Time Well Spent

 October 17, 2024

Thursday

I'm trying to use some idle time as I write this blog. My wife is part of the leadership of a conference, and the hotel has an earlier checkout time, so I don't really have a place to work. Therefore, I am at Panera Bread writing this blog. (By the way, I just had their potato soup and it was out of this world!) 

Honestly, I was just going to chill out and do nothing until I remembered that the Bible tells us to use every opportunity because the days are evil. That means two things to me.

One, if I am idle without purpose, there is a chance I will do evil. I will bet that each of the pastors, who were found in moral failure recently, was not focused on what he needed to do. He had allowed his devotion to the Lord to become idle. It's easy to lose focus.

In front of me is a couple having lunch together. They are both looking at their phones. There is no conversation. They don't even know what they are communicating to each other. What is on their phones is more important than the person sitting across the table. They have lost focus. I doubt if they are using the time as it should be used.

If they were rare, I would just be picking on them, right? However, there are several others of different ages doing the same thing. Phones may have become a curse for our generation. They distract us from what we should be doing. Yesterday, I saw someone texting away as I passed her on a very busy road. I heard a public service announcement that said that texting while driving was six times more dangerous than driving drunk. Have phones become an addiction?

Yes, I can lose focus and do something evil. I don't have to do evil with evil intent. I just lose focus and misuse the opportunity in front of me.

Secondly, not using the time in front of me, will allow others to do evil. I must think of what I am doing as a testimony. Others are watching me. Maybe they know I am a pastor. Maybe they notice that I am misusing the time I have. There is also the fact that my idleness is not encouraging anyone to be a disciple of Jesus. I hope this blog helps someone. (I am sure that not every one of my blogs does, but some of them might.)

Sure, I have downtime. Downtime needs to be limited. Too much downtime will put you in the grave. Just enough will keep you alive. Even downtime is using the time responsibly.

So, I have finished my lunch and will make my way back to the hotel to wait for Karen's conference to end. I will read a book on revivals in the early twentieth century. I will be energized to pray more fervently to see revival myself. I think it will be time well spent.

Ephesians 5:15–16 (ESV)¹⁵ Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, ¹⁶ making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.