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About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman
Sidetracked
Many of us wake up in
the morning with a list of things to do that day but go to bed in the
evening wondering where the time went.
Much of what we intended to do didn't get done because we allowed
the less important to sidetrack us from the important.
Quantum physicists may
suggest otherwise, but traditionally speaking we have believed time is
inflexible. We can't lengthen
it and we can't shorten it. We
can't pause it and we can't restart it.
We just manoeuvre our way through it until we depart from this time
space material world. We use
it efficiently or else we lose its usefulness.
It's a matter of prioritizing what we do in the time we have.
Prioritizing what needs
to be accomplished in the limited amount of time we have is necessary if
we are to make time productive. We
do the important and if there is no time left for the less important, it's
left for another time. Even
then we may ask where the time went, but at least we'll have some evidence
that we spent it wisely.
Unlike God who can exist
outside or inside the time space environment that He created, we live in
it. We can only put so much in
a space before it loses its productive usefulness.
The same is true with time. When
time gets cluttered with the less important, re-prioritization of what we
do in time is needed to recover its functional usefulness.
Paul, in Ephesians 5:15
and 16 wrote about wise use of time, as we read in the Christian Standard
Bible. "Pay careful
attention, then, to how you walk [live] — not
as unwise people but as wise — making the most
of the time, because the days are evil." Wisdom dictates that we
use time efficiently. Getting
sidetracked by life's intriguing distractions is not being wise.
It's something Jesus understood in relation to His mission.
Read John 7:6 and 8.
"Therefore Jesus
told them, 'My time
is not yet here ... I am not going up to this festival, because my
time has not
yet fully come.”'" Jesus' disciples wanted
Him to go to the festival in Christian maturity
includes using time effectively. An
awareness of what is important and what is less important is basic to the
productive use of time. Our
time is limited, so, prioritizing what we do within that time is the Godly
thing to do. Getting
sidetracked by the less important is the human thing to do.
Post
Script Doing nothing at times
can be productive if it creates needed energy to make the best use of
time. In the 1970's my pastor
friend maintained that just hanging out with a brother or sister in Jesus,
or, "wasting time with them," as he put it, is productive.
It helps develop personal, supportive, and functional relationships
that are foundational for a Biblical church.
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