Time moves quickly. We’ll wake up tomorrow and be near the end of our mortal years. Will we feel good about how we spent the time God had given us? At one level, everyone should answer “no”. We are sinners being sanctified. We are fools growing in wisdom. Looking back at ourselves over the years, we will be able – if we’re honest – to identify much waste. Yet we can still sleep at night, because we know that His grace is at work in us, and He’s been preparing us for a role that we’ll joyfully get after for all eternity.
But obedience to Christ means that we don’t merely relax and say, “eh, God’s got this under control.” No, instead we’re told, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16). What does it mean to walk wisely, making the best use of the time? Back in a May sermon, I referenced the 2021 book by Brett McCracken, The Wisdom Pyramid: Feeding Your Soul in a Post-Truth World. The above graphic represents the main arguments of that book.
Just as the old nutrition pyramid used to inform us regarding how much of each food group might contribute to a healthy diet, so also we can use a pyramid to represent what should be feeding our souls. At the base, representing the highest quantity of input and influence, is the Bible. Is that the case for you? In addition to Sunday sermons, are you taking in some Bible every day? Are you not only reading but also meditating on the Bible, seeking out answers for what you don’t understand, talking to God in prayer about the Bible, memorizing some Bible, talking about it with friends? Don’t feel like you have the time? What are you listening to on those commutes to work? Or looking at during lunch break? When we realize that the Bible is what our souls need every day, and we get a taste for how good it feels over the long-haul, then we will make the most time for the voice of the Bible in our lives, every day. Like John Wesley, we will want to be “a man [or woman] of one Book.” We’ll long to be like John Bunyan, of whom it was said, “if you prick him, he would bleed the Bible.”
After the Bible, our next largest influence should be the Church – traditions and rhythms grounded both in our local congregation and in church history. Christians are not loners; we’re meant to truly belong in a family and spend quality time with that family. As Calvin said, “you cannot have God as your Father without the Church as your mother.” Separated from the Church, our Christianity will come unmoored, and inevitably center around ourselves and not the glory of God. Though we may fully digest our Bibles, it will remain mere ideas until we begin interpreting and applying in the midst of the Spirit-filled community. Do you take your need for the Church this seriously?
Next is Nature & Beauty. This is a realm of Common Grace, where we’re reminded of the qualities of our Creator and the goodness of His Creation and the reality of the cosmic conflict simply by being keen observers of what’s all around us: wilderness, country drives, community parks, music, museums, dance, meaningful movies or plays. Even certain types of sport or physical challenges can touch on this slice of the pyramid. Time here should fill you with thankfulness and awe. It should work your mind and fill your senses. These emphases used to be taken for granted in society, hence groups like the Scouts or Garden Clubs or Art Classes. It used to be known that one of the best things you could do for kids was just to send them outside to explore, run, jump, watch the weather, pick flowers, make up games, and discover what’s under rocks and behind trees. How beautiful would it be if Christians led the way back to that sort of society?
Good books have been among the most prized of possessions for millennia. The operative word, however, is good. Ecclesiastes 12:12, in emphasizing the priority of God’s word, says, “Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.” If you’re always reading non-fiction books of the latest ideas, or digesting fiction stories that are the latest best-sellers, there is a sense in which this is a weariness. It is waste. It is a futility. You will never be informed enough, you will never be entertained enough. If you want to be sure that books are actually worth your time, start with the old ones. Trendy bestsellers are simply not where it’s at. Your time on this earth is too short. But do read; this will actually make you a better student of the Bible! Make the time to learn and grow from the ideas, observations, and literary art of others. But be selective in what you read, to make the best use of the time.
At the top of the pyramid are Internet, and then Social Media. Our souls can gain the least from these categories, and yet many of us invert our pyramids and are gorging ourselves on internet and media voices. Even secular researchers are starting to sound the alarm that these tendencies reap all sorts of social and psychological ills. It’s been said that just as America toward the end of the 20th century had a waking-up moment regarding cigarettes, so also our generation must have a wake-up moment regarding internet and social media. This craving for constant and instant connectivity to people and voices not actually present in our lives is no different than an addiction to nicotine, and it’s causing a cancer throughout our society. We were not created to live like this. Its dominance reflects a Tower of Babel sort of desire for control. Some of us will find a modest and limited redemptive use for these tools. But many of us should quit and avoid social media altogether. Even if it’s being used in a manner connected to biblical content, it is too often replacing our actual time in the text and in learning from and serving the other believers God has intentionally placed in our local church context.
Likely we all can identify areas in which we’ve been pursuing influences disproportionately, in a way that doesn’t feed or actually give rest to our souls according to how God created us to thrive. In the remaining part of the year, what if we all attempted to turn our individual wisdom pyramids right-side up, and to support each other in those lifestyle changes? “Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm” (Proverbs 13:20).