“If you’re too busy for God, then you’re too busy” I read in a book that I don’t have anymore and don’t recall the author. Being too busy seems to be the problem for everyone believer and unbeliever. I am currently reading “The 24 Hour Customer” by Adrian C. Ott. This book written in 2010 addresses the challenge of competing information and items attempting to gain attention. Ott writes, “We are in an era of too many choices competing for too little time.” And, “The challenge of gaining customer time and attention has been exacerbated by the development of technology that gives consumers more control over the information they see and how they see it.” Examples include TiVo, Hulu, satellite radio, RSS feeds,etc. While, “the use of iPods, tablets, Nintendo DSs, and smartphones has decreased the amount of time when attention is not diluted by some form of media. It’s not just teenagers that are texting while watching TV, or talking on the cell phone at the dinner table. No doubt, our society is connected and addicted.”
The book goes on about how the products and services offered are out of sync with the cadence and rhythm of our lives. Ott captures the challenge of company and customer by saying, “When we have a spare moment, do we use it to buy new pet supplies online, play with our children, log in to a social network to see what’s new with our friends, search for research to support a project at work, or check out that new YouTube video a colleague just sent in an email? Or all of the above?
Brave new world is our world today. Technology time savers became time wasters when we have to charge the devices every day or worse they don’t work or we can’t find connectivity. As Adrian Ott says, “we are connected and addicted.”
“Redeeming the time for the days are evil” the Aposlle Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:16. The sense of redeeming the time is seizing every favorable opportunity as it relates to our walk in Christ. Time as we experience it is always related to God’s creation “and there was evening and there was morning, one day” (Genesis 1:5) and God’s purpose “for everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1).
Time is for the accomplishment of God’s eternal purpose. How we manage time is in direct proportion to how much we are aligned with the purpose of God. The psalmist asks, “Teach me to number my days, the measure of my life.” Living with the view and understanding that each day is an opportunity to know God and to fuflfill His purpose alters the focus and attention of our time and energy.
There is a quote that is in front of me as I write. It says, “This is the beginning of a new day. God has given me this day to use as I will. I can waste it or use it for good. What I do today is important because I’m exchanging a day of my life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever, leaving in its place something I have traded for it. I want it to be gain, not loss; good, not evil; success, not failure; in order that I shall not regret the price I paid for it.”
Witness Lee regularly prayed, “Lord grant me today’s portion of grace”. Grace is the supply to live one spirit with Him and walk in Him today. Then and only then does this day count before God.