TIME | March 9 - 15

Time. This elusive thing that seems to rush by quicker and quicker with each passing month. And if you’re anything like me, you try to grasp for more of it, willing it to slow down because it never feels like there’s quite enough. Not enough time in the workday, where the to-do list seems to get longer instead of shorter. Not enough time to spend with family and friends - not even enough time to send the quick text checking-in to say, ‘I’m thinking of you’. Not enough time to do all the things you want to do, let alone all the things that need to be done. And yet, God has given us each day and said this enough.

I suspect that even if I had more hours in a day, I would simply fill the extra hours, wishing for more just as I do now. So perhaps the solution isn’t more, but a slowing down and acknowledging time as a good gift from God, something to steward well. I confess this isn’t something that comes naturally to me. I often live like I’m in control and as if all the things depend on me. I fill up the minutes of my day, leaving little room for Jesus in the midst of my schedule.

This way of being is not without its costs. When busyness and getting things done is at the center of life there is a disconnect from who we are meant to be and the way we are called to live. And so, when I listen to my own wellbeing, others in my life and the whispers of Jesus, I see the importance of letting go. I am learning to be okay with leaving things undone. I am practicing having grace for myself, believing that my value does not rest in the things I accomplish, nor does not doing make me a failure. This is a leaning into limits instead of fighting against them and allowing space for God to move, relying on him for the pace of life.

And so, bit by bit, I am saying yes to the invitation to surrender my time, and the expectations I place around my time, to Jesus. Learning to stop and say it is enough.

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READ

Slowly read through the passages offered. How do they relate to the reflection? What is Spirit revealing through them?

Mark 6:30-32

REFLECT

Invite the Holy Spirit into your reflections and welcome the voice of Jesus to help you answer these questions.

1.  How have I been living as if there is not enough time?

2.  What unhealthy attachments do I have to the limitations being revealed?

Acknowledge and process this with Jesus and ask him to help you release that attachment.

RESPOND

Using the guided prompts, take time to respond in confession. In repentance how can you turn towards God and others?

Jesus, I confess that I have been trying to operate out of my own resource of time and choose instead to live in dependence on your provision.

I resist the lie that limitations are curses and choose instead to receive them as means of grace to bring me closer to you.

RECEIVE

Take time to listen to the voice of Jesus and receive his mercy and grace. Help open my eyes to see how you are providing time in my life?

Thank you, Jesus, for your provision.

FAST

As a way of living into your repentance and resisting the idea of scarcity of time, this week consider fasting from taking the quickest way to your destination and practice instead a way of slowing down in the midst of life’s demands.