Valuable Time

"I mean, you're out here giving of your valuable time on a Saturday..." the journalist teased a response. But somewhere in the back of my mind the idea of time and its value was teasing me. Our conversation continued, we exchanged information, and she walked off to speak with others who were "giving of their valuable time" that day. Being left with more than a few moments to think, my thoughts finally came together, and here's what came to be...

What gives time value? After all, time is nothing more than units of measurement strung together to create larger units of measurement. Seconds become minutes become days become decades. Is there value in the ticking of a clock or the turning of a page? Time gains value through what we do with it. If we're spending the day doom scrolling, is there value in that? Or do we look back at those units of measurement and determine we have wasted them? If we spend a morning having coffee with friends or cleaning the park or flipping mouse-shaped pancakes for our children, those moments become more than mathematical increments; those moments have gained value.

The night before my family and I and others met that Saturday morning, our youngest and I read Matthew 6:19-21:

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Treasure. Treasure in serving others. Treasure in smiling. Treasure in standing for what is right. Treasure in taking the Gospel wherever we go; in being the light of the Gospel to a dark world, a world hurting and broken, a world looking for answers and shouting its fear. Treasure that draws our hearts even more deeply into itself. The more we give of what we ourselves have received, the more we fall in love with the Giver. When we regard ten minutes as an opportunity to encourage a neighbor, that is treasure. When we consider an afternoon to be a park weeded and made beautiful for others, that possesses value. When we view years as training up our children, kissing their boo-boos and stoking their imagination, we cannot place a price tag on that. When we count months or years as the privilege of caring for a loved one with dementia, we understand the value of that time the moment our loved one is gone. Therein lies the value. Not in the seconds or minutes or days themselves, but in what we will do with them. And in doing something eternal with those increments, with the rise and fall of the sun again and again, with the blare of horns and the falling of confetti every 365 days --in doing something of substance with what we have been given, we make valuable time. It is the very giving of time that makes it what it is, treasure. Without the giving, minutes are nothing more than groups of sixty seconds strung together, an hour is nothing more than 1/24 of a day; time remains nothing more than units of measure. Giving of our "valuable time" is only possible because it has been given. To others, for others, and even on Saturdays.

  

Midweek: Concern or Anxiety?

But I'm just concerned.

Nothing seems to be working. I'm just trying to figure out a way...

Sure, we get concerned. Sure, we don't give up after the first try. But when does "concern" become anxiety? When does perseverance become defiance or obsession? I know I said last week was the last installment of our series on anxiety; but I was cleaning my office the other day and came across some notes. On anxiety, of course. I figured they were worth mentioning.

So, how do we know when we've crossed from simple problem solving or resolution and tenacity into something much less godly? Well, that's our Number One: We are more interested in what we want, in the outcome we have planned, than what God wants. God wants us to walk in His peace (John 14:27). God wants us to abide in His power (John 15:7). God wants us to do all things to His glory (1 Corinthians 10:31). Can it be the time for street preaching is over? Can it be the contribution the shelter has counted on for years is not coming --by God's design? Can it be the plans we have made are not God's plan for us? When we're not okay with the answer to those questions being Yes, when we're plotting and fixing and managing ad nauseum just to achieve the outcome we think is preferred, we've gone beyond perseverance and concern. (Chances are that we've left behind prayer as well.) And we are deep into the woods of anxiety.  

Number Two: We are hurried/pressured into making unsound decisions. Concern prays, looks at the options, gathers information, and makes decisions based on facts and the Holy Spirit's direction. But anxiety? Well, you've heard the sales pitch before: If you sign with us today, we'll give you a free estimate on that new bathroom you've been wanting. Satan's got a few of his own as well. If you don't tithe this month, you can afford it. Or, If you don't take the overtime work is offering this Sunday, they won't ask you again. Or this one, God hasn't answered; He's hanging you out to dry. Better figure it out yourself. Anxiety takes all of the weight and places it on us when Scripture clearly says we are to cast our cares on Jesus (1 Peter 5:6, 7).

Number Three: We are constantly agitated. Concern might have us quiet, praying throughout the hours of the day, lifting the situation and its varied dimensions as they appear up to the Lord. But anxiety causes a physical response: grinding your teeth, snapping at drivers, avoiding eye contact with your children, blind to the beauty of cloudless skies and chirping of crickets. I'm just hyper-focused. Maybe, for a period of time; but if you go through life feeling tense and annoyed by everyone and everything, you are wrong. Plain and simple, cut and dried. (Personal hang-up here.) We are made for relationship, with our Creator and with others; if we can't find joy in any or all of those things, we need a change of heart. And maybe a Sabbath or two (Isaiah 40:31).  

Number Four: We are constantly mulling the situation over, talking it out even when our ability to do anything is at zero. Concern may be the initial response; concern may lead us to seek answers or take action; but once it has been established there is nothing in our power to be done, we must relinquish all our plans, our desires, our emotions to the Lord. Any more thinking, ranting, drinking, eating, pacing, smoking, or stressing over it is anxiety. The jury is out and what are you doing? The test results will take a week; have you slept at all? You've trained them and prayed for them; are you able to keep your hands off of your adult children's lives? Yes, we have concerns --who wouldn't? God gave us emotions. But those emotions are there as warning lights on the dashboard of our lives, to send us to our knees and draw us to Him. All of that late at night, staring at the ceiling, obsessing over where you will ever find the time to clean before guests arrive --it's not the best use of your time before a busy day; common sense will tell you that. But worse than that, it's anxiety. Better to pray God's will be done and be amazed at how He handles the situation! (Philippians 4:6, 7)

Anxiety is the thief of peace. We willing lay down the gift of God's presence in our circumstances because we want control. Will God do it the way I want it to be done? Hopefully not. The God of the universe, the God who knows the end from the beginning, the God who calls things that are not as though they are, the God who loves His people with an everlasting hesed --this is the God who wants to handle outcomes and carry burdens. This is the God who hears our concerns and will walk with us in the peace that dismantles anxiety.

Missed Opportunities

Our youngest dug in. He was so angry. A friend had been harsh with him; but the truth is, he'd been asking for it all day, pushing every button he could to get the wrong sort of attention. He got it. "Look," I said, "I know you're angry, and maybe your friend really took it to another level. But when we refuse to apologize, we say more about our character than about the other person's wrongdoing. Unforgiveness and pride will make you miserable; not him." Good talk, right? Very motherly, very wise. He wasn't having it. He dug in further. 

I dug in. I was annoyed. Our youngest had been carrying on for hours, breaking every rule known to man. He was angry we'd disciplined him earlier in the day. Starved for attention and stuck in the house (Whose punishment is this anyway?!), he tormented the dog, stood on the chair, threw paper all over the floor, paced the kitchen. He'd finally decided to go get something to do. "Mom, is your office door closed?" Nope, I replied curtly; indicating he was not to "go exploring" in the basement. I remained seated, unwilling to help him despite my idleness, despite his willingness to find something constructive to do. 

Sin, for sure; but missed opportunities as well. We often rue the call for an interview that never came or the stomach bug that laid us up the day of our sister's wedding; these are missed opportunities. We pity ourselves and sorrow over those events that went on without us. We are self-centered creatures. But what about the compliment we never gave or the gentle words we could have spoken instead? What about the prayer we could have prayed, or the gentle hand we never laid on a grieving father's shoulder? These, too, are missed opportunities. Our youngest missed the opportunity to apologize and restore relationship. I missed the opportunity to love him in his rebellion and show him mercy. And I think it safe to say, we have all, on occasion, missed the opportunity to obey, to be salt and light, to be a part of what God is doing in this world and bring Him glory. We might not think of it often, but God's commands and the heart-prickings of the Holy Spirit are opportunities to join with Him in doing something miraculous; bringing hope to the hopeless, freeing the captive, comforting the grief-stricken. When we refuse to restore relationship or show another mercy, we are not just petulant, selfish and sinful children; we have relinquished the gift of partnership with Christ Himself. 

Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.

Jesus' words to Martha (Luke 10) remind us not just to prioritize, not just to slow down and pay attention to important things, but to seize the opportunity for relationship and quiet when it presents itself. 

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me."

We all know the story (Jonah 1-4): rebellion, a hungry fish, repentance, and still more bitterness. God's summons to a prophet was not just an executive order, but an invitation also; for Jonah to celebrate with a city full of new believers, brothers and sisters grafted into God's plan, brothers and sisters Jesus commended almost a thousand years later! Jonah chose resentment instead.

But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 

That's some tough stuff there (Matthew 5:44). The other challenges Jesus offers in His sermon are no easy thing either. But we are not alone. He has given His Holy Spirit to help us become the type of people who are not easily offended, who forgive quickly and love abundantly. We have only to be willing to accept His offer, to say Yes! to following after Him, listening to the direction and conviction of the Spirit. We partner with Jesus in giving the Father glory with our lives. What an opportunity!

Throughout Scripture, men and women were called to partner with our Savior in doing the will God on earth. Did God need the help of Samson to defeat the Philistines? Did He need a small boy to hand over his lunch that thousands might be fed? Of course not, but for those who were willing, to listen, to share, to be the hands and feet of Christ, these were most gracious, generous opportunities for humanity to be a part of something wonderful and "impossible". It is no different today. God is calling you to do something. It might be great; it might be small. Listen and prepare to seize the opportunity. To refuse is to lose.