my, the relief that comes with letting go, slowing down, and releasing the (often self-imposed) pressure valve!

That's not to say there won't be busier seasons in life (of course there will be) or that we won't feel like our time, through the circumstances of life, has been lost or stolen. Sometimes things happen that are beyond our control and all we can do is ride the wave until we make it to the shore. But for all of us, our days are numbered. We don't know when our time on earth will end. The best time is the time we have now, the present - this is our time.

So let's start to ask ourselves, What do I want to make space for? Decide what's important to you at this stage of your life. Do my priorities need to be reordered? Try to let your values, not your to-do list, influence how you spend your time. Can I let some things go? Maybe your life is cluttered and all you need to do is to practice saying no for awhile. All these questions are asked to bring more wholeness to you, to your loved ones, and to all those within your sphere of influence.

I'll leave you with one last thought. I've discussed time as it pertains to our earthly existence, our ability to create order in our lives through the passage of time. But there is an Author of Time and above all else I trust that He, God Almighty, is able to redeem our time and walk with us through all the seasons of our lives, every day in every moment. 

 2 Peter 3:8, NIV; But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 

What a precious gift to us time is. 

Quote for the Road…