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We don’t have the time

Or the question…what does your life have in common with TV Total?!

Who doesn’t have the problem of "not enough time"? Sometimes it would be much easier to take time for the things fundamental things and to simply forget everything else.

Stefan Raab (a German entertainer) has this problem every single day – he never has time. But why? Why doesn’t he have any time? It’s quite simple – he has too much to say and to little time on air! However what I don’t understand is why it should be a problem to simply leave out the worst of the rubbish he shows. He could kill two birds with one stone. First of all, he would have more time and second of all, maybe the show would be worth watching.

Who doesn’t have this time problem with too little time? Anyone has the problem! We don’t have the time! We have to sleep, have to eat, work, watch television, have to meet our friends, have to go shopping, play football, go to church etc…we definitely don’t have enough time!

Are you a Christian? Me too! We have the same problems, don’t we? We live in the same world as everyone else, we have the same problems, the same worries and when we don’t have enough time then we have to erase things from our diary. How can we go about this in the best way? That is a good and important question which I would like to follow to try and answer it.

I am a member of staff of the boy’s group in my church community. What is that all about? A central subject is that I tell the children about God’s love and about the love he sent from heaven for us. I tell them about the love he had to die on the cross for everyone’s sins and to help people find their way to God. I tell them about the love which conquered death and gave us hope of an everlasting life in his presence. I believe this and I have trusted him and given him my life. God invites us and I would like to invite him as well. This is my goal in the boy’s group, but only in the boy’s group? No, not only because being a Christian does not only relate to one part of my life! What dose it really mean to give our lives to God? What does my life include?

A simple question and a simple answer: Everything! Everything which I experience is part of my life, so when I give my life to God I give him everything! There are no exceptions otherwise it would just be a part of my life! God should be the master of all of my life – that is the meaning of this handing over. Why should he do that? Because God created me, he knows me best and he is therefore a better master over my life and I am myself! I have to understand this otherwise is does not make any sense to hand over my life! What type of consequences does this handing over of my life have? Because He knows what is best for me the only consequence can be that I have to ask directly. Due to the fact that God rarely lets notes fall from heaven with concrete instructions, this does make it more difficult. However because this is the case there is nothing else I can do than to use the other sources available to me. This means reading the bible, praying, talking to friends about things and then to ask with commitment: God, what do you want from me?

I now find myself in the middle of the original question – how do I plan my time sensibly as a Christian? If I have given my life to God it cannot be the case that he is the first to be struck from my diary if time is short. The opposite is true; he should be the first to be able to help me plan and therefore should never be struck from the diary. If I have given my life to God it is not possible to say: “Sorry, I don’t have time today” to him.

Just like Stefan Raab I cannot understand the fact that there is so much rubbish in our lives which we could get rid of without any problem. However only very few take the step although we could kill two birds with one stone – for one thing, we would have more time and our lives would be more worth living.

If I have given my life to God then I have to prioritise my time to develop my relationship with him, to get to know him better, because is the one who knows what is best for me. It is not as if I give my life to God and then I know everything I need to know – it is nothing more than the beginning of a relationship. If I have given my life to God and want his will to stand in the foreground then I have to be prepared to let myself be questioned by him and I have to let myself be challenged daily. I therefore have to take time for myself. Using this basis it is possible to apply aspects of my life sensibly and organise my life valuably without permanently believing that I don’t have any time. What does my relationship with God look like? I have to keep asking and sometimes allow myself to be questioned!

What does your relationship to God look like? Think about this! If you don’t have any time, make time!

I believe that there is enough of it there and we just have to learn how to use it sensibly. God wants to help us make our lives more valuable and there is something we can use to do this.

Author: Andi from Effringen