Time Management for Mummies

I didn’t see it coming.

After barely hitting a deadline and rushing out the door to make my dentist appointment, I received a message from God at a stoplight. The wheel cover on the Jeep in front of me had a sloth hanging on a branch saying, “Don’t hurry. Be happy.”

I love God’s sense of humor…mostly.

Lurch

Maybe you know what it is like to lurch from one thing to the next, valiantly trying to stay on track. Douglas Adams of Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe fame said, “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”

My sudden burst of laughter the moment I read that told me more than I wanted to know. When did I allow time to become the boss of me?

Jesus didn’t live that way. Although he had many people to see and many things to do, his life was not lived in the fast lane. He lived under the loving gaze of his Heavenly Father.

List

Something about my way of life tends to list toward hurry.

One day back in seminary, my Christian Education prof made an off-handed comment, “The busiest people in life are the deadest.” The sentence stuck in my mind like a spear.

That can’t be right,” I inwardly protested. “The busiest people are the ones who are getting things done. They are the movers and shakers.”

Only later did I discover what he meant. The busier I am on the outside, the deader I am on the inside.

Too often, my busyness has entombed me like a mummy: spiritually dead to God and others, dead even to myself, and all of it under wraps.

Life

As I shift into summer mode, I’m aching to do life differently. If you or someone you know have also noticed a connection between busyness and deadness, here are three time management tips for mummies.

1. Reimagine Time

Which is more important: what you do or who you are? It’s not an easy question. Our world values the doers. Period. If you want to get noticed, promoted, or applauded, show us what you can do.

But Jesus focuses on who we are. He told his disciples is it not what goes in our mouths that defile us. It is what comes out.

For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

Matthew 12:34 (NRSVUE)

For Jesus, being comes before doing. Everything we do comes out of who we are.

What if the primary purpose of time was not to get things done but to become a new creation in Christ?

Would that change how and what we do?

2. Renewable Energy

Awhile back, I had a phone that worked fine for a day or so, but all of a sudden, the battery would go out. I finally replaced it, because I was never sure when it would stop working.

Turns out, at some point every day, our batteries go out too. The problem for many of us is we keep trying to eek energy out of a dead battery.

Jesus took a different approach. He cultivated a regular rhythm of work and rest. When he was most in demand, he would often withdraw to a lonely place and pray (Luke 5:16).

Even though the time to accomplish his mission was short, he observed a day of Sabbath each week for worship and rest. Rather than fret about his “To Do” list, his peace with God ran so deep, he could fall asleep in a boat in the middle of a storm!

What if we rearranged our time to create a life rhythm of work and rest that allowed us to work from our rest instead of rest from our work?

Would that lengthen our battery life?

3. Radical Focus

When I head to the gym, I like to multi-task. I do the elliptical, listen to my year-through-the-Bible passages, and watch people play basketball on the floor below – at the same time. While there’s something satisfying about taking it all in at once, I know I’m not getting the full benefit of any of them. I can’t. My focus is divided.

King David wrote,

Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart to revere your name.

Psalm 86:11 (NRSVUE)

Is there anything dividing your heart right now? Every commercial or advertisement we ever see is after one thing: our attention. Companies and organizations know when they have our attention, they have us.

What if we intentionally set aside time each day, maybe just 10 minutes, to withdraw from attention-grabbing devices and simply spent time alone with God in silence?

Would that increase our ability to say “No” to distractions and live with an undivided heart?

God never intended us to be mummies. If we reimagine time, find rhythms that renew our energy and practice a radical focus on God, we’ll get out from under the deadening weight of busyness.

There’s new life on the other side. It’s time to unwrap it.

It’s Here!

Excited to share that Kinda Christian Workbook released May 26! It is designed to help individuals, small groups and classes who want to go on a deeper journey with Jesus.

The workbook includes much of the original content of Kinda Christian: From Curious to Serious about Jesus, but it also offers space to reflect on newly added questions, exercises, and journal prompts to help integrate life-giving spiritual practices into our daily lives.

Individual copies as well as bulk discount prices for churches and groups are available only at Invite Ministries here.