TIC TOC

I am becoming so aware of how much time I waste.  I was reading Psalm 119:37 yesterday, “Turn my eyes from worthless things, and give me life through Your word.”  Also, Psalm 101:3 “I will set no worthless thing before my eyes…”

There are so many worthless things!  How quickly I am caught up in all kinds of things that have absolutely no value!!!  I want to spend my time well.  Psalm 90:12 says “So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.”  Even a few minutes of prayer instead of screen time have an eternal impact and bring blessing all around us.  Reading a verse or two of Scripture and taking time to think on it take no longer than a quick scroll on social media.  So what are we doing?  What am I doing?  We even look for ways to spend time on things we call “mindless” like it’s a good thing to free us from having to think at all.  Instead, we could look around, see a need and bring it to our Almighty Father in prayer and actually make a difference!  We make up fake friendships with people we hardly know online instead of interacting with our family, neighbors, and the real people we encounter every day.

No, I’m not leaving social platforms.  Yes, I am posting to social platforms.  It is still a great way to say in touch with the real people in our lives, but we must guard against it becoming the primary way we interact.  And we must be super vigilant that we draw our values and perspective from Christ and His word rather than opinions, commentary, and viral whatever.

It comes back to choices.  It takes no more time to develop and cultivate a relationship with Christ, soak in a short portion of Scripture, and pray for those around us than it does to scroll, click, watch, or play with our screens.  Where and in whom are we willing to invest?  One of the blessings of retirement is having more time to do what you want, but the truth is it’s easier to fritter away that time on pointless things because you aren’t under as much pressure.  So whatever time of life you are in, there are choices to make about how to use the time you have.  God knows exactly what your life entails, and what your time demands are, and, yes, there is a need for a little downtime.  But the truth is a few minutes of prayer, a moment of gratitude for something specific today, or finding a small way to actually apply the verse that came up on your phone this morning to your life are each more restorative than some mindless, worthless, sometimes toxic post or game level.

Two of the best indicators of where our hearts lie, where our treasure is, are how we spend our money and how we spend our time.  Look at the little moments of your day and be honest about where your heart and mind turn when they are free from a pressing demand.  It is so easy to let the first reflex be to grab the phone, but what if we stopped for a moment and lifted our hearts to thank God for something specific, or asked His blessing and comfort on the person we know has a need?

I think sometimes we don’t pray because we know we can’t pray for all the things we probably should.  Can’t we pray for one thing?  Can’t we offer Him thanks this morning and maybe lift one need later in the day?  Can’t we tell Him we love Him and take just one step of obedience before we try to unwind, escape, or fall into bed?

Maybe you don’t need these words, but I sure do.  Yes, I’m putting them on social media, and it’s another thing to scroll through or spend a few minutes on, but maybe this reminder can help you make better choices.  I hope it helps me.

Psalm 119:37; Psalm 101:3; Psalm 90:12