Today I hand the reins over to Josh Barella. Josh is a friend and our Worship Director at New Life. Every Sunday morning, I wake up to a devotion that Josh sends to the worship team to prepare them for the day. Here is a recent devotion Josh shared.
My wife Lauren and I are fond of the niche science fiction film In Time, starring Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried. Set in a future Ohio, the currency is time, and it’s also everyone’s life force. Once born, you age until your 25th birthday, and that’s when “your clock” starts and you have one year to live. A timer on your forearm counts down the days, hours, minutes...Once that year is over, “your clock runs out,” and you die. You can work to add minutes to your life. You can steal. You can gamble, you can fight, but “it’s only a matter of time.” Talk about anxiety!
J.R.R. Tolkien has shared perhaps the most profound, yet simple, quip on time through his beloved character, Gandalf, the grey wizard in his The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings series, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”
So much weight rests on this control God has set in motion: time. “The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises” (Eccl. 1:5), and the world turns another degree.
My love language is quality time. My mind is constantly bending toward this notion that I have wasted my time, and thus, I try all the harder to ensure that the time that I do spend--with my bride, with my sons, with my friends, with you--is quality. And even then I fear I come up short. But this brings up an important point: don’t try to spend time, but rather invest it.
If we’re being honest, we’re stretched thin most days, aren’t we? “Like butter scraped over too much bread...” (thank you, Bilbo Baggins). We feel inadequate in almost every way to fulfill the duties of our homes and workplaces, and it all comes down to time, right? There isn’t enough of it in a day to fit in all the things we try to fit in. So therein is the problem: what’s quality, and what’s surplus?
I think of Jesus’ three-year ministry, and how it must have been around the clock. In Matthew 8 we’re shown a scene at Peter’s home where, in the evening, many were brought to Jesus who were oppressed by demons and illnesses, and without complaint—He heals them all (v. 14-17). He was very much of the flesh, our Jesus, no different than you or I in that, and yet I picture a very tired Shepherd, happily ministering to the people He came to save, despite the constraint of time and bodily fatigue. We should look at ourselves in the mirror and say: if he can do it--so can I.
Let’s heed Paul’s words to the church in Ephesus, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:15). Because if this is true, then time is not the problem, but how we choose to spend it.
Greg Laurie, Pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Southern California, said once, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” That’s so true isn’t it? I am guilty of looking at my watch as much as the next guy. When I’ve made arrangements with someone, to see them, to pray with them, just to hang and talk, it’s like my wrist is beckoning me, calling out to me in a language of minutes and seconds, of things I won’t get back, of things I need to be doing, could be doing instead . . . and the list goes on--how cliché! How disrespectful. There’s no better way to disassemble a conversation or relationship than that right there. Because that doesn’t translate to love. This is thinking of time as an expenditure, not an investment. This is letting anxiety in the way of your mission. Jesus reminds us, “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matt.6:34).
So live in the moment, not as the world does, but as your Savior wills it. Eat your daily bread. Show those under your charge that you care for them, not just the idea of them. And love: not just yourself, but more importantly--others. Lay aside your preferences for theirs, making time for them, and watch as your relationships flourish.
I pray the Lord guides you in this. That you make time well invested a priority.
Thanks for listening.
With love, in Jesus’ name,
Joshua
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