Time
Where do you focus you time? Growing up I would always hear Mama Nita, that’s my grandma, or other adults in the family comment on how quickly time passes. I never really understood that saying because as a child time did not seem fast to me. Fast forward to now and I can’t seem to get life to slow down. The older I get the faster time goes. I am now in the thick of what generations before me spoke of. Have you ever heard the saying “time flies if you’re having fun.” I feel like it should be “time flies when you’re busy.” When your days are spent taking care of the kids, cleaning up the house, planning dinners, driving children to and from activities while working full time, it’s hard to classify “fun.” That’s pretty much a lot of our days, weeks and months. While everyone’s “busy” looks different the feeling associated with it is the same. Anxiety, pressure, stress, and maybe even worry. However, I want to challenge you and myself with a question. What is the state of my heart during all my “to do’s?” If it is panic/rush mode, high anxiety, then how can I create a change. Or rather, what needs to change so that I am enjoying, dare say having fun, with the time I have as I transition from one thing to the next. There is a big difference.
If you take a look at the Bible, in my opinion Jesus’s calendar was full, but not in the typical way we would consider full. He had planned quiet time with his Heavenly Father, he had penciled in rest time, time for relationships, and time for travel. We often don’t think of a “full” calendar to include rest, but if we think modern day this is very much what Jesus did. He was seldom in a rush. In fact, the opposite, he took time to build relationships. In John 11, we see where Mary and Martha felt like Jesus did not hurry fast enough. Their brother Lazarus had died 4 days prior to Jesus arriving. When He received word that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was for 2 more days before traveling to see his dear friend Lazarus. I’m not sure if I got the news that my friend was dying I would wait around 2 days to get to that friend. I likely would rush there as quickly as I could. However, we don’t see him rushing there. Or if we look in Mark 5: 21-43 Jesus was asked to heal a sick young girl. On his way walking there another touches him and he stops. Again, for me if a child is acutely ill this would feel like an emergency. I would run, I wouldn’t walk or let alone stop…that would be out of the question! But again, Jesus takes his time. When he arrives, they tell him that the child is dead. Jesus said she is not dead but sleeping and they laugh at him. Did you catch that? They laugh! I’m ashamed to say I can’t blame them because maybe I would be laughing too, but I’d like to think I would not. Regardless of this Jesus asks them to leave. He takes with him Peter, James and John and commands the little girl to rise up and she does.
There are several more examples in the Bible of how others may have viewed Jesus as “late,” when in reality he was focused on where he was and what God had called him to do at that moment. He was intentional about everything he did and said and he did not try to be all things to all people. I think we often rush to fill an expectation of someone or something. Maybe it’s even a self-placed expectation. Friends, let’s be intentional about our mindset when we are in our daily routines. Let’s try to be in our moment rather than rushing through our moment because we are mentally already on the next thing.
Dear Lord, help us to be intentional about our days. To not just go through the motions, but to experience life and build relationships. Father, help us to be bold and unashamed to tell people about you. We pray this in your name. Amen