“This
week will be last week next week.” This phrase leaps from the bottom of my weekly planning
sheet. A clever reminder that time is passing like water through a faucet.
My planner directed my life for decades: goals, to do lists, and
appointments. I both mingled and compartmentalized work life and home life in
search of the right balance. My tools were paper-based in the early years and
then digital. When I retired, I simplified the tools. A tablet made by “Knock
Knock” (Knock
Knock This Week) with each page sectioned into seven days of
the week. Each day has room for only a few activities. The back of the tablet
warns to not ‘let yet another 168 hours of your life get away from you.’ Time,
the elusive resource.
It’s funny how time just ticks on. It has no respect for
interruptions or unexpected schedule changes. It gives no grace for me to hit
the pause button. It continues without regard for how my day is going. If the
day runs out before the tasks complete, time does not wait. Just like
clock-work, today turns into yesterday. Time doesn’t care that I wasn’t finished
with today.
People have worried about using time well for centuries. Paul
wrote to his Ephesian friends.
Look carefully then how you
walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the
days are evil. [Eph 5:15-16, ESV]
The third piece of his instruction is explicit about how we
use time. The first two are supporting actors.
1)
Be careful how you walk out your life
2)
Use wisdom
3)
Make the best use of time
Be careful how
you walk out your life – We can manage time better
after we’ve decided how we want to walk out our life. First we must decide which values matter most
to us. Our values establish the guard rails for our decisions. We won’t have to
angst about every choice, because our values have pre-determined some of the
answers. These boundaries automate much of our time management. When we are
careful and intentional about how we want to live, we will spend our
time like we want to live.
Use wisdom – And ‘spend’ is what we do with time. Time is a resource,
like money. We can be wise or foolish in how we spend it. We can invest it or
we can squander it. But unlike money, we cannot save time to use later. We only
have the time given today and we can’t carry it over to tomorrow. And unlike
money, we can’t wish we had as much as our neighbor, because we have the same. Time
may be elusive, but it is a fair resource. Each of us have an equal 168 hours
to use only in this week. Let us use wisdom in spending it.
Make the best
use of time – This is a resounding call to excellence. Not
average use of time. Not sufficient use of time. But best use of time.
Some weeks the best use of time is to be wildly productive. Some weeks the best
use of time is to rest. Most weeks the best use of time is to live in balanced
rhythm. It is this dependable marching of time that provides the pressure to
stay on task. To say ‘yes’ to the important and ‘no’ to the less important. To
take advantage of the best opportunities. To purpose in our mind the goals that
fulfill the passions of our heart. To use time well. To seek His approval and
direction for each installment of 168 hours of life.
