TIME MANAGEMENT

I Was Just Thinking About – TIME MANAGEMENT.

In a book soon to be published about The Journey Along The Narrow Way, the final words in the book are, “To Remember: God’s now is according to His plan, His timing and His determination alone. We need to be consciously fitting our lives into His plan for them.” It would have been good if Jeremiah 29:10-11 (MSG) had been attached to these words: “This is God’s Word on the subject: As soon as Babylon’s seventy years are up and not a day before, I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope.” Deliverance of His people in their time of need will be on His schedule – not a day before or a day late.

Yesterday’s Blog closed with the difficult words being told to a 73-year old man by his Doctor that he had a very brief time that he would be alive. He assured him that everything that could be tried had been tried and there was nothing else that could be done for him. Sobering words that were difficult or nearly impossible to process. My heart is always touched when looking at the Public Service Announcements about St. Jude’s and Shriner’s Hospitals for Children. That which seems to be impossible they attempt to make possible. And yet, the Medical Team’s skills can only go so far in their Treatment Plans. Somehow, the parents and the child need to understand that the best efforts of Medical Teams have limitations that are beyond their control or management. As sad and difficult as it is, family members need to help their child prepare for their death. How? In many cases, they can be told honestly that “Jesus will soon take him/her to His prepared place for them. We will miss you greatly but we will never forget you or how much you have meant to us and your extended family.” It is giving the child permission to die and the ability to accept this transition in his/her life.

Is there a Scriptural basis for these thoughts? David wrote about life in Psalm 139:13-16 (MSG), “You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.” One can wonder what bearing II Samuel 12 had on David’s thinking. This chapter references David’s adultery with Bathsheba and his conspiring to kill her husband Uriah. There comes this moment when Nathan, a prophet of God confronts David and said to him, II Samuel 12:13-14, “Then David confessed to Nathan: I’ve sinned against God. Nathan pronounced: Yes, but that’s not the last word, God forgives your sin. You won’t die for it. But because of your blasphemous behavior, the son born to you will die.” The reality of God being in control of time management and how these matters fit into His plans and purposes.

The 73-year old man probably wasn’t thinking about the Psalm 90:10 (NKJV - a Psalm of Moses), “The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” This reality is echoed in James 4:10-15,  “Come now, you who say: Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say: If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 

How is your life being lived before the Living God? Are you eager for His will to be done in and for your life? How do you grapple with the reality of time management and the length of your life? Can we see beyond ourselves and what we may want as we see the bigger picture of living in the presence of God and being content that His will and His plan is perfect? Can we begin to fit our lives into His plan for them?

Prayerfully – consider these things with me?