Here
we are, roughly halfway through 2013. In
early January I wrote down my New Year’s resolution: I want to better live God’s Word.
Around that time I read Elisabeth’s Elliot’s Discipline: The Glad Surrender.
Inadvertently, my word for the year found me: discipline. I’ve mused on discipline of the body, the
mind, the emotions, one’s place, and possessions. Elisabeth treats the discipline of two more
areas in her book: the discipline of work and the discipline of time.
Ephesians
5:15-16 reads, “See
then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
redeeming
the time.” According to Barnes and
Matthew Henry, the Greek word translated “redeem” in this passage means “to
purchase” or “buy up” with the intent of “setting free from service or
bondage.” It’s our calling as children
of Light, then, “to rescue or recover our time from waste; to improve it for
great and important purposes.”[i]
I
am not a good candidate to instruct others on the wise use of one’s time. By nature, I’m a procrastinator. When it comes to arriving on time, I’m
usually a few minutes late. Though I
didn’t take notes on Elisabeth’s chapter “The Discipline of Time,” I remember
with chagrin her remark that those who are habitually late rob those waiting
for them of one of their most precious resources: time.
Elisabeth
also bemoaned her difficulties with focusing on the task at hand. And this book was copyrighted in 1982, long
before the “digital age.” Now we also have the Internet and other electronic
gadgets to distract us from making the most of each moment the Lord has given
us. For example, a recent Nokia study
showed that average smart-phone owner checks their phone 150 times a day. It’s the first thing they look at in the
morning, and the last thing they hold at night.[ii]
Why
is it so important that we redeem the time?
“Because the days are evil,” Paul writes. The times in which you and I live are evil. “There are many allurements
and temptations that would lead [us] away from the proper improvement of time,
and that would draw [us] into sin.” So
many things would tempt us to go to “places of sinful indulgence and revelry
where [our] time would be wasted, and worse than wasted. As these temptations
abound, [we] ought therefore to be more especially on [our] guard against a
sinful and unprofitable waste of time.” [iii]
Our
problem isn’t really time management, is it? It’s self-management. It’s a lack
of discipline. We need to stop making
decisions based on impulse and instead apply ourselves to make the most of
“our” time. We’d be wise to accept the
reality that there really is no multi-tasking, “there is only task-switching,
doing two things back and forth without really dedicating yourself to either…When
I multitask, the time it takes to do anything worthwhile increases and the
quality decreases…So get rid of multitasking, do one thing at a time, and do it
with excellence.”[iv] Elisabeth Elliot’s husband Jim once wrote her
in a letter, “Wherever you are, be all there.”
How do people respond when you ask them, “How
are you? How was your week?” More and more, instead of the expected “good”
or “fine,” the answer is “busy.” I was musing on this just the other day when I stopped at Wal-Greens, and the young man behind the counter smiled and greeted me this way, "How are you today? Busy?" Disciplining
our time doesn’t mean that we are always “busy.” Being busy is not the same thing as being
diligent.[v] Rather, disciplining our time means that we
prioritize the activities of the day and spend the appropriate amount of time
on critical activities. Those activities
must include lingering over your Bible and spending time in prayer. Perhaps they include going for a walk with
your spouse or reading books to your children. Adequate rest is an important
priority. So is family meal time. I appreciate this quote from the great reformer Martin Luther: "I have so much to do today that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer."
Redeem
the time that you’ve been given today.
Start first thing in the morning, with those most-important
course-setting moments of the day.
Continue through ‘til evening.
“Be diligent” with every moment (1 Peter 3:14).
[i]
Barnes, Albert. New Testament Notes.
www.e-sword.net
[iii]
Barnes, Albert. New Testament Notes.
www.e-sword.net
[iv] I
jotted down this quote some time ago without noting the source! But it is not originally mine. (Later note - might be from Rory Vaden's Take the Stairs.
[v]
Harris, Alex and Brett. Do Hard Things.
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