R U 2 bi C 2?

Someone once said that if Satan wants to get us either flat on our backs or run off our feet. Another follower of Jesus, paraphrased the invitation from Jesus to his first disciples to 'Come apart' by suggesting: 'If we don't come apart, we will come apart.'

Occasionally, when tidying up in the garage or the house I will come across something that I made a long time ago: before faith and children came along. Often it will be some little thing of not much consequence in the history of mankind; but it will be a something that, though made for some small purpose, was also made for the pleasure of making it.

Invariably I find myself asking myself the same question on each occasion: 'How on earth did I ever have the time to do that?'

Yet I have also come across old letters and documents in my filing cabinet relating to past schemes which consumed huge amounts of hours and energy. At the time they were 'vital': but now – in retrospect – they appear so trivial and inconsequential.

Time well spent: time mis-spent. This troubles me more than a bit as I am busy now as I have ever been, and it doesn't look as if things are about to change any time soon. What's worse I see peers heading for a golden season of recreational and leisure pursuits. But I don't think that I am too much different from other followers of Christ. Being a Christian is a lifelong commitment: we each keep going until the last sentence of the last chapter in our life's book.

The Martha syndrome..

But we need to take time. Take time along the way to 'stop and smell the roses' of God's love for us. Ponder on what the Spirit is saying as 'deep calls to deep'. Time to enrich our lives; not by mining (striving) for the world's gold, but rather to uncover – for our lasting enrichment –  the nuggets contained in God's word. Time for relationships; and for those little things that are in fact big things. A friend of my wife has a maxim for life: she observes that God made us human 'beings' and not human 'doings'. Time to 'be' in the presence of the Saviour and our God; waiting on the Lord and contemplating the magnitude of His love and His grace; allowing Him time to refine and purify our thoughts and lead us into His paths of righteousness.

The question has become clichéd but is no less relevant for that. How much time do we spend each week in God's word compared with watching the flickering images on the box in the corner or, as I am now doing, tapping on a computer keyboard?

Take a few minutes...

 Take (say) 10 minutes. Spend the first 4 minutes watching the video below. Then spend a little time contemplating the extent to which you (and I) have allowed the pressures and – if we are honest about it – the personal choices of each day to squeeze God out of His rightful place in our lives.

See also article:
Busyness, priorities and stress reduction