Free Time March 23, 2010

Have you ever looked back at a week and wondered where all the time went? I often find myself already at Friday when it felt like just yesterday was  Sunday. Or in this case, realizing it’s already Tuesday when it felt like just yesterday was the Monday of Spring Break. Moments like this make me wonder what happens to all those minutes that just flew by. Where did they go? How did I spend them? Unfortunately far too often I think they are just wasted.

Now don’t get me wrong… I love to sit down and watch TV (only after I’ve DVRed a show… dude, I hate commercials)… but how much of my time is spent in temporal things? I’ll stay up late to watch my taped episode of Project Runway but fall asleep reading my Bible? Okay, I don’t really fall asleep reading ANYTHING but I think you understand my point.

What are we doing with our spare time? Before you flip out on me and say “What’s free time?!” let me just take a time out. We all have free time… maybe not a lot but we have time to check our Facebook or text our friends. Even if you only have a minute to do that… we text or check our Facebook a minimum of 10 times a day. So… you add that up and there’s ten minutes of free time.

Maybe we just aren’t wise with the time we do have. How does this affect our lives? Well I’ve realized lately that rash decisions and mediocre planning lead to unproductivity. I know… duh right? We don’t live like we know this to be true. We rush into decisions or go an entire day never mentioning the name of Christ. We become extremely myopic and guess what… STRESSED! When we don’t prioritize correctly we end up with more things to do than time to do them in. This affects us physically, emotionally, socially AND spiritually!

So why am I talking about this? In asking what everyone did for Spring Break I’ve heard that a lot of people did… NOTHING. Again, rest is great! I’m not bashing that… but what if this last week had been used to really seek what God wants each of us to do in the next months?

 I was looking at a verse today where it talks about Jesus rising early in the morning to pray (Mark 1:35—Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.) So I began to look at different verses about Jesus and how he spent his ‘free time’. Look at this verse: Luke 5:16, “ But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.” My ESV Study Bible says this about this verse:

But he would withdraw . . . and pray. The Greek construction indicates a continual practice and could also be translated “was regularly withdrawing and praying”. The increasing crowds, the unceasing demands on Jesus’ time, and the fact that no one else could duplicate his ministry did not deter Jesus from spending extensive times in prayer.

 

If Jesus could find time to use his time to honor God… why can’t we? Why don’t I? It was challenging and encouraging for me today. So, what about you? Take just a bit of your spare time… get in the Word… spend time in prayer and see what amazing things God can do (and use you to do)! James 5:16