TIME MANAGEMENT

So often when we are going about life, we find ourselves going from place to place– work, school, home, grocery store, etc. and from thing to thing — eat, sleep, work, church, repeat. It’s really easy to get caught up in the mundane aspects of life. The only one who can adjust this is us! We are responsible for our own time management. We may work a 40 hour work week, but there are 168 hours in a week. Even if you slept twelve hours every day in a week, that still leaves 44 hours of time. The average person gets about seven hours each night. That leaves 79 hours of time to be accounted for– What are you doing with those hours?

It’s normal that we can feel pushed, pulled, and stretched thin when it comes to managing life. If you ever watched a true New York style pizza being made, that dough is slammed down on the counter, flattened out, tossed in the air and spun around again and again and again. It’s a necessary process to achieve the desired effect. We can feel like we are being tossed around and flattened at any given moment in our life. We all know life can change in a moment. One moment a person is unmarried, until they say “I do,” and at that moment everything changes. A child is born at a specific time on a specific day and at that moment, everything changes. One moment you were unsaved: then you gave your Life to Jesus. Everything changed. All of these events came about as a matter of choice. Life is full of choices, big and small ones and every day we choose what we want to do with our time.

There are many people who just want to veg out on their time off. They want to “turn off their brain” and want to escape the rat race of life by playing a video game, watching a movie, watching YT content, or binge watching Netflix. When they do those things, their time is being given away so easily. Hours pass by without them really even being aware of it. They are engrossed in fantasy. Some people want to be active in their down time and get outdoors and go “do something,” that’s refreshing or just gets them away from everything. They want to fish, hike, or kayak, or even garden. Others want to do crafts or crochet or the like. Some folks are workaholics, and don’t even know what it means to actually relax because there is always something to be done.

So many of the stories in the Bible involve solitary time with God. Moses spent forty days alone with God on the top of Mt. Sinai… twice. David frequently thought of God and talked with Him; Elijah was in the wilderness running for his life, Jonah spent three straight days with nothing to do but to pray and talk to God. John the Baptist was a man of the wilderness, preferring it. Abraham’s time with God resulted in an almost unbelievable promise, and yet to this day it is still coming true. Abraham was the father of faith, and every day someone discovers faith and salvation in Jesus Christ. Jesus took time Himself to be solitary with the Father, so if Jesus needed to do that, how much more do we? Jesus gave a warning to us in Luke 21:34:

KJV And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. NKJV
But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.
NLT
Watch out! Don’t let your hearts be dulled by carousing and drunkenness, and by the worries of this life. Don’t let that day catch you unaware,
NIV
Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap.

The Word of God made flesh, Jesus, was letting us know, that life is HARD sometimes. It is stressful sometimes. It has unexpected twists and turns. The Greek word for drunkenness methe, means “intoxication.” We have all experienced becoming intoxicated with someone or something. It’s all you think about, it’s what you desire to do with your time. How much would change in our life if we became intoxicated with the Word of God? The disciples in the book of Acts were accused of being drunk on new wine– that is wine that is easy to drink because of its sweetness and potency. The Word of God is sweet and it’s effects can be so potent in our lives– How much would change in our life and our viewpoint of our day to day if we spent more of our time in the presence of Jesus, the One who died for us?

Time is our personal currency. We can “spend” it however we choose, but we can’t save it. There is no accumulation of time. We can’t hoard it. We can’t add to it. We are given an allotment each day of 24 hours. How will you spend yours today?