Spending your minutes
Once I was required to keep a time diary for seven days for a class project. At the end of the week we totaled up the minutes and categorized what we did.
It was a real pain to record what I was doing every 15 minutes, but [it was] revealing.
I discovered what was important to me — those things I spent more time doing — and also saw some wasted time that I was able to correct.
I think this is what the Psalm writer referred to in Psalm 90:10, 12: “The days of our years are threescore years and ten … for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. So teach us to number our days and apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
We “number our days” and correct anything that isn’t God-honoring in our lives.
We must schedule time for worship.
God Himself rested on the Sabbath after a week of creation and exhorts us to obediently worship every week. In worship we focus on God and thank Him. He, in turn, refocuses our attention on a needy world into which we go as His representatives.
We must schedule time for work.
For the Christian, diligent work is one way we honor God since we’re exhorted to do all things for His glory.
We must schedule time for family.
Families today are stressed with so many competing schedules.
And we must schedule time for rest.
An automobile engine will burn out if run 24/7 and if [its] oil and filters aren’t changed. Our bodies need rest and repair. Sleep, vacations, hobbies and diversions are significant.
God will give you 1,440 minutes today. How will you spend them?
Michael J. Brooks
Judson College
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Rain to wash it all away
Excerpts from University of North Alabama student Elizabeth Brock’s blog: http://thethingsiwanttosaybutdont.wordpress.com
Yesterday, running late as usual, I flew out of the front door only to about-face quickly, returning to grab an umbrella. The rain was just starting to drizzle, but I knew I did not want to be without that umbrella all day even if it might make me late. By the time I parked, the rain was pouring. … An hour later … a monsoon. …
By the time I arrived at my last class a few hours later, I was very cold and wet. My shoes and socks were soaked all the way through. … By the time I began walking to my car, the campus resembled the Ocoee. There were streams of rainwater flowing from one end of campus to the next. …
I watched as the mini rivers ran past. The current carried leaves and pieces of dirt as passengers. In some places the water had turned tomato soup-red from all the dirt that was being washed away. The earth was being cleaned. The rainwater was washing the summer dirt away, leaving behind a clean space for the autumn leaves to fall.
I have heard it said that rain is good for the soul. I don’t know if that’s science or a theory, but in that moment, watching the dirt float past my feet, I believed it. I began to see how God cleanses us with His Word, the Living Water, by pouring it over our imperfect lives. Every day He is chiseling away the dirt caked around us, rinsing us with water and making us clean and whole again.
When it comes to God’s Word, don’t step around the puddles. Don’t avoid the rivers of cleansing water. Find the deepest spot and jump in. Splash. Dance. Be soaked all the way through — because it is not enough to have just one drop of His love. Once you have tasted a single drop, you will open wide your mouth to drink in all He is.
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“There is something within us that responds deeply to people who level with us, who do not pamper us or offer compromises but, instead, describe reality so simply and compellingly that the truth seems inevitable, and we cannot help but recognize it.”
“We don’t know what people are thinking unless they tell us. And even then, there’s no guarantee they’re telling us what they really think. Yet if asked, most people avow that they want to hear the truth, even if it is unpalatable.”
“Companies and marriages derail because people don’t say what they are really thinking.”
Susan Scott
“Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work & in Life, One Conversation at a Time”
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SBC Pres Fred Luter:
“When you come to God’s house, don’t come looking for other people. … Let the Lord speak to your heart and your life. Let all of it become personal. Forget about yourself and concentrate on God.”
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