... Yeah I said it.
It leaves you potentially asking the question every single day, "Am I using my time for that which is best?"
Every time I stop to do laundry I could be spending irretrievable time with my children. Or if I sit down to color with Story for an hour - the moment I get up to do something different, "Dad, come color with me!" Sometimes my three-year-old actually looks at me and says "Spend time with me!"
What three-year-old says that!? How can you turn that down!?
Now some of you reading this are thinking,"Dude... spend time with your kids!" "Don't be a jabroni man!" Let me begin by saying I wish I could spend every day with them... And Emily and I go to great lengths to have intentional family time with our beautiful and amazing little girls. We Sabbath on Saturdays, watch them together on Wednesday's, go to the library, have play time at night, we make sure to eat breakfast together every morning... Not to toot my own horn *toot* ... I think I'm a pretty good dad. Who knows, maybe the best dad in the world, whose to say... really.... ;)
Although, I have been chewing on the thought again lately of boundaries and focus. Now of course when we think of the term boundaries we begin to draw lines in our minds and tend to think of things being inside or out of them. I would venture to say it is much more blurry than that.
I'm not on the John Maxwell wagon much anymore but he does have a helpful axiom that goes something like, "You should never feel like you should be at home when you're at work, and you should never feel like you should be at work when you are at home."
My latest reaction to that is... well, you clearly don't work from home do you, Johnny?
Ok seriously, though, it does give a healthy framework of thinking about life. If we are continually thinking about being in a place that is OTHER than where we are... we will never know the Present.
There comes a moment, and you'll know it by the smell, that you must wash the diapers (for those who adhere to the holiness code of cloth diapering)... OR there is unidentified green colored growth happening on a pile of dirty dishes... OR there is a rustling coming from your hamper... as if amidst the dirty laundry there is now a wocket living in your pocket. You know what I'm talking about.
You can't go on coloring, life must be dealt with. At some point, to reference the late great King Solomon... the eating has stopped, the drinking is done, and now it's time for the toil. Enjoy the dishes! (see Ecclesiastes for further notes on enjoying chores)
Yet! Life isn't meant to live in a state of chaotic reaction. Clearly, you shouldn't let mold... or wockets in your house. But I believe we are designed for rhythms. Ordinary, everyday guilt-free, holy life, rhythms. A time for everything...and you have to decide when that time is. The fun part is deciding what your rhythm looks like... the hard part may be sticking with it... the grace comes as you learn to be less rigid with your lines... the love comes as you learn to love the present.
Maybe you don't do laundry on Tuesdays. Maybe you only do laundry on Tuesdays.
Maybe you play with your kids before you do anything else on a Monday.
Maybe you better have a cup of coffee before you even talk to your spouse... but you're going to have to get up just a little bit earlier if you're going to do that!
I guess the point is... to create your life rhythm... your rule of life... you have to answer the question. What is it that I want? What do I want? What do I really want? Like, really?
Do I want to sleep more? Or better relationships?
Do I want money? Or do I just want more time to read and pray?
Do I want to eat more sweets? Or do I want to feed hungry people?
This likely sounds trivial and slightly hyperbole. But it isn't. Because how we spend the few hours we have on earth, right now, will come down to you answering that question that no one else will answer... What do I really want?
Out of what those answers are... There may you find your life.
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