Time For the God Stuff

CWO quote for November 23, 2007

"One reason we are so harried and hurried is that we make yesterday and tomorrow our business, when all that legitimately concerns us is today. If we really have too much to do, there are some items on the agenda which God did not put there. Let us submit the list to Him and ask Him to indicate which items we must delete. There is always time to do the will of God. If we are too busy to do that, we are too busy." ~ Elisabeth Elliott ~


While watching an old TV re-run of Leave it to Beaver, Beaver said something that made me think of this quote. On a Wednesday afternoon Beaver had been invited to a birthday party on Saturday. As Saturday rolled around he had big plans to do all sorts of things but he forgot about his invitation to his friend’s party. His parents asked him how he could do such a thing and he told them, “Well on Wednesday I was just thinking about Wednesday stuff not Saturday stuff.”

Although we don’t want to miss any major appointments or dates perhaps we would be better off thinking like Beaver and only be concerned about today’s “stuff.” Putting together an effort today to stop making yesterday and tomorrow our business when in reality the one is gone and the other isn’t here yet.

Back in the days when I had to face the task of getting rid of stress seizures this was a big lesson I had to learn. I could only take one day at a time, one problem at a time or I would have stress seizures. In order to get rid of the one I was going to have to give up the other. Give up trying to hang on to yesterday while reaching for tomorrow. It was amazing how many stress seizures that was causing in my life. Daily I had to hand my list to God to check off what didn’t need to be.

In the fast pace society we live in it isn’t hard to get caught up in the swiftness to the point that we flow with the rest of the crowd. However, that isn’t what God wants us to do. He wants us to use our time and energy wisely in a productive manner to do His will not our own. Taking one day at a time and one step at a time.

It’s sad to think that the first thing that gets scratched off the list of things to do is what God would want. We don’t have time to go to church, read our Bible, pray, or attend Bible Study. There simply isn’t enough time to reach out to others. We are the first on our list and whatever is leftover God gets. It’s scary to think that some day we would even go so far as to have drive up windows in the church. A place where we can just swing by long enough to roll down our window and get what we want and go on.

This Christmas season and for every season of our lives we need to do it God’s way. Putting Him on the top of the priority list. Make our appointments with Him that we would never miss and let the rest of our lives fall in around. Times set aside to pray, to read, to worship, and to do His will.

CLOSING THOUGHT: Item by item for everyone we add to our list we squeeze God out. The hurried and the harried get out of hand. Some days it seems like it can’t be helped but yet we would be surprised just how much we can do without. A lot has to do with our attitude also and the inner peace that should be there because God is there. We don’t need to give up taking the kids to sports activities, give up running to the store for groceries, give up dropping in to have the car oil changed. What we need to give up is leaving God out of our day-to-day lives replacing Him with unnecessary hurried and harried activities that don’t need to be. We’re a team. It’s vital that we don’t leave out the most important team player we have, God! There can and always should be time for the "God stuff!"

Our host this week is Sarah over at To Motherhood and Beyond. Sarah chose this quote to go with the busy holiday season that is upon us. Go to her website to see what others have to share on this quote.