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Ephesians
5:15-16 says this: “Look carefully how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,
making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” In this lesson there
will be a component of specific use of minutes and hours, yes, but also I want
to look at it from the angle of how we are using the time we are in. What
does God want in me, in our family, in our church as a result of this time?
Because
this has been a clear left turn for all of us, hasn’t it? Many have extra time,
new rhythms in life and in family (no sports!), some have lost jobs. This whole
thing, as painful as it is, has forced us to reexamine priorities. But that’s
what I think God is wanting to do in us through this time!
One
of C.S. Lewis’s most famous quotes is from The Problem of Pain: “Pain
insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in
our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
Maybe God was wanting to get our attention in all of this—that we had gotten
too busy, that we had not been making the best use of the time for His glory
How
often in your life have you asked a friend how they were, and their response
was “Man, I’m busy!” We wore it almost like a badge of honor. If we couldn’t
say busy, it felt almost wrong. And here’s the funny thing: probably most
of the things we were involved in weren’t bad things—kids’
sports, PTO meetings at school, going out to eat. We even might have been spending
multiple nights a week at church events and meetings. But maybe what we have come
to learn is that we were too busy. Like the frog in the kettle, unaware that
they were slowly turning up the heat on him, life creep happened and we just
all of a sudden realized that more had been piled on our lives.
I’m
not minimizing the pain that people are feeling in all of this. It is real and daunting.
But one of the best parts of this whole thing for my family is that we are
eating dinner together every night. Honest confession of a pastor: we were eating
together maybe two nights a week before this. But what happens at that dinner
table is we ask our kids their high and low for the day. It gives them a chance
to be honest, sparks conversations. So one of the things that we’ve seen
is that that is something we want to continue as much as possible. I’m sure you’ve
seen other things in your life like that: going on walks, working out more,
reading more good books—those are all great things!
Now,
as we continue to meditate on Ephesians 5:15-16, I want you to think back to
before all of this shutdown happened. Did you have the time to do all of that
stuff you thought of before this crisis hit? For some of you, your first reaction
is this: “No! I didn’t have time to read, etc.” But I want to flip the script
on you for a second. There’s a short pamphlet that’s one of the most piercing
things you will ever read. It’s called The Tyranny of the Urgent by
Charles Hummel. And here’s what he says in this, something I’ve never forgotten.
He says it’s not that you don’t have time to do what you want to do or what
you know you need to do, it’s that you haven’t made it a priority. The urgent
things are crowding out the best things. Lysa TerKeurst calls it your “best
yes.”
So,
let me give you a couple examples, thinking back to before this crisis. You
said, “I don’t have time to read.” Actually, you prioritized binging
that Netflix show or spending time scrolling through Facebook or Instagram. Add
up your time spent on that stuff, you could have read ten books. Or
your knee hurts, and you say, “I don’t have time to go to the doctor.” Actually,
what you’re saying is “My health is not a priority right now.” Because as soon
as that knee begins crippling you and you can’t walk on
it, you’ll make time to get to the doctor, right?! It’s priorities.
So
here’s what I’m saying: you make time for what’s important to you, for your
priorities. And what God is doing in this season is He’s giving you a
reset button! Remember, you don’t find God’s will for you while living in
sinful ways; you find what He wants by submitting to His Spirit, seeking it
with wisdom.
I
know that a lot has changed and a lot of things will look different in the next
few months—and really for the rest of our lives. But instead of viewing that as
a disappointment, that you can’t do what you wanted to do, view
it instead as a gift, as an opportunity. You can now deliberately change
things and the way you spend your time. You can set your own course. Instead of
letting your calendar control you (like it used to), you can now control
your calendar. Maybe you don’t need to get as involved in as many things,
but instead you need to lay your lives before the Lord, submit it to Him, ask
for His wisdom. Leave nothing off the table, and ask Him to fill your calendar
back in with the most important pieces, with the big buckets like church
and school. Don’t waste what God wanted to do in you as individual, as family
through this. Our financial administrator at church shared with the staff that
on Monday someone had included a note in the envelope with their offering that
said this: “God has us pause our lives for our good and His glory.” Such a wise
perspective on this whole crisis in our lives.
Now,
one important thing that we often talk about in dealing with our money is the
importance of a spending plan—that’s where you tell your money where to go. But
I wonder this: why don’t we do that with our time? Which is another
limited resource. Did you know that you have an expiration date? James 4:14 says
your life is like a vapor, a mist—you are here today and gone so quickly. Your
minutes are numbered, and God has a plan for each one of those. So since
the evil world around us wants to tempt us to abuse those, we need to redeem
the time and make the best use of it for God’s glory.
And
just like how you spend your money communicates where your heart is (it’s
all about more or nicer or bigger or better…or it show you have good stewardship),
just like that, how you spend your time communicates something to your
kids, to your neighbors. Again, it reveals what’s most important
to you, because you slot things in order in your life according to what you are
prioritizing. So say you never eat dinner together as a family, you’re telling your
kids that conversations and time together are not really that important (and
listen, you can’t make up for that with a Disney vacation). Or say that you
never spend time at church consistently or never spend time with Christian brothers
and sisters because of practices and activities. You’re telling your kids and
your neighbors that your relationship with the Lord is secondary to all
this other stuff.
And
I know that is harsh, but we are commanded to make the best use of
the time. That means we should ask the question: what will last for 10,000 years?
When you think about investing money, you want to make a wise investment. You research
what will give you the best return. Jesus is pretty clear on what that is.
Matthew 6:19-24 says in part, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,
where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up
for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and
where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your
heart will be also…No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the
one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and money.” The word for money there is actually “mammon,”
which is a stand-in term for money, possessions, really anything else.
So
we could interpret this to be anything that takes lordship in your life,
anything that you let become the master of your life—sports, reputation, sexual
fulfillment, the next high, money, career, your kids’ success. John Owen
said this in light of Matthew 6: “Every disaster teaches us the uncertainty and
instability of earthly enjoyments and how foolish we are to set our hearts too
much on them.” So instead of setting your heart on those things now or even future
things (like vacation/job/spouse), set your heart on God!
What
will last into eternity? What is the treasure that will last? Is it money here?
Is it success? Is it a college scholarship? Is it pleasure? Again, those things
are not bad in and of themselves, but when a good thing becomes a god
thing, then it becomes a bad thing. So invest your life in the things
that matter the most, the things that will matter 10,000 years from now, invest
in treasure in heaven. I love how Randy Alcorn put it: “You can’t take
it with you, but you can send it on ahead.” That’s investing in eternity—with
your time, with your money, with your life. People all around you are
watching you to see how you respond—your kids, your spouse, your neighbors,
your coworkers—and they will imitate what they see.
So as
we take an honest look at where we are in all of this, how do we wisely move forward?
I trust that you want to make the best use of the time for God’s glory,
so how? And listen, I’m doing this in my life, my family
is doing this right now. We don’t always get a second chance at this stuff, so
we should all take advantage of this reset. Even in our church,
we are doing this right now as elders, examining what God wants to do in a new
way in us to advance His mission even more effectively—looking at how we’ve
spent our time, our money, our resources, and we are submitting it all to the
Lord and asking Him what He wants us to do now.
So
here’s a good framework to think about as you work through this—for yourself, your
family, our church: 1. What will we keep? 2. What will we tweak? 3. What will
we stop?
1.
What will we keep?
– This is referring to things from before the crisis, what should you bring
back as soon as possible. But this is also referring to the things that you
have started now since the crisis. What do you see that is best
and you want to keep doing until Jesus returns? See, this crisis forced us to become
very simple, focus on just a few very important things. Maybe that revealed
what is most important
2.
What will we
tweak? – This is referring to things from before the crisis, what should you
bring back but adapt into a new format, or adjust a little because now you see
it was a little off.
3.
What will we
stop? – What things were you doing before this hit that you see you don’t
need to bring back, things that are suddenly less important or less on mission.
This is a little bit harder thing to do, yes. But listen: you’ve done without
it for nearly two months now, so maybe you’re fine to not bring it back! All
because God has something even better for you.
So start
with a clean slate, a blank canvas, and submit to the Lord and His wisdom in
prayer and in His Word. Then start filling in your life as He wants you
to. Are there hard decisions in that? Yes, but we are to look carefully
how we walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time in
these evil days. My prayer is that our hope is not in “getting back to normal,”
but instead that we are looking forward to the new normal God has
planned for us—one that maximizes our lives and our church for His mission in the
world, living more than ever for His glory.