Time:

-the system of those sequential relations that any event has to any other, as past, present, or future; indefinite and continuous duration regarded as that in which events succeed one another.

Indefinite and continuous duration…

There is no escaping it, there is no winning, it is what it is and its name is Time.

It is that one thing that no matter what we try to do we never have enough of. Ironically, as I’m writing this I am literally thinking of fifteen hundred other things I could be doing! Washing clothes, folding clothes, sweeping, reading, hanging out with friends, etc. etc. etc.

Whether we like it or not our lives are ruled by an intangible thing that we have no say in. There are only 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, and 365 days in a year. We can long for more or less of it, but this is what we got. I understand it’s kinda depressing if you think about it too much, because I want to be able to do anything I want, whenever I want! Ha! I have often thought how nice it would be if I didn’t have to sleep because I would get so much more done, I really hope scientists somewhere are working on that! But anyway, rant aside, Time really is an important part of our lives.

Time is life. Whatever controls our time, controls our lives.

With a little bit of research online it is very easy to realize that we as a collective human race are constantly in an uphill battle with feeling like we don’t have enough time.

“I can’t get everything done!”

“I am busy all the time!”

“I never know what to do next!”

“If only I had more time, I could get everything done I needed to!”

The problem with all those statements is, even if we had all the time we ever wanted we would still want more. We are constantly complaining about not having enough and yet over 2 hours every day is spent on social media and 4-5 hours a day on TV/movies/Netflix, which sums us up to about 6-7 hours a day staring at a screen. (insert guilty feeling here) Now I understand that is an average, so a lot of people don’t necessarily fall into that category of so much screen time, but just the same a lot of people have even more than that. We sit around complaining about our lack of it and yet we end up using most of it on things that don’t really matter or make us better. Don’t get me wrong, Friday night Netflix and ice cream is my jam, but I know I can’t do that all the time.

The bible wasn’t written yesterday, so there isn’t really a “how to” on “how to” balance the extreme differences in life we experience today as opposed to thousands of years ago. There are however, several verses talking about how fast time does go. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, Psalms 90:12, James 4:14) To understand where God is coming from, 2 Peter 3:8 says “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.” (NIV) Okay, I understand that doesn’t make a lot of sense at first, but it simply means that the Lord is unrestricted by time, and yet he created it as a tool to help us learn lessons and develop the character of God.

I was sitting in church a couple weeks ago when my pastor started talking about this very subject, which is probably why my heart was so stirred. Simply put, he said “people complain all the time about always having something to do and always feeling so busy, they don’t have enough time to talk, to sit, or to even eat! They grab a gogurt out of the fridge and start their day already behind! I wondered to myself, how on earth did we get to a point when we don’t even have enough time to sit and eat yogurt with a spoon, but instead we have to eat it out of a to go pouch! What is wrong with us?” While the congregation did laugh, it hit a chord with most, because this is our life. We have become so obsessed with going going going that we forget to simply be. We always have to work, or take kids to events, or we are constantly overextending ourselves that we somehow get worn out and exhausted before the day begins! Our alarm goes off and we pick up our phones and check our email, or Facebook, Instagram, texts, so on and so on!

I am the first to say I do it. I am constantly going and overbooking and somehow forget to sit and give some of my time back to the Lord. When I get home from work at 8:30, trust me, I would rather sit on the couch and watch mindless TV for an hour than read my bible! But that’s the point. God created this wonderful thing to show us and teach us what is important. We have to learn to prioritize. Maybe instead of saying yes to going out this Friday we stay home with our family, or we actually take a little time each day to spend with the Lord, or with ourselves! Instead of always being on the go we need learn to take a step back and ask ourselves what is really important and start with that. We shouldn’t have to do it all! We aren’t made to be like that! We are made to enjoy the little moments.

So today, I challenge you to figure out how you can slow down and make more time for the Lord your creator and learn to say ‘no’ and just be! Whatever form that may take, a walk, a bath, sitting in the closet praying, eating dinner with your family, reading a book…however you can take a step back and prioritize your time instead of time prioritizing you. It is not an easy ask I understand, we have demands that reach far beyond us, but if we can take baby steps to making sure we set aside time for the right things, our crazy lives might just seem a little less crazy.

Gogurt Generation