Take a moment and consider: time is part of creation.
Did you ever realize that? God’s eternality means that before He said “let there be light” there was no evening and morning, no milliseconds or quarter-hours, no decades or millennia. Time and everything it entails was created out of his goodness and, like all creation, is under man’s dominion to steward.
But doesn’t it feel like time rules us more often than not? Particularly at this time of year when we look around and wonder why it seems like January was simultaneously yesterday and five years ago. The two things we know for sure about time are (1) that it flies and (2) that we don’t know where it goes when it’s gone. We just swim along, like fish in the sea, unable to describe the current that pulls us along. In the busyness of life, it’s easy to forget that time, too, is a gift we’ve been given for a purpose.
Recently, I was given the assignment to observe the time I’ve been given. At first, I was just to observe: to keep track of every hour in some detail, paying attention to what the time was spent doing. I couldn’t just write “work” or “relaxing;” it needed to be “meeting with Igor” or “crossword puzzle.” Then, I sat with my time log and observed the shape of the week to see how I spent my time. Contrary to cliché, I didn’t have many minutes or hours that could have been used more productively. Fortunately, that wasn’t the goal of the assignment.
Instead, I brought my time log into prayer and asked the Lord to show me how he would have me order my days to more intentionally live them with Him. When I started the assignment, I expected that I would suddenly see how I could create space in my week to spend an hour every day in prayer, with an extra evening to take on a new small group to boot. That did not happen. Turns out, in order to fulfill the various callings the Lord has given me, I need to utilize my time pretty much the way I do now. It’s not that God wants me to devote more time to Him; it’s that He wants me to devote all my time to Him and His work in my life.
What does this look like? In my life, it means that I’ve set up touchstones throughout the day and week to intentionally ask the Spirit to open my eyes to the work He’s doing in me and through me. In your life, it might be something different. God knows our lives and He meets us where we are. He gives us our work, our families, and our friends as part of our sanctification and the redemption of the world; He demands we regularly rest and reflect on His goodness. We don’t necessarily have to change what we do. We just have to change the way we think about it.
Lest you think I’ve got this down now, I assure you I do not. It’s hard to rewire habits and harder to rewire brain patterns. I have been disgruntled many, many times since starting my new practices. Even so, being intentionally aware of my time and constantly giving it over to God for his purposes has made a big difference in my life. That’s why I want to encourage you, as you wrap up the year and look ahead to the next one, to reflect on time—not in the abstract, but your time, the time God has given you as an opportunity to draw you closer to His heart.
