Ephesians 5:15-17
When Queen Elizabeth the First died in 1603, with her last, dying breath, she said, “All my possessions for a moment of time.”
That kind of statement may not be hard to understand coming from a person’s deathbed. What has happened to us of late is that that statement is being muttered more often from the evening bed--when we lay down after the day is over and have time to reflect over our days activities. There are times when we are amazed (and pleased with ourselves) about how much we’ve gotten done. But from what I am hearing of late, from many people, is how fast the days go by, and how little people feel like they’re accomplishing. How much they wish they had more time.
In the work place, computers, robotics, and other innovations that seemed straight out of science fiction, promise to make efficiency go up and actual work time go down. In 1967, there was testimony given before a Senate subcommittee that estimated by 1985 people could be working just 22 hours a week, or just 27 weeks out of the year, or have the option of retiring at age 38. That gave rise to the whole push of the leisure market, since we would be having so much unencumbered time on our hands.
Well, sure enough, the computers have been clicking, the satellites have been spinning, the email has been zipping along cyberspace, the Cuisinarts have been whizzing, and the microwaves have been beeping, just as planned. So why are we so out of breath? So tired? Feeling so short on time? So incredibly busy--or at least we say we are? How did that Senate Sub-committee get it so wrong back in 1967?
Social analyst Jeremy Rifkin wrote in his book, Time Wars, “It is ironic that in a culture so committed to saving time we feel increasingly deprived of the very thing we (are trying to save and) value.” Or, as poll taker Louis Harris concluded, “Time may have become the most precious commodity in the land.”
One little girl was showing her friend her mother’s egg timer. They watched the salt flow through, and when it was finished, the girl said, “See? You just turn it upside down now and you get your three minutes back.” So many of us would wish that it were so. But there is no reverse gear on time. It continues ever forward, irrespective of anyone’s position, power, or wealth.
The pace of change and the explosion of the amount of information it takes to keep up with the pack has escalated greatly over the past 20-30 years. One person quoted in an article I read recently stated that, “Technology is increasing the heartbeat. We are inundated with information. The mind can’t handle it all. The pace is so fast now, I sometimes feel like a gunfighter dodging bullets.”
It’s estimated that if you read one article a day on the internet, in your specific field, at the end of a year you would be seven years behind in everything you could have read.
Many working people feel like they are swamped with too many new facts to absorb in order to stay competitive in their business. But yet most keep trying. Part of what has happened is that many, if not most people, have linked a good portion of their sense of self-esteem with their careers. Sociologist Selwyn Enzer, in the article I just mentioned, stated that, “Sometime in the early ’80’s, Americans came to worship career status as a measure of individual worth, and many were willing to sacrifice any amount of leisure time to get ahead.”
We don’t even allow ourselves time to mourn any more. In 1922, Emily Post instructed widows that the proper mourning period was three years. Fifty years later, in her book on proper etiquette, Amy Vanderbilt urged that the bereaved be about their normal activities within a week or so. I was out at Jim and Lori Want’s for dinner a couple of weeks ago, and a young man came to their home who had just lost his grandma. He said he was given three days for Bereavement Leave from work, so he had to make the most of those three days. If he had broken a leg, he would have gotten more time off than three days.
And I resonate with the comment of James Smith, an economist with the Rand Corporation, when he said it’s easy to “start losing touch with things. My work is research, which at its best (means taking time for contemplation). If you get into this mode of running around, you don’t have time to reflect.”
The risk is that the running around life, the unexamined life, becomes one that is self-sustaining. How many people take the time to examine their lives? To ask ourselves some important questions, such as:
Why do we work so hard?
Why do we have so little time to spare?
What does this kind of lifestyle do to our primary relationships?
And, what would we be willing to give up in order to live a little more directed and focused lives?
Those are the kinds of questions I want to address this morning. They are questions that Paul was begging his Ephesian friends to reflect on. They are no less important for us.
Live life, then, with a due sense of responsibility,
not as those who do not know the meaning of life
but as those who do.
Make the best use of your time,
despite all the evils of these days.
Don’t be vague
but grasp firmly what you know to be the will of the Lord.
(Ephesians 5:15-17, PME)
“Make the best use of your time…” or as the King James Version has it, “Redeem the time.” How do you do that? How do you see the value of time, and therefore use it as wisely as possible? According to Paul, we must “live life...not as those who do not know the meaning of life but as those who do.”
As the economist I quoted earlier stated, that means taking time to reflect--thinking about and coming to an understanding of what the meaning of life could be. Tony Compolo, in his book, Who Switched the Price Tags? wrote about a study that was done with 50 people over the age of 95. These ninety year olds were asked one question: What would you do different if you had life to live over again?” Three answers were given more often than others. One of those top three was, “I would reflect more.” They would spend more time thinking about the meaning of things rather than just end up doing things. They would have spent time reflecting on what was most important in life, living out their lives according to those important things, rather than just living out a random jumble of experiences.
The great Japanese Christian Toyohiko Kagawa once said it this way: “I read in a book where a man named Jesus went about doing good. It is very disconcerting to me that I am so easily satisfied with just going about.” How many are in his shoes--just going about in life taking no time to reflect, thus with no meaning of life to guide your way?
Time management, and management specialists have a grasp on this point that Paul is making. I have fat files in my filing cabinet and similarly long files on my computer with articles on management. They all are basically saying the same thing that Paul was saying nearly 2000 years ago.
In one podcast I listened to on management in non-profit organizations by Peter Druker, the first question that needs to be asked is, “What is the mission of this organization?” If the mission of the organization is not clear, then there will only be helter-skelter, disjointed, and undirected activity in that organization. Druker talked about how each organization should first sit down and write a simple, focused, short and directed mission statement. It has to be clear to all within the organization what it is that will direct everyones activity. Some management specialists use different terms for this mission statement--one calls it the “unifying principle.” No matter what you call it, it’s vitally important to have one.
Now move that strategy of creating a mission statement into your personal life. I’ve talked about this before in worship and within different groups. How often do you use your time to reflect about what your mission in life is? What would you like it to be? What is the one unifying principle of your life? What is the sun, around which all else in your life orbits? If you don’t have a mission statement, or don’t take the time to reflect about things like this, you’re probably feeling like your life is riding on square wheels--up to the top and then down, thud.
Some people are like that. They let their lives ride on square wheels. They have no semblance of a personal, or couple, or family life mission. Or if they do, often they forget about it, and let the everyday minutia run their lives. If you do have one, you need to keep it in front of you all the time: put it on your refrigerator, your bathroom mirror, the dashboard of your car.
If you don’t have a personal mission statement by which you use the time you have in life, let me suggest one to you. It’s one-size-fits-all. It’s what Paul was getting at when he told the Ephesians to, “...know the meaning of life…” Another person, in conversation with Jesus, asked the same kind of question: “Which two commandments are the most important?” Jesus’ answer? “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. And, the second is like it--love your neighbor as yourself.”
In those two commandments you’ll find the meaning of life. A mission for life. THE unifying principle. Chose this one. Not many do. Most look for something else. And there are lots of “something else’s” out there.
But when you start choosing, remember this. When you choose your mission, your centering principle for how you will use your time, when you choose that, you are at the same time excluding other choices. You can’t have more than one. “No one can serve two masters,” Jesus wisely stated.
For most people, this is a grief-filled process. We hate to let go. We want to do it all. The point of realization that we can’t, is an important, and clarifying place to reach.
A concert violinist was asked the secret of her success. “Planned neglect,” she replied. Then she explained.
When I was in school, there were many things that demanded my time. When I went to my room after breakfast, I made my bed, straightened my room, dusted the floor, and did whatever else came to my attention. Then I turned to violin practice. I found I wasn’t progressing as I thought I should, so I reversed things. Until my practice period was completed, I deliberately neglected everything else. That program of planned neglect, I believe, accounts for my success.
So it is with choosing your life mission and the subsequent use of your time. Some things need to be neglected if striving toward your mission is to be successful.
Peter Druker, whom I mentioned earlier, told this story in his book, The Effective Executive:
Harry Hopkins, President Roosevelt’s confidential adviser in World War II, was a dying, almost dead man (because of cancer) during much of his time with FDR. Every step was torment for him. He could work only a few hours every other day or so. Many wondered aloud why Roosevelt kept him on his staff. But Roosevelt felt Hopkins was his most valuable asset--even when he was nearly dead. Why? Because Hopkins was forced--as most of us are not--to focus only on the truly important matters. All the rest had to be cut out. He was so effective at choosing what absolutely had to be done and discarding the rest, Churchill called Hopkins, “Lord Heart Of The Matter.”
How much more effective we would be with our time if we forced ourselves to be a Lord Heart Of The Matter--if we focused ourselves around a central mission, and then let all of our use of the time we have flow out of that mission. Only in that way will be be able to, as Paul wrote, “...grasp firmly what you know to be the will of God.”
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