I Spent My Day Wasting Time.

How many days can I say that about? Unfortunately the amount is beyond my ability to recall or number. TV shows, movies, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pet Saga, internet browsing, long naps. The list goes on of things I allow to fill my time. And by fill I mean waste. Looking at the way I spend a lot of my time, you would think I was created to find the best way to be comfortable, entertained, and happy. I’ve allowed the culture I live in to tell me that I deserve:

rest (which is true, rest is needed, but what the general culture would call rest, really is just laziness) 

time to myself (aka selfishness) 

and whatever I want to make me happy (aka pride, gluttony, idolatry, etc.)

Instead of doing what I have been created to do--make disciples of the One God who created this world (Matthew 29:19-20), live a life holy and blameless before Him (Ephesians 1:4), and share with the world the incredible redemption I have experienced that has given true and pure freedom (Romans 8:1-2)--I’m busy wishing Tony and Ziva would get married, or wondering if the BAU is going to catch the bad guy…again, or trying to save 9 pets and get 30,000 points so I can move to level 46. 

I mean…what? WHAT?! When I take a minute to sit back and think about my Lord, who has the salvation of the world on His heart and the urgency of that salvation in the forefront of His mind, seeing me spend hours a day serving myself and wasting time when He has given me the command to join Him in His mission…I mean…I’m ashamed. When I ask myself, "Do I live out what I was literally created and designed to do?" My response is: Sometimes. Kind of.

Sometimes. Kind of. Imagine what those answers would produce in our world today.

- Does your phone work like it should? Sometimes? Take it back.

- Is your food hot when it comes out at the restaurant? Kind of? Send it back.

- Is the toy you bought your grandbaby working? Sometimes? Take it back and exchange it for a new one that will work.

You get my point.

The culture that I live in has taught me that if something doesn’t perfectly fulfill its purpose and meet the expectation you have placed on it, it’s not worth your time or effort. Get rid of it. Take it back. Get a new one. So when I sit here and realize that I am a creation that is not only beat up and broken in places, but that is literally not doing the very thing I was created to do…I weep. I fear. I become defiant. I rebel. I become defensive. Why?

            Because I’m expecting my Creator to give up on me.

I’m expecting God to look at me and sigh in frustration. I’m expecting Him to look at the ways I am wasting the gift of redemption, time, and life He has given to me and say, “Give me a new one, this one is broken”. Because in all honesty, that’s what I would do. And that’s what this world tells me I would have the right to do.

But, praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, my God is not of this world. 

My God, the Creator of this world, can look upon His creation, despite the worlds corruption and the scars of sin, and call me His child (Romans 8:21), His wonderful creation (Psalm 139:14), His beloved (Colossians 3:12). Why? Because when I come before Him, I come bought and claimed by His Son, Jesus, who died—“the righteous for the unrighteous” (1 Peter 3:18)—so that my sin could not only be forgiven but cleansed before Him (1 John 1:9). I do not have to fear rejection by God because He has literally told me that He cannot and will not ever give up on me!

“He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?...Christ Jesus is the One who died—more than that who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?...For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." ( Romans 8:32, 34-35, 38-39)

My security rests in Christ Jesus, who sits beside the Lord interceding for me (even when I’m sitting, wasting my time). Because of Christ, the Lord does not look down in disgust and toss me aside. Instead He looks on me with a love I can never separate from and sends me a Helper who can equip me and teach me to live the life I was created to live (John 14:26) despite my sinful desire not to at times. I am no longer a slave to my self-serving sin, therefore I am able to spend the majority of my time seeking to serve my Lord and others, not myself. Praise be to God.

((Disclaimer: Please know that I am not intending to condemn all forms of entertainment, including those listed in this post, but instead to challenge myself and my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to reflect on both the time spent and the motivation behind said entertainment.))