Wibbley-wobbley Timey-wimey

I recently found myself thinking about the emphasis that we place on time. I look at the clock half way through my day and I panic because I haven’t accomplished the tasks that I set out for myself. Or I look at the calendar and frown because I haven’t met the weight loss goal that I had set. Suddenly, I feel that because I haven’t done what I had planned, I have been robbed of that time. I also find myself irritated with things like illness and car repairs that I feel I “don’t have time for!” Having had a bout with illness a while ago that landed me in the hospital where I was forced to “have time for this,” I began to re-evaluate what a priority I place on TIME. Why do the clock and calendar have such power? They are there to measure time, not dictate it or assign it relevance.

I find I am not alone in my relationship with time. People with the flu wail out “But I don’t have time to be sick!”  Mothers feel they are failing because the laundry is not done. Workers eat lunch at their desks because they have GOALS to meet. Mourners express regret for the things they had meant to do with their loved one before they were gone.

 I think that a lot of this is perspective. Time spent differently than we planned is very often still time well spent. As I said in my first paragraph, when I do not meet my own expectations for the time I am using, I feel like I have lost something. But in reassessing, I usually find that I have used that time for things that were equally as important. Maybe my office shelves are still a mess and spreadsheets are hopelessly mixed up, but I had the pleasure of hearing about WWII from a man who was at Pearl Harbor. I did not get my craft room put together this weekend (again...) but I read a book that fueled my creativity and I watched a flock of ducks waddle through a field. Time well spent, I think.

Perhaps you did not get your laundry done today, but didn’t you love being the one who got to wipe away your child’s tears? Maybe you did skip the gym last night, but wasn’t it nice to go home while it was still light out, sit in your kitchen and think “I like my home!” If that trip you planned with your loved one never happened, you still made memories that will serve as a shield against grief.

In looking back, we often find that what we have done is enough and that it was meaningful to those who shared that time with us. It’s far too easy to forget the valuable things we have done with our time when we focus on what we have not done.

Perhaps that reassignment of our planned time is God’s assignment for things more needful.

This is the lesson I am learning: to evaluate my time and how I have spent it more gently. And I invite you to do it, too. Stop and consider the good experiences, the tasty lunches, the conversations (short  or long) and time with friends and family, the hour in the car repair shop, even the days you skipped the gym. How will you see the time you have spent? Will you measure what you have missed or will you treasure what you have gathered?