You probably work 9-5 (likely longer). You come home to responsibilities: children who need to be cared for, meals that need to be cooked and a house that doesn’t clean itself. Add to that the responsibilities of your local church and you may have a prayer meeting to attend, a club to run or a pastoral visit to make. Then if extra or emergency situations arise – caring for a sick or elderly relative or working at a building or renovation project at church or home – a pressure point is reached where you feel one more thing will tip you over the proverbial edge. Even a weekend off doesn’t help, as it is spent catching up on things you didn’t get done during the week, or attending church meetings. Let’s face it – Sunday is not a day of rest!
Even those with a more flexible schedule (people who work from home, homemakers or retired people) are faced with a day whose hours are soon crammed full of things they have to do.
Because the 24-hour day is not changing any time soon, what is the solution?
Our verse tells us to ‘redeem the time’. This means literally buying it back and making the best use of time. You should take the time available to you and allocate it wisely to what you have to do. Could you be more efficient with your work hours and get home earlier (talk less and prioritize more)? Can you say no to things that are not a good use of your time and accept that you can’t do everything? Can others share your home responsibilities and thereby release some of your time?
There are no rules for this because we each do what we have to do. But it is worth bearing in mind the overarching principle that nobody is ‘too busy’: rather, it’s just a matter of priorities.If you are completely honest with yourself, you will admit that you find time for the things you really want to do.
So if our heart puts God first, we shall instinctively find the time to do the right things and thus ‘redeem the time, because the days are evil.’
