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December 12, 2017

Gathering the Slippery Stone of Time

Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping . . . (a line in an old song).  During transition time is critical and time seems to always be slipping, slipping away.  Matter of fact, it is quite humorous that this blog is on time and I am two full days late at getting it up. 🙂  The next stone that I am taking to the Altar to stand on is time.  

I was whining about my time to God one day during this year of consecration.  I actually was whining/asking Him to give me more time.  Then I felt directed back to where was ‘time’ first established.  It was at the beginning of creation, “Then there was morning and evening, the first day.”  Time.  Seasons.  Days.  Weeks.  Years.  —- Time.  So God looked at all He created and said, “It was good.”  Time was a part of creation BEFORE the fall of man.  It was meant as good.  It IS a gift to man, to me.

WOW.  My perspective concerning time has to change.  My use of time has to change.  Time has been a curse more than a blessing to me.  I never felt like I had enough of it and I always feel constrained by the clock.

As I was whining to God about time and my lack of it and how tired I was.  My heart was convicted and a veil pulled back.  The problem or the curse of my time was nothing more than a problem with me.  I schedule things way past my ‘time’.  The root of why I do that is because I basically don’t want to be left out of anything or disappoint anyone.  At the core it is a man-pleasing problem.  So step one, clear my heart of being a man pleaser and then clear my schedule of things I do just to ‘be on the inside, in THE group.  (Sounds like I am still living in my teenage years.  TIME to grow up!) . I am to honor TIME as a gift from God, not a curse!

Second step, make decisions and stick to them.  During this TIME, I read an article about how stress is a major cause of sickness & disease, nothing new.  But in this article it sited that one of today’s major causes of stress, at least in the US, is the delay of making decisions.  The fear of not making the BEST decision has paralyzed many, especially young people, from making ANY decision.  As a result, the lack of decision and the fact that the indecision looms in the back of my head creates a wall of stress that breaks down my body’s immune system.

As a Christ Follower, I was convicted.  When I need too make decisions, yes, I pray.  But then I must trust that IF the decision I make is faulty, God will redirect my path.  Decision making requires risk.  Risk is the language of faith.  Faith pleases God.  If I don’t risk my faith becomes dormant.  If I don’t risk, I create more stress in my life than if I go for it.  I say, “Let’s go for it.”  I would rather try and fail than never to try at all!

The third step was:  REST.  REST is NOT doing nothing.  Rather it is taking TIME to restore my spirit, my body or my soul.  For me,  maybe because I am a woman – an emotional being -, I need restoration in my soul.  I find rest connecting with God in His creation.  I love hiking in the wild, four wheeling, playing on the beach, even working in the yard, running with Jazz (my dog).  My heart was convicted that I can’t keep putting this off.  It has to start today.  I am compelled to decide to spend one day per week in rest.  As God was convicting my heart of rest I got a couple of key phrases from the Holy Spirit I believe.

1.  I make my schedule – discipline my schedule

2.  It’s one thing for me to die as a martyr, it is another if I kill myself because of bus-y-ness and stress.

I have got to rid myself of the un-God directed things (I’m not the answer to every need!) All the while I must tithe my days, just like Randy and I tithe our money.  We have always tithed our money without question or thought.  Tithing our money is not what we do but who we are.   Our tithe is a symbol for us to God that He owns it all.  The tithe is His but so is the 90% left.   I need to set up a ‘sabbath’, not where I don’t do ANYTHING but where I can engage in what restores my soul, where i can step out of traffic of my life and know God.  As I tithe my day I believe the 90% more will be more productive.  It is a symbol that not just that day but ALL  my days, ALL  my time is ultimately His.  Simple to say, but there is a reason it requires self-discipline!

The weird thing is, I feel wimpy saying I need a rest day.  I travel and see people all around the world that are under so much more stress just to try to stay alive.  They CAN’T have a day of rest because they have to survive.  I don’t know the answers to that, I just know that in obedience to what God has told me I must rest.  My mind tilts on this concept in honesty.  It is anti-culture in the US.  We really are bragging as we tell how busy we are.  We are finding our identity in our crunch for time, it shows we are needed.  So wrong.  So I must discipline myself and I can’t keep saying tomorrow.  TIME is a gift from God and if He shows me an area for correction I need to correct it TODAY.  Time is a gift.

Are you in any of these steps concerning time? Have you been putting off decisions? Have you entered the rest of God?  Any suggestions?

Originally posted July 2, 2017