Stewarding Time Well
Trading Busyness for God's Best
This time of year is traditionally one of the busiest for a lot of people. If you are an entrepreneur, you likely have booked your weekends with markets and events to sell your wares so you can have income coming in. If you are an author, chances are you are wanting to join the crowd of people who commit to writing 50,000 words in the month of November so you can advance substantially on a work in progress. If you are a servant leader, chances are you have a full calendar of social events you'll either be leading or serving at to help others. Or perhaps, you are someone who is balancing work and life the best you can just to survive.
No matter what contributes to your busy schedule this time of year, there is one lesson for all of us. Stewardship is management, not ownership. We don't own our time, we manage God's gift of time.
As someone who is chronically busy, this lesson is one that even I need reminded of right this very moment in time, and so when I woke up at 5 am this morning and this was the thought I had, I took it as my sign that this would be this week's focus.
Lately, I have been consuming. Learning a new skill to bring into my business, learning various topics via Bible study, learning new ways to elevate my display at markets, learning how to launch a magazine, learning how to be a good assistant leader for a retreat, learning how to be a better wife, learning how to pay attention to danger signs of aging parents, and scrolling through social media to catch up on everyone else's lives.
Consuming if not put into a check and balance can have a reverse effect of consuming you and your time. At 5 am as I woke up from a weird dream, I lay in the darkness with my heart pounding and asked, "God, what are you trying to show me here?"
In my dream, I was trying to get to my next destination but was met with difficult terrain as I kept climbing higher and higher. I was on multiple balance beams that were unstable. As I held them for others to climb down from the very place I was trying to get to, I realized, no one was helping me get up.
When I reached the top, there was a person standing there, and I asked, "Now, which way?" He simply pointed for me to go left, and as I stepped to the left, I was back on even ground again. A friend was holding my belongings, but she was at the bottom of the rocky terrain, and as I asked her to pass me the items to pull up hers and mine. She was busy talking to others and scrolling on her phone. I continued to ask, and she shook her head no. She wasn't coming with me.
I tried begging and pleading with her by telling her how much easier it was where I now stood. But there was no getting through to her. In my frustration, I simply said, "Why won't you come with me?" And then I woke up.
My 5 am message was clear: It's time to stop consuming and start doing.
Though we often have the best intentions of consuming what helps us become a better person, we can become complacent in our consumption. Consumption begins to fill the place of work. It's a distraction. And one thing I know about distractions is that they come from one person, and that is not God.
In my consumption, I know I am disobedient. I consume, therefore, I do not create. If I am not creating, I do not have what I need for when the time comes for me to present. To put this in perspective, let's talk about my upcoming markets. I'm behind schedule. Not by a little, but a lot.
The attributing fact to my schedule being the way it is comes down to consumption. I'm consuming all the things I need to learn, while also absorbing projects for clients, managing my household, and volunteering. While all these things are necessary and good things, there's a disconnect in my time stewardship.
As a result, it's the 11th hour, and I am now working long nights to get it all done on time. This causes stress, I no longer enjoy what I'm doing, and I begin to resent my calling.
See how this can be difficult?
Not all consumption is bad. It's how we grow. But when consumption outweighs creation, it steals the fruit God intends to grow through us. One thing that helps with stewardship is discernment. As you are faced to make a decision, ask yourself: Is this feeding my purpose, or is it distracting me from it?
“Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.” Ephesians 5:15-17 NIV
So, how can you self-assess? I have three questions for you to consider.
- Am I learning to prepare or delay?
- Is this serving my calling or soothing my fear?
- What fruit is this producing?
I want to challenge you to choose one area to stop overfeeding. Is there something you keep doing instead of the thing you should be doing? Let's try to break that habit. One other way you can do this is to limit your input and multiply your output so for every hour of consumption you remove, commit one hour of creation towards fulfilling your calling.
Remember that God has entrusted time to you not so you could chase more information, but to create transformation. He has already given you everything you need!
Let us all use our time more wisely.
With Grace, Shonda Ramsey