Wasting Time

Wasting Time

I started reading fiction again after a conversation with one of the elders from our church. I had been neglecting novels for years in favor of more “serious” books. I wanted to learn how things worked in the real world instead of escaping into some fantasy about a talking lion or an astronaut trapped on Mars. Yet, listening to him talk about the pleasure of getting lost in a story, I felt like I was missing out on something.

I went to my bookshelf and picked a novel I had purchased years ago but never finished. The dust leapt off the book into my nostrils and its spine creaked as if it had forgotten ever being opened. I removed the bookmark indicating what little progress I had made on my original attempt, and I started reading from the beginning.

Recently, my thoughts have been racing with the growing list of tasks on my to-do list at work and home. I don’t know how I’ll get it all done. I certainly don’t have time to sit and read about a young blind girl growing up in World War II France.

Captivated by the story, I let go of all every other thought jockeying for my attention. When I closed the book hours later, I felt less haunted by my looming to-do list and more creative than I had in weeks. What I thought was a waste of time was giving me the energy for everything else I gave my time to.

Heavenly Father, I set aside all the questions I want answers to and all the tasks I want to accomplish. You know my every need and I trust you with them all. All I want in this moment is to rest in your goodness and love. Meet with me here and now. Amen.

Similarly, we can get caught up doing a lot of things for God, or asking him to do things for us, and neglect simply being with God. He’s given us important work to do, for sure, and no doubt there is important work we want Him to do in and around us. However, something as simple as sitting in a quiet space in or around our house, inviting him to meet with us, can fill us with a contentment our work could never bring. It may seem like we should be doing more with the time, but enjoying Him, losing ourselves in the pleasure of His goodness, is what will sustain us for everything else.