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Time, Blogging, and Choices

This week has been half-term holidays here in Cheshire, and as we have long needed to decorate, I have taken a couple of hours from each day to help. It has given me the opportunity to reflect on the Christian's use of time.

I don't think that anybody seriously doubts that we live in a busy society. Employers demand more and more of their workers, we are surrounded by the 'instant' culture (instant soup, 'Drive Through' fast food, internet shopping, push button films from your satellite remote control, et al), and if you have children then numerous hours are swallowed up in running your own chauffeur service.

Time! Cliff Richard starred in a musical about it, you can buy a subscription to a weekly magazine named after it, and watchmakers and clockmakers the world over live by it.

Undoubtedly the tyrant Time controls more people, than there are people who control time. The world is full of overstretched, overtired people, yet at the same time, there are many underused, underactive souls who live and die almost in the same armchair. Millions of pounds are made every single year from time management seminars, conferences, and books such as the One Minute Manager and the 60 Minute Father.

I have often been greatly challenged regarding my use of this amazing gift. Time is God's invention, and is the briefest of parentheses in an ocean of eternity. It is not cyclical, it may not be travelled through - at least in the sense that H. G. Wells or Dr Who understand it - and once passed, can never be reclaimed. It is a garment that clothes the cosmos, that once threadbare, will be discarded for ever. The moment those words - 'Let there be light!', proceeded from the mouth of God, then that clock, fully wound, began to unwind.

We each of us have 168 hrs in 1 week. Let's say that 56 of those hrs are spent sleeping, 8 hrs per night, 21 hrs are spent eating and grooming, 3 hrs daily, approx 56 hrs are spent at work or travelling to work - that adds up to 133 hrs. By my calculation, that leaves 35 hrs which are not accounted for by necessary activity. It is those hours, more than any others, that will determine the character of your Christian life. It is the use of those 'spare hours' that will make the difference between mediocrity and meaning. If I want to live an extraordinary Christian life, then I must master my time.

I often hear the phrase - and use it also - 'I haven't got time'. I am certain that many occasions when that is said, it is an accurate reflection of where we are at; I am equally certain that we could each be further challenged in this area.

Richard Baxter was a busy Pastor and preacher - did you know that he was the author of 128 books? His total literary output would be equivalent to 60 octavo volumes or some 30-40 thousand closely printed pages! Extraordinary diligence, especially bearing in mind that he was a man subject to constant pain, sickness and disability, and even greater, considering he wrote many of his works in odd moments - while travelling, in the vestry before the service, between visits. With discipline, he gathered up all his 'spare' moments, and wove them together into something useful. He was disciplined.

Both John Wesley & FB Meyer divided up their day into 5 minutes segments, pledging never to allow one section to pass wastefully. Again, no small feat.

In 1805, John Angell James took up full time ministry in Carrs Lane, Birmingham.
His first sermon was preached to a few ageing saints. For the next 8 years, they died one by one. The church dwindled, and almost closed. In 1813, a great change came upon his ministry - he had a new freshness, a new vitality. By 1859, his regular morning congregation was 1800. Asked how this transformation took place, he responded that one day in 1813, after years of battling, he finally mastered his getting up time!

How disciplined are you? May I ask, do you spend hours by the television - even into the small hours? Do you have a computer or a favourite hobby? Each may be valid and useful, but their use is to be moderated. When you have a spare 5 minutes, how do you use them? Could you clean a pair of shoes, iron a shirt, read a chapter, learn a verse, pray a prayer, write a letter, phone a brother, read a story... ?

Has God's Word become pushed out and sidelined? When was the last time you really read the Scriptures or set time deliberately aside to pray?

Are your rest hours disciplined?

It was Richard Baxter who said:

"Spend your time in nothing that must be repented of. Spend it on nothing on which you might not pray for the blessing of God, on nothing that you cannot review with a quiet conscience on your dying bed, on nothing that you may not safely & profitably be doing if death should surprise you in the act".

Jonathan Edwards:

"I am resolved to live with all my might while I do live. I am resolved never to lose one moment of time - to improve it - never to waste it. I am resolved never to do anything which I should despise in another, never to do anything out of revenge, that I should be afraid of if this were my last hour upon earth".

Ephesians 5: 16 and Colossians 4: 5 command us to redeem the time that we have, to make wise and sacred use of it as a valued and precious possession.

My pledge today is that I will make time to think creatively and biblically so that I may meaningfully and regularly update my Pastor's Blog for the good of the souls who visit it. It is time consuming, because I have to consider material, frame it and write it. Thirty minutes each day at least. I have no time to do it, but I choose to make it a priority.

I think Richard Baxter might be pleased.

Posted by Danny at February 17, 2007 12:41 PM | TrackBack