Love and Sovereignty and the gift of Time

I would really like to manage a weekly entry, consistently, but then summer comes, school's out (I have a minor at home) and company comes to stay. So with the house quiet again and with time on my hands (albeit at midnight!) I can take a moment to talk about time and our relationships. To write now, when I've been silent for over 2 months, is a pleasure I've missed.  To this group of readers, please accept my apologies.  I hope time has been kind to you over these weeks.

Someone once encouraged me to make time my friend.  But I'd heard that 'time marches on', and so I lived as though it would run out. Now I realize, though it may march with or without me in step, it really can be, on some occasions, a friendly soldier.  Sometimes when you're working and 'in a groove' it feels like time is standing still.  There have been some days when I've looked up after what seemed like hours of hard slog on the computer to discover that only 90 minutes had passed and my work was accomplished!  These were days when I ignored distractions, prayed before starting, and hummed along as though no one else existed on the planet.  It's a nice sense of accomplishment when I've had a day like that, when I've been able to have a day like that.

But days like that are the exception. More often, time is filled with distraction, any kind of distraction. There are the daily duties, family needs and friendly phone calls (or sometimes the untimely, uninvited 'cold' sales calls). These distractions are external.  But worse I think are the internal distractions - worries, fears. Perhaps the worst of these are the relational anxieties: thoughts about someone ill or aggrieved.  Don't our minds like to drift to negativity: what if they're displeased with us! Or if we think they're unhappy with us, our thoughts about them or more specifically our relationship with them interrupt our minds and our work. Why? Because we love them. And perhaps more often because we fear they don't love us, or won't love us any longer. Worry doesn't change anything, but for many it's a part of life.

We all need love. Time won't change that.  It's in our DNA. But our attitude to ourselves and others can be changed so that we don't live in fear - fear that we will lose a friend or fear that we ever had that friend in the first place. If we worry that we've done something wrong to them or they to us, we don't have to dwell. Instead we can shift our perspective, and look out and look up, so that the time for fear can end.

"The sovereignty of God implies that He rules the universe and that nothing occurs on earth outside of God's permission or awareness. No event happens without His foreknowledge and His assent to it happening. Everything that takes place occurs in His wisdom and for His ultimate purpose, for His glory and for His goodness. If not, then God would not be God."*

If we're worried about a relationship, it can work it for good that it's on our mind.  What do we need to do or to say, to improve the relationship, to deepen mutual understanding or to transform it completely? If our mind is taken from something we think is important to someone whom we know is important, it needn't be a waste of time. We can allow it to catapult us into action, toward building better relationships with others and stronger character within ourselves.

When we recognize God's authority and handiwork in our lives, it frees us. To know all events, relationships and circumstances are inevitable and are for our ultimate good, helps us to appreciate our time and trust our relationships. Life is full of events, distractions, relationships, conflicts, but when we see them within the hands of a noble and loving God, we can rest assured even the distractions are part of the plan for our lives. It gives us peace to know our time and relationships are in His hands.  Being truthful, being loving keeps us on track, soldiering on in this journey called life.

Happy days!


* Excerpt taken from: FREE TO BE: Defeating Insecurity, Transforming Relationships, Building Character, Essence Publishing 2012, by yours truly.

Time Life

A human life is a thimbleful of time and how we squander it.
Brief though it is, if we look to the future
Or to the past
We miss living.
Time marches
But we step to its beat at our peril.
Purpose is found not in planning, or marking Time
But in living, relating truthfully
Now.

Social Networking

I've joined twitter, facebook, linkedIn. Am I keeping up? Nope! I'm not sure how others do it, but I aim high and will find a time management scheme that will allow me time to engage.
So far, I've joined several blogs. Eventually I'll read the comments/conversations others are engaging in that I've been saving. And, eventually, I expect I'll comment too.

Anybody else feel overwhelmed by the task of staying on top of their (various) in-boxes?

I'm a writer for goodness sake, so why don't I write to keep up... Because so far, if I keep up with these on-line schemes, I'll not have time to create the stories I like to create.

The social network is, to me, magical - it is illusive, vast and a bit of a mystery.

I used to be able to juggle with 3 balls, literally. I thought that was pretty good. Now I'm back down to 2. I think the social network requires a few more balls in the air than I can handle, but I'll keep trying!

So this brief blog is a combination of the question above and an announcement:

Anyone who has an experience to share or advice on how to keep on top of the  social networks is invited to comment.

As for the announcement? It seems until now the ability to leave COMMENT on this blog has been blocked due to my technical limitations. Well, evidently I've sorted it out.

Care to comment to test it out for me?

God bless,
Sarah

Ultimate Time Management

If each of us knew precisely how long -- or how little -- we had with each other on this earth, would we live differently?

If we knew that to say 'see you tomorrow' might not be actualized, that it was in the hands of illness or national security or even freak accident (if you believe in such a thing), would we be less casual, more effortful in how we lived our lives?  Families might be closer, friends might be more treasured.  Lives might have less busy-ness and more connected-ness.

I like to think that sometimes I do live as though this moment mattered, that it might not be the last but that it is special, worth valuing rather than being taken for granted.

As I start my purchasing and preparation for the Christmas Season, I want to remember to treasure the moment, however brief, when I look out at the lake, or at my smiling (or frowning) child, or at my greying spouse and think: this moment that I'm breathing is worth a treasure more bountiful than any sale at Walmart, or any (false) hunger pang, or any ambition unfulfilled.  If life is a long series of interconnected moments, I want to live mine as though the one I'm in right now is all that really matters, and love and enjoy it to the full.

Cheers!

Sarah