Redeeming Your Time

Free time. Anybody know what that is anymore? I know I am not alone in wishing I had more time each day to “get things done” and enjoy more down time for myself. Remember when you were a kid and complained to your folks about being bored all the time? Don’t you crave a little more boredom in your life right now? Someone once said that you don’t make time to do the things you want to do, rather you gotta make the best use of the time that you’ve been given. Good advice, if you have the time to take it.

But all of us at some point will find ourselves with extra time on our hands that we have the privilege to fill with, well, whatever we want. It might be while you are on vacation or the kids are away at camp or you are recovering from a medical procedure at home. Whatever the circumstance, this gift of extra free time comes with challenges of its own, namely, “What in the world are you gonna do with yourself?”

The challenge the I have with this kind of time is that I want it to be meaningful and productive. Now I’m not talking about building an addition to my house or earning another degree over the weekend, but rather avoiding the trap that idle time can bring. What is idle time? Simply put, when you have nothing to do and no plan for filling it, idle time will lead you down all sorts of unfulfilling paths.

Have you ever had a break at school or work and found yourself mindlessly scrolling through social media the entire time? Or how many times have you flipped through every channel on the TV or every movie option on Netflix and still can’t find one to watch? How long did that take? The challenge that we have with extra time on our hands is that we believe it exists only for our entertainment, so we seek to fill it with shows and movies and events that we believe will fulfill us, yet in the end most of it really doesn’t. Idle time will do that to you.

Here is the problem when we believe that the solution to idle time is to feed it with entertainment: We starve our souls. I’m not saying that binging a show or checking up on your friend’s latest post is wrong — I do that too. But if you were given a portion of time that was all yours to navigate, would you choose to feed your soul with that time or simply throw it away with useless activities that you probably won’t even remember tomorrow?

Time is always of the essence as they say, so when you get that window of time, make a plan for what you are going to do with it. Sounds exciting, huh? But seriously, grab that book you’ve been wanting to read and read it. Got a good place to watch the sunrise or sunset? Then get yourself a front row seat and take it all in. Listen to a podcast that stimulates your sense of adventure and helps you to grow. Learn to play the ukulele. Is there a project you’ve been putting off? Trust me, when you plan it out and put it on the calendar during some free time, you will actually be pretty excited to jump in.

Time is something that, when it is gone, you can never get back. Our world screams for more and more of our time, and usually what it offers in return is about as valuable as an early 1980’s floppy disc. Time is God’s gift to us. Spend it wisely with each other and on things that honor Him. So, what are you gonna do today?

“Redeem the time, because the days are evil.”  — Ephesians 5:16