Time is valuable

Have you ever had your day or week thrown off? Where your plans just don’t get done or accomplished?  Where your life has been interrupted?

Sometimes we feel like our lives are turned upside down by an event or adventure.  The last trips of the summer are happening, the golf course is calling, school shopping is happening, and the harvest is starting to come in.  Our plans are set, but then there are travel problems, rain days, busy malls and tractor problems that slow us down.

In James 4 there are a series of verses that challenge me and informs my theology more than most:

13 Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money."14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.15 Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."16 As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.17 Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.

The first two verses challenge me to think about my plans.  I make plans that are good for my family, the church, my relationship with God and my friends.  In these plans I have recreation, rest, work, and growth.  At the same time what happens when they get interrupted? I remember getting upset when plans changed, getting frustrated that things didn’t go the way I planned.

There is a warning in these verse that our time is limited, we do not know when our days will end nor what they will entail.  We are temporal beings, one day will be our last and then we will face judgment.  We must transform the way that we think about each day.  Not loathing the end of days but anticipating the work of God for today, every day and all eternity.

So what do we do with the time we have? We adapt, we share, we invite, we celebrate, and we build faith into every activity.  Every change that happens, every barrier we face, every frustration and joy we experience is there for God’s glory, not our own.  Take time in the interruptions not to get frustrated, but to look at what God is doing around you.

Every interruption in our plans that we face is an opportunity for God to work through us, it gives us time to pause and look at what God is doing next.  We are instructed not to brag or boast about what we have done, but to focus on the good we can do.  In our lives there are many things to be proud of, the foremost of which is Christ’s work of redeeming our lives.

The interruptions and frustrations in our lives are opportunities for us to do more good.  Set aside time to be interrupted and give God the glory.  Make space in your daily life to continue to do good.