Smacked by Grace

Even at my age I can still remember what it felt like thinking I had my whole life ahead of me. What a lot of time I wasted! But even now, knowing my remaining days are fewer, I still waste time. This morning I spent a good half hour fiddling with the settings on my computer, adding a startlingly beautiful background wallpaper, adjusting font sizes, organizing the open windows. Sigh.

It’s poetic justice that my verse for today is: “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5)

My study Bible says, “We are to make the most of our time on this evil earth in fulfilling God’s purposes, lining up every opportunity for useful worship and service.”

The Bible passage continues by telling me that if I want to redeem my time, I need to understand the will of God and be filled with the Spirit. It even describes what being filled with the Spirit looks like: speaking Scripture, having a song in my heart, being thankful, and submitting to others including my husband.

The business world has lots of advice about managing my time. Gurus say I should deal with the time-wasters and one survey identifies them:

1. Spreading myself too thin by trying to do too many things at once (instead of setting priorities for each day and getting the most important things done first).

2. Being afraid to delegate because I’m convinced that I need to do everything myself.

3. Not wanting to say “no” to requests (instead of deciding what I must do, and want to do).

4. Being tied to the phone or to email, (rather than using my answering machine to screen calls and scheduling a block of time to respond to calls and deal with email).

5. Procrastination & indecision which are rooted in doubt, or perfectionism and result in chaos and clutter (instead of doing the important and perhaps unpleasant chores done first, and dividing large tasks into smaller ones).

6. Interruptions and unexpected crises (which are part of life and need to be considered in planning).

In that list, I can see the bottom line, at least for myself. It is out of pride that I take on too much, will not delegate and won’t say “no”. Pride is behind procrastination and perfectionism. It is also the reason I try to run my own life—and therefore get annoyed at interruptions instead of seeing them as God-sent and having a purpose for me.

From Ephesians, God adds a few time-wasters of His own. If I do not follow what this passage says, I’m not in His will and not walking circumspectly. His list includes:

1. Letting corrupt communication come out of my mouth, 4:29 (instead of speaking in a way that edifies others, 4:15; 5:19). Not only is speaking sinful words a waste of time, it takes added time to eat them later.

2. Letting my heart drift to sinful and selfish thoughts (instead of being filled with His music 4:17, 23; 5:19). The best and most creative ideas come to me when I’m listening to God. I can’t listen if my mind is filled with junk.

3. Complaining and grumbling (instead of being thankful, 4:31; 5:20). This wastes both time and energy because grumbling is a futile resistance to the God who sovereignly controls those things I complain about. Guess what? He is bigger than I am.

4. Always insisting on having my own way (rather than being set free from that tyranny through a submissive and Christ-like spirit, 5:1, 21-24). See number 3. If He is running my life, I cannot also be running it.

Besides the theological definition about being saved from sin, my dictionary says that “redeem” means to “compensate for the faults or bad aspects of” or to “make up for one's poor past performance or behavior.”

The grace of God smacks me in the face. Even though I fritter away a few hours here and there (and I need to stop doing that), He graciously gives me opportunity to obey Him, right now, and redeem all that foolishness.