There’s NO way – I don’t HAVE the time!
Have you ever found yourself going ’round and round’ with the same problem, unable to see a way forward?
Time is always the most stalwart of constraints, or so I thought until a new idea collided with my lifestyle time routine.
Over the years as the internet has exploded with content, I have gradually added to my daily life blog posts in both French and English about logic, French culture, teaching foreign languages, apologetics, Biblical Christianity, word origins, cooking and fitness. Innocent at first, prideful as time passed, I got used to beaming inwardly at having grown into a well-read, thinking person. On top of that I would boast (to myself of course!) how I was not like others who WASTE time with TV and idle chatter, but I was one of those few ‘efficient users of time’.
Truth be told, I had become a slave to all the content, spending up to one and a half hours a day reading, saving and forwarding on to friends and family (I truly apologize for blitzing your inboxes with stuff – all very ‘good for you’, you know!) I took pride in this self-appointed ‘job’, yet felt constrained as I continually pushed up against the 24 hours that God has allotted to each one of us.
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Then an offer to audit an on-line seminary course on Biblical Womanhood arrived and I was intrigued.
Realistically, I knew that there was NO WAY I could fit the required on-line viewing, reading and study into my soon-to-ramp up teaching life this fall unless I eliminated something.
Here’s where God came in – by His providential timing, my oldest son Graham gifted me with a book he re-reads every year. Pen in hand, I started working through it this week. Some of Tim Ferriss’ ideas shattered my self-limiting notions about time!
- Being busy is a form of laziness
- Lack of time is actually lack of priorities
I have ALWAYS asked God to stretch my time, but never have I asked Him to re-order my activities or even IF what I was doing was what He wanted me to do with my His time.
If you haven’t guessed already, I like to read. I REALLY like books and there’s never enough TIME!
So prompted by the impending collision of Tim Ferriss’ new ideas AND the desire to add something to my life, I turned ruthless!
- Yesterday I unsubscribed from all but 3 email blogs,
- eliminated ALL my Feedly subscriptions
- and even dropped off the professional list-serves I have followed for 13 years.
This is good news for ALL of my friends and family. I won’t be passing on more stuff that you either
-read out of politeness and delete
-or delete and feel guilty about
Change can exercise a snow-ball effect. Along with freeing up study time by eliminating screen time, I have decided that the amount of sleep I get during the summer when I’m not in school is what I really need to feel good. So come the start of the new school year, I will do the following: instead of getting up super early in time BOTH to walk AND do my daily Bible study ‘cum’ prayers, I will sleep the 7 and one half hours optimal for me and shift Bible time to the evenings when I’m not rushed.
As David prayed in Psalm 31, verse 15:
My times are in your hand;
rescue me from the hand of my enemies
I used to ask God to STRETCH ‘my’ time. How arrogant – as though I knew best how to fill the time allotted to me!
It’s BABY STEPS in this new way of asking Him what He wants me to do with HIS time entrusted to me to steward.
Question: What new idea from God has recently turned YOUR world upside down?
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