Our lives are incredibly brief. Psalm 90:12 says, “Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” I’ve known some who take a life expectancy of 80 or 90, multiply that by 365 days, multiply that by 24 hours, and then keep a count-down for how many hours of life more or less remain. How would awareness like that change your time-spending choices?
We in 21st century America are a time-stingy people. We don’t give time to others easily. I don’t mean we don’t have people in our lives. But, if we’re honest, we can be very intentional to ensure that times with other people will be enjoyable or productive according to the priorities we have for ourselves. Even the ways in which we go about community are selfish and individualistic.
Our time-stinginess really could manifest in two different ways. The first camp would be people who are geared to get the maximum enjoyment out of every week. For them, time is for pleasure, and sacrificial use of time is boring. Why make more time for God and others when I’d rather spend the evening with Netflix? Maybe I can even invite my spouse into that and call it important “family time” :o) The second camp would be people with very firm goals, who even schedule “God time” and “others time” into their week. But that’s just it…it’s scheduled. There’s a clear limit that can’t be exceeded or else control could be lost. These people would balk if love for God or neighbor required more time than had already been “generously” allotted. God is not after sacrifices and burnt offerings (Mark 12:33); He wants your vulnerability and your heart, which takes real, honest, uncontrolled time. Probably there’s some of both types of time hoarding in each of us. Whether we’re giving of our fun time, or our orderly time, or any resource, “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9:7-15).
Our selfishness with time only begins to change when we realize that our time doesn’t really belong to us. We are created beings given time to steward, not to fritter away, and not to control as if we were God. This is doubly true now that we’ve been redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus; we’ve been bought with a price, therefore our lives are not our own.
Sabbath is certainly one concept in Scripture that is intended to remind us that our time is not simply for curating to our own desires. It forces us to sit still and remember who we are and what life is about. Granted, there have been some traditions of Christianity that maintained strict continuity with the Jewish Sabbath laws, and I don’t think that’s the best. Paul writes in Colossians, “Let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.” In other words, the concept of “Sabbath” was a sort of prop to help us understand the reality about rest and time that comes to fulfillment in Christ. Not that a purposeful day of rest can’t even now be wisdom from God for our lives—but whatever choices we make about time should come from an awareness that, in Jesus, every hour of every day is sacred and devoted to God. We live the Sabbath life!
But realizations like that can also become excuses. Are we abusing our legitimate Christian freedom? Because we give lip service to the thought that all days are God’s days, do we actually therefore deny him our best time and our full attentiveness? Do we prioritize being on time to church, because we realize gathering with His people is of the utmost importance? Do we prioritize regular attendance on Sundays and for Life Groups, knowing that these gatherings are means of grace He’s appointed to help us bear lasting fruit? Or do we have an “as long as nothing special or more fun is happening” attitude? Are we available when people need help? Do we volunteer our energies even for tasks that aren’t in our “wheelhouse”? Or do we have a consumer mindset to life in the church? Do you unhurriedly bask in God’s words because you want to, or do you shave those efforts to the bare minimum? Also, how is the depth and quality of your prayer life? This is a rebuke to me as well. I may be there at church because, well, it’s my job, but I’m just as guilty of not being truly present throughout the week when I should be giving my best time to the One who’s most important to me.
The thing is, when we’re stingy with our time and prioritize what feels good in the moment rather than what’s ultimate, we actually don’t gain anything. The time just keeps getting away from us, leaving us feeling busier and busier, more and more bedraggled. Is there a better way?
Malachi 3:6-12 most directly addresses how we spend our money, but its concepts are relevant to any resource that we hoard, but which actually belongs to God:
“For I the LORD do not change, therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you? In your tithes and contributions….Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.”
Is it cruel and demanding of the Lord to expect that we bring our first and our best resources to Him? What would your spouse or your kids say if you only gave them your leftover time, when it was convenient? If you shaved time off at the beginning or the end of your dates with them, or if you walked out in the middle and left them sitting at a table by themselves? Obviously, there’s a limit to these analogies. God isn’t needy in the same way we people are. But precisely because He is God, His expectation for our time is a great kindness. Only when we take the time to come to Him can we receive the indescribable gift of Himself.
Like any resource, bring the first and the best and the unexpectedly required of your time to God, and see if the flow of your whole life doesn’t prosper all the more—more energy, more focus, more joyful ability to actually order every aspect of your days on this earth for the glory of God.