Ain't Nobody Got Time for That

Ain’t nobody got time for that

I’ve noticed this summer that I have a very predictable rhythm to my days. My wake-up time will vary slightly, but typically, I’ll get up, spend some quiet time—meditating, reading my devotion or scripture, and quoting scripture declarations over my day and my work. Then I walk for an hour or more, clean up and settle into the work for the day.

When Jeff is home, lunch is promptly served around noon, and then...

And then, I’m useless as a saddle on a boar hog.  From about one in the afternoon to four or five pm, my energy is depleted, and I rarely get anything of value accomplished. I find myself literally and figuratively nodding off. Not a good time for anything detailed, for sure. So, often I’ll give in to the nods and rest a little in the rocker in my office or on the couch.

I start prepping for supper after my energy hiatus, and by the time we’ve eaten supper, my energy resurges and I’m able to get more done.

Unless...

Well, one of two patterns typically emerges after supper.

One is when I allow distractions to derail my what’s-left-to-do list. I settle into my chair, and I go to check on something online, and SWOOSH! I realize my thumb is doing that thing... that repetitive motion of swiping up and up and up and up. When did that start? How long have I been here? OH NO! I have been hijacked into the Scroll Zone.  I’m not consciously registering anything I see, until... until the latest gossip about Clint Eastwood or the quiz that determines which Disney princess I am pops up in my feed. Is it my fault the makeup lady who talks about long-ago unsolved mysteries is so engaging!?!

Or the new AI generated pictures of what Elvis would look like today grabs my attention. I wasn’t ever really a fan of Elvis; he was a bit before my time, but still, isn’t it important, I mean culturally!? Shouldn’t I know what he looks like so that if I see him (there are those rumors, you know, that he didn’t really die back in 1977) I’ll know it’s really him!?

Then, the second pattern is revealed. I finally DO get started on work that I need to finish, and then I get on a roll.  Ten p.m., then eleven p.m. comes, and I’m ON it, cranking on all cylinders! But it’s bedtime, my husband reminds me, and I tell him, I’ll be there in “just a minute, if I can just get this one thing done...”

And I look up, and it is 1:30 a.m. A. M. I am not cranking on all cylinders. Probably seven of the eight in my engine are idling on low. And I COULD have stopped at 10 or 11 or 12, but fear that the ideas would stop flowing, or the words would dry up, or the momentum would escape me keeps me at my desk long past when it would be better for my mind, my health, my strength, my rest, if I let it go, laid it down, and went to bed.

I think the Apostle Paul was an overachiever. He ate, slept, breathed the gospel, and he seems tireless in his efforts to bring the good news of the Kingdom of God to the ends of the known world in his day. None more zealous than he, he would write, even before he met Jesus on the road to Damascus.

As driven, as he was, though, he trusted God would make the most of his efforts, even when he was forcibly slowed down by stints in prison or trips around Asia Minor when he would have preferred to go directly through it toward Rome.

He wrote to the church as Ephesus, “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. (Ephesians 5:15-17 NIV)

Paul knew his time was short, but he understood the value of wise use of time. No doubt he learned from the disciples that Jesus’s modus operandi included rest. “Come all you who are weary laden, and I will give you rest!”

Wisdom says that the first of my unfortunate patterns is NOT making the most of my opportunities. Ain’t nobody got time for that!

And the second pattern, pushing my body and denying it of the rest it needs to function at its best, doesn’t make sense, either. Most of the time, I spend the next day recovering from my late night and lose not only the profitability of the previous evening but also the new day as well. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

Like Paul, I realize my time is limited. Wisdom is recognizing and correcting the patterns that do not serve me well. That will, as the King James translates it, redeems the time.