Redeeming Time

Within hours of my "Expecting the Unexpected" post, I was called on to practice what I preached. What I hoped to make clear in my post was the necessity of preparation. The unexpected often comes into our life. Surprises, whether good or bad, are part of life with limited knowledge. We would have to be omniscient, that is all-knowing, like God in order to never be surprised.

I am a procrastinator. I put things off to the last minute. In part, I do it because I am a perfectionist and a nit-picker. I am often my worst critic. I keep putting stuff off, because I know it won't be my best. Then I have to be satisfied (which I never am) with the final product, because it had to be finished. The irony is that waiting to the last minute guarantees that it won't be my best work.

I am working on being better prepared. If a person was to take advantage of the free time in their day, they would be less stressed by the divine appointments that interrupt their life. We often experience interruptions in our life. Have you ever been leaving your house, and had the phone ring? Have you ever ran in a store to pick up one item and ran into an old friend that need to talk? When the rest of our life is in order, these moments aren't very stressful and often they can be encouraging. However, if you have to be somewhere in 15 minutes when your house is thirty minutes from where you are going, that ringing phone may frustrate you.

We need to structure our lives in such a way that we can handle interruptions. Children get sick. Appliances break down. Friends and strangers need a compassionate ear, and sometimes a strong back. If we have made the most of the time we have then we can be confident that in these moments we are doing the right things by helping. Redeem the time that has been given to you, so that you can be available and willing to respond to divine appointments.