What Eats Up Time?

What amount of time and energy do we commit to worrying, striving and trying to finagle ways to control actual or hypothetical situations?

It’s a question worth honestly investigating, because the answer will address the proverbial head-scratching inquiry, “Where does the time go?”

Think about it. 

What are the distractions—even while doing something we love, such as gardening or hiking—that block the experience of joy in the moment, and thus, make time seem to go faster than it otherwise would?

Now, those things I call “distractions” might actually be puzzles we need to figure out and moods we ought to work through as we meander through a meadow of late summer haze, or thin-out Irises in a perennial bed. 

But then there are other times—many of them—where we can’t focus on our son’s soccer game, or enjoy the dinner party, or relish our day off from work because of besetting animosities, vendettas, hurt feelings, missed opportunities and any number of dramas and mole hills that mar our contentment in the now. 

Each and every “shoulda", "what-if" and “having been wronged” is one grain in the sand of time collectively slipping quickly through the hour glass, dissipating life with it. 

So, what is the alternative?

To, just as we place ourselves under Christ’s Lordship, and receive Christ’s redemptive powers, we place and apply the seconds, minutes and hours of our lives under His Lordship and in His redemptive power as well.

“So teach us to number our days, 

That we may present to You a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).

“Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16).

What I am primarily talking about is thought-life: the racing ideas, speculations, perturbations, jumped-to conclusions, reactions and passionate surmising that either enamor or torment us as we go about daily life. 

It is why we don’t hear our children (often called being pre-occupied—sometimes labeled as a disorder of attention).

It is why we take our spouse for granted, making married love appear tired, mundane or something that can simply “take care of itself.”  

It is why we are easily offended. 

It is why “it” is never enough, or not what we “once had,” or what we had “hoped for.” Our protracted mental screenplay 

won’t 

let 

us 

alone. 

We need to make a prayer-decision with God to “stop it.” 

Stop the ruminating that exacerbates past situations, or doesn’t do anything to solve or change them. 

Stop straining for the “perfect” or most “awesome” or "impressive" future existence!! 

There is a place, certainly, of thinking things through, planning responsibly for the future and even possessing a goal or two. That is common sense.

I am talking about the unfruitful, incessant, and obsessive habit of the inner heart and mind that botches rest and contentment in the present—(and even if we’ve fallen short or hit a wall, we can, in Christ, still have rest and contentment!). 

A focus on lack strips away the humble Christian victory to be found in accumulated fruitful lessons and rich experiences.

It really is a case of not seeing the forest for the trees, with the trees being the glass half-empty and the forest being wonderfully made and knitted by God, in its entirety, in love. It is a forest of spiritual abundance in all aspects of life. 

“I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10 9-10).

We swing from limb to limb in what God intends to be the blessed forest of life but we allow to be turned into a daily heist of the treasures and wisdom of God, leaving only negative attitudes, a consuming focus on reputation, fits of desperate scheming, regret, and self-centered nit-picking in its stealthy wake.

And the clock ticks. 

And time goes by. 

And is irretrievably, 

lost. 

Copyright Barb Harwood