The Best Use of Time

I've been reading  Donald Whitner's book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life.  Overall, It's  a very good book, and I would recommend it.  However, as with any book provokes thought, there are times  when I want to take issue with it.  This morning was one of those times.

This morning he was talking about stewardship as a spiritual discipline.  A very good and astute observation.  Discipline is what disciples do, and stewardship is one of the disciplines that we are definitely called to do.  Whitner talks about stewardship mainly in terms of time and money.  I have no problem with what he says about money, but the time part, I think requires some further thinking.

The argument he makes  is that as Christians we ought to  make the most of our time,  use every bit of it to God's glory.   He uses the well-known verses from Ephesians 5:15-16  "Be very careful, then, how you live-not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. "

Okay, okay, I get  it.  We are a nation of lazy time-wasters.  Telling people in our television-soaked society  to quit wasting time is like telling fat people that they should stop eating.  It's just too easy.  Of course we waste time at times. But if we worried every minute whether or not we were wasting time,  we would all be nervous wrecks.   What Whitner means, of course is that we waste time not doing the Lord's work, and he is right, of course. We could all do more for Him.  But it does disturb me that the disciplines that we preachers preach about most are the ones that benefit us the most.  We preach about people evangelizing, and our churches get bigger.  We preach about tithing and our churches get richer. We preach about redeeming the time and --well, you get the idea.  Meanwhile,  the spiritual disciplines which do not benefit the church quite so much,  prayer and fasting for example, or meditation, simplicity, and solitude, get less attention.

I have a problem with the way Ephesians 5  is interpreted.  Paul is not saying that days are evil.  Time is neither good nor evil.  It's how you use it.  The evil days that Paul mentions are evil because of what men were doing in them. 

Paul's day was evil, at least for the majority of humankind.  Life was  mean and short for most people.  A third of the world was in slavery, most of the rest were subsistence farmers.    It was a mean cruel time to be alive.  Paul is telling us to make the most of the time we have, to savor the moments we have, not to waste them in meaningless drudgery or pointless semi-pleasures.  Drunkenness is not fun, not really,  neither are sexual pleasures which steal our souls and give nothing in return. 

Contrast this with Ecclesiastes 2:24-26

 "A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?  To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. "

When we eat and drink, and find satisfaction in our work,  we are not wasting time.  In fact, according to Ecclesiastes, it is the only time we are not. 

Here's the thing.  We Christians, especially those of us weaned on the Calvinist work ethic, have somehow got the impression that an idle moment is a wasted moment. We were created to work, work,work.

But we were also created to enjoy the world He gave us.  Time and the world around us have value, even if they are not used "productively."  A moment closing our eyes, enjoying the wind on our faces, or listening to the singing of birds and the laughter of children, is not wasted.  Neither is a prayer wasted when we are not asking God for anything, nor are we wasting paint to paint a picture of a sunrise. These moments have intrinsic value in themselves, and need no excuse. 

In my fifty-eight years of life,  I have "wasted" a great deal of tiem. Some of it I am sorry for, Some of it I am not.  I do not regret a moment that I have enjoyed.  I do regret many moments of worry and regret over the things I have not done. 

It seems to me that the real  use of time is to enjoy God, not to work  out of drudgery and duty.  Time is not for using,  but for enjoying.  Living now, in the moment,  is how we glorify God and enjoy Him forever. 

Some time ago, when I was going through a difficult time in my life,  a friend of mine gave me a little book called The Precious Present  about a man who sought to find the the greatest present ever given.  In the end, he discovered that the most precious present was--the precious present.  It is now. 

If we really seek God, and want do to His will, and if we realize the value of our moments and days,  then we will not waste time. We will not want to waste time,  because doing the worthwhile thing  will be our joy, and we will find satisfaction in our work.

Some people hate their jobs.  They watch the clock all day,  waiting for the moment they can go home. Other people love their job. The moment's fly by and they look forward to going back to work,  resting  only to satisfy their bodies  long enough to get back into it. 

Some people see serving God as a duty.  They give Him what they must, but watch the clock and wait for the time when they can get back to their "real" jobs.  Other people find satisfaction in serving God,  and cannot wait for more opportunities to do it.  The stewardship of time is a natural result of understanding our relationship to Him.  If we enjoy doing what God wants us to do, it is not a burden. 

I once had  friend who was doing seven jobs in the church.  I called him on it,  suggesting that more people should be working, and that he needed more time off.  He laughed and put his arm around me.  "Bill," he said,  "Some men play golf. Others fish,  others garden. That their hobby.  My hobby is church work.  Don't take my hobby from me."

If our heart is in the Lord, then serving Him is joy.   We don't have to be told to do it.