Transcript

The Clock · Reformed Thinking

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Reformed thinking. Welcome back everyone to the
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Deep Dive. This is where we dig into the
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source material you send us, aiming to pull out the key
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insights you need today. We're talking about time, but
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maybe not in the way you usually hear about it, like just for
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getting ahead at work or something.
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We're looking at Christian stewardship of time using
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scriptures, wisdom, and a, well, a Reformed view of God's
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sovereignty. As our guides and the sources
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you share, they really highlight this, this tension, don't they?
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It's central to Christian life, really.
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How do you balance being disciplined, being intentional,
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which the Bible clearly wants us to be, with also being humble,
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submitting to God's plan, which the Bible also demands?
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It's a tricky spot. It really is.
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That's the tightrope we walk. So that's where we're diving in
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today. How do we use our limited time?
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Well, you know, really make the most of it without becoming
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arrogant, thinking we're fully in control.
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And the main take away from these sources, it's it's
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striking, but simple. Christian time management isn't
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ultimately about you getting better or faster.
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It's about self sacrificial love for other people.
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And that starting point, well, it changes everything about how
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you look at your schedule. It absolutely does.
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It shifts the whole game from just personal efficiency to
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spiritual faithfulness, you could say.
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And looking at the source material, it kicks off by
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emphasizing just how incredibly valuable this thing called time
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really is. It's the currency of life itself
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and, well, it's always slipping away.
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Yeah, no pause button, no rewind.
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It just keeps going. Exactly.
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And the sources use this really powerful comparison.
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It stuck with me. Time versus money.
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Yes, that one's quite vivid. They argue that time is
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infinitely more precious. Why?
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Because no amount of money can ever buy back even a single
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moment you've lost. Think about that.
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You listening right now. We track our money, right?
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We budget it, we invest it, we worry about it.
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If someone just, I don't know, started throwing $20 bills out
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the window, we'd think they were completely mad.
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Definitely. Yet how often do we just throw
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away hours, maybe whole days, just fritter them away without a
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second thought? The source is really press on
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this. If we treat our money like we
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treat our time, people would think we were insane.
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That disconnect is, well, it's revealing.
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It's a pretty sharp critique of how we often live, isn't it?
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Just letting time drift the material frames, ignoring time's
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passage as like a constant danger.
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And wisdom, then, is realizing our days are short and
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stewarding them carefully. They're gifts, right?
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Finite gifts from God. Precisely.
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And that's why this whole idea that, you know, time management
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is just some modern corporate fad.
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It's just wrong. Right, it's not a secular
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invention. Not at all.
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Scripture got there first by a long shot.
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It gives us a clear mandate for being intentional with our time.
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And it's not just a suggestion, is it?
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It feels more like a command running through both the Old and
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New Testaments. Yeah, Paul gives us what the
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sources call a kind of charter for this.
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It's in Ephesians 5, verses 15 and 16.
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He says look carefully then, how you walk.
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Not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time,
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because the days are evil. Making the best use of the time.
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What does that really mean in the Greek?
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It's interesting. It literally translates as
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redeeming the time or buying back the opportune moment.
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Like it's a valuable commodity you need to rescue from being
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wasted. Buying it back, Yeah.
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Wow. So it's a call to pay attention,
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to be awake to how we spend our minutes.
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Exactly. And this isn't new wisdom.
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Look way back to the prayer of Moses in Psalm 90, verse 12.
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Oh. Yeah, that's a classic.
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Long before productivity blogs, Moses is praying.
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So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of
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wisdom. Number our days, count them,
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realize how few there are. Right.
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The path to wisdom starts with recognizing how short and
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frankly, fragile our time here is.
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If you think you have forever, you'll probably waste today.
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But if you remember the clock's ticking while you approach
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things differently with more seriousness, maybe the.
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Variety. Yeah, the sense of stewardship.
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So if time is this precious, finite gift that leads straight
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to the next big question, the theological one, who actually
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owns this time? Is it really mine?
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And here's where the sources bring in that.
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A hard but happy reminder, as they put it.
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It's from First Corinthians 6. If you adapt versus 19 and 20
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just slightly to fit our topic, the message is pretty direct.
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Your time is not your own. You were bought with a price.
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So glorify me in your schedule. Wow, OK, glorify me in your
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schedule. That completely reframes it,
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doesn't it? Suddenly time management isn't
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about my personal goals, my efficiency.
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It's about, well, it's about fulfilling the purpose of the
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one who bought my time in the first place.
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Exactly. If Christ owns us, then the
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resources he gives us and time is definitely one of those need
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to be used according to His will.
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And when faith is guiding how we use that time, we're borrowing.
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Essentially, there's one main principle that has to direct it
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all Love. Love.
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Yeah, the sources point straight to Romans 13, verses 8 and 10.
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Love for others fulfills God's law.
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That has to be the engine driving all our planning, all
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our efforts to be disciplined and intentional.
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If the ultimate goal isn't loving God and loving our
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neighbor, then even the best laid plans are kind of missing
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the point already. So sanctifying time isn't just
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about like, scheduling prayer or church stuff.
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It's about actively spending our time on others through all those
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different acts of love that our specific calling involves.
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Right. And the sources bring in a
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really key insight here, drawing on people like Luther.
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Good works glorify God, yes, but how?
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Not because God needs them, right?
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Exactly, God is totally self-sufficient, He doesn't need
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anything from us. So when we do good works they
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aren't for his benefit, they're entirely for our neighbors
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benefit. Luther had that great line the
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sources mentioned. It's not God who needs your good
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works, but your neighbor does. So our neighbor is the target,
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the recipient of our time stewardship.
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That's a good way to put it. They're the ones who need us to
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spend our finite time, our energy, our skills in ways that
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serve them in love. So when Moses prayed teach us to
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number our days, maybe the lesson is that we count them so
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we know how much we have to pour out for the people God puts in
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our path. Your planning needs to account
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for your neighbor, not just for getting yourself ahead.
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That's the positive side, the mandate.
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OK, got it. Intentionality driven by love
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makes sense. But then the sources pivot
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pretty hard to a warning, don't they?
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If. They do.
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Just like ignoring time is bad, there's an opposite danger.
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And it's maybe even more common today in our culture.
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It's getting totally consumed by our calendars, just obsessed
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with scheduling, planning, optimizing every single minute.
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The source is called this Focus nearly epidemic in our day.
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Epidemic. Strong word.
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And why is that so dangerous? What's driving it?
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Well, the sources suggest it often comes from a bad place.
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Maybe deep anxiety, needing to feel in control, right?
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Or selfishness, mindless above everything.
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Or just plain pride, thinking we actually can command the future,
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right? And that leads to a serious
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warning in the material. A very serious one.
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The danger is that the God of time management, you know, our
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perfect system, our calendar app, Yeah, it will fail us.
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It can't take the place of Christ and His Providence His
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right to direct our lives. Relying on the system instead of
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God, Yes, yeah. When we trust our spreadsheet
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more than the sovereign hand of God who actually holds tomorrow,
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we've already failed the real test.
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And the Bible speaks directly against that kind of arrogant
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planning, doesn't it? James comes to mind.
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James is definitely the lead voice here.
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He calls out people who make plans with total certainty
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without any reference to God. Like the businessman saying
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today or tomorrow, we'll go to this town, stay a year, trade,
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make a profit. Exactly that guy James looks at
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that kind of planning, you know, detailed five year plans made
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without humility, and he doesn't hold back.
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What does? He call it, he calls it boasting
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in your arrogance. And then he says, flat out all
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such boasting is evil. It's not just unwise, it's
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morally wrong. Wow, evil.
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That's strong. And it connects right back to
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Proverbs, doesn't it? Do not boast about tomorrow, for
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you do not know what a day may bring.
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We just don't know. We don't even know if we'll be
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here tomorrow. James is brutal on this point.
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He asks the planner what is your life, for you are a mist that
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appears for a little time and then vanishes.
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A mist. That image just shatters any
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illusion of control we might have.
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It's meant to. So what's the antidote to that?
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Area saying if the Lord wills. Exactly.
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Instead of certainty, the Christian posture is
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provisional. If the Lord wills, we will live
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and do this or that planning without acknowledging God's
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sovereignty. Well, the sources say it's
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theological negligence. It's arrogance, because every
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clock, every second is ultimately in His hands.
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Our plans have to be held loosely.
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This warning feels especially relevant with what the sources
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call productivity porn. Yes, that whole modern obsession
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with finding the perfect system, the best app, the ultimate
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routine, getting caught up and constantly tweaking how we work.
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And that world often pushes a message that sounds disciplined
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but it's actually very self-centered, isn't.
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It very much so. The advice is often to
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ruthlessly guard our sacred schedule from the invasions of
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others needs and priorities. Invasions.
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That word says a lot. It really does.
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In that view, a successful day is 1 where your list gets done
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uninterrupted. Other people's needs, the
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expected call, the neighbor needing help, your spouse asking
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for something they're seen as disruptions to fight off.
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Which is the total opposite of the biblical mandate we talked
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about. Exactly.
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It directly contradicts the call to have love for others drive
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our planning. We're meant to be available for
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our neighbor, not just locked into our own agenda.
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OK, so this is the core tension. We need discipline, that
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proactive work Paul talks about, but we also need humility, that
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reactive flexibility James demands driven by love.
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How do we actually do both? How do we balance being
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proactive with being reactive and available?
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Well, the sources point to a really helpful model in Titus 3
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verse 14. It brings both sides together.
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Paul tells Titus that believers should learn and devote
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themselves to good works so as to help cases of urgent need and
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not be unfruitful. So fruitfulness involves both
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things, doing the planned good works and helping with urgent
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unplanned needs. That's the idea.
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Good works need proactive effort, the disciplined work of
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Our Calling and reactive response being ready for those
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cases of urgent need that pop up.
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So if we don't plan well, we fail at the proactive part.
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Right, we're not fruitful in our main tasks.
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But if we plan too rigidly with no flexibility.
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Then we fail at the reactive part.
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We're unavailable when love requires us to respond to an
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urgent need. We become unfruitful in a
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different way. OK, so how do we build that
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proactive structure first? The sources lay out a few
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practical steps. The first one is foundational.
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Consider your calling, and that means identifying your current
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primary role or roles where God has equipped you to serve others
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in the season of your life. So it's not just about your job
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title. Not necessarily.
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It could be your role as a parent, a student, a caregiver,
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a key volunteer. It's whatever main channel God
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has given you right now to pour out your time and energy for
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others. Good.
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And the emphasis is on present calling.
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Yes, that's key, the sources mentioned.
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For example, a college student, their main calling now is
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diligent study serving that community.
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It's not organizing their life around some future business idea
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if it means neglecting their current duties, right?
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Focus on the good works prepared for this season once you.
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Have a sense of that calling. The next step is practical
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prioritizing plan with big stones.
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The rocks and the jar analogy. I like that one.
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It's very useful. The big stones are those few
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really key priorities that are central to fulfilling your
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calling, the demanding tasks that actually make a difference
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for others. So not just busy work, but the
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core stuff. Exactly.
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You have to figure out what are your big stones.
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If you're a teacher, maybe it's lesson planning and focused
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grading. If you're in research, it's the
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deep work in the lab or archives, not just answering
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emails. And the analogy works because of
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how you schedule. Them right precisely think of
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your week as a big glass jar. If you put the big stones, those
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two or three major high impact tasks in first scheduling them
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in the solid blocks. Then the smaller stuff fits
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around them. Yeah, the little pebbles,
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emails, quick calls, admin tasks, they can fill in the gaps
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and. If you start with the pebbles.
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The big stones just won't fit. They get pushed out.
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So scheduling those key priorities first, maybe with
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what the sources call fairly rigid blocks, is crucial.
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Otherwise, your main contributions, the things your
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neighbor really needs from you, get compromised.
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OK, prioritize the big stones. Then what?
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Step 3 is about timing. Make the most of your mornings.
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This is common advice, but the sources give it a theological
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grounding too. They do.
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Practically speaking, most people just have more energy,
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more focus, more willpower earlier in the day.
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It's often the best time for that deep, creative, proactive
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work. The big stones.
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And fewer interruptions, usually.
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Generally, yes. The morning hours are often less
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likely to be sidelined by interruptions that tend to pile
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up later. Emails, calls, unexpected
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crises. They often hit harder as the day
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goes on. So tackling the big stuff early
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protects it. It does, and spiritually there's
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a pattern too. Think of the psalmist seeking
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God early or Jesus in Mark One getting up very early in the
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morning for prayer. Setting the tone for the day.
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Exactly how you use your morning can really shape your heart's
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direction, especially if the very first thing is connecting
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with God before the world rushes in.
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OK now connect this back to the main driver.
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Love How is getting up early and tackling my big tasks an act of
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love for others? It's.
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Because by doing that disciplined, proactive work
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first, the work you're calling requires you ensure you've
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actually delivered the good you owe your neighbor through your
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vocation. So fulfilling my primary
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responsibilities is an act of love.
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Yes, and completing that frees you up.
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It allows you, as the sources say, to go on the offensive with
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flexibility for unscheduled acts of love later in the day.
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Because you're not stressed about neglecting your main job.
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Right. You can respond to that
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unexpected need later with more grace and less resentment,
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knowing your core duties are handled.
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OK. That leads us nicely to the
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other side of the coin, the reactive part flexibility,
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margin. Yes, this is a humility piece.
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Remembering James''s warning, planning has to include generous
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margin and planned flexibility. It's like building theological
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space into the schedule. That's a great way to think
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about it. It's space that acknowledges
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God's sovereignty. It says I've planned diligently,
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but Lord, your will be done. This margin lets us handle the
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unexpected needs of others without the whole structure
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collapsing in stress or worse, resentment.
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So it's this balance again, structure and flexibility.
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It's the synthesis the sources push for.
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Without the structure, the proactive work suffers.
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Our Calling isn't fulfilled well.
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And the neighbor misses out. Right.
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But without the flexibility, the margin, we become unavailable
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for those urgent reactive needs. We fail the love command when
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someone needs us now. So discipline driven by Love
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Actually enables flexibility later on.
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That seems to be the goal. A kind of structured freedom,
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you might say. It sounds ideal, but let's be
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honest, it also sounds exhausting.
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And the sources acknowledge this right, that we all fail at this.
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Oh, absolutely. They're very clear.
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We are chronic time wasters. We all have bouts of
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lovelessness. We get distracted, we
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procrastinate. Nobody does this perfectly.
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And. That can lead to a lot of
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regret. Can it?
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Thinking about wasted days, weeks, years.
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Definitely. That feeling of regret over
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squandered time can be heavy. All those lost opportunities.
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So what do we do with that regret?
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The sources say don't let it paralyze you.
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Let it do something productive. Let that regret drive you to
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Jesus. To the only one who used his
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time perfectly. Exactly.
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And let that same regret, fueled by faith in him, inspire you to
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more carefully count the days still ahead.
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So learn from the past, but focus forward.
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Yes, because Christ has made us his own, we can move forward.
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We're not defined by our past failures in time management or
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anything else. It sounds like Philippians 3
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forgetting what's behind straining forward.
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Precisely, Paul says, forgetting what lies behind and straining
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forward to what lies ahead. I press on.
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That's the gospel applied to our schedules, our past time.
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Sins are covered. We can focus on stewarding this
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moment right now. Because of God's grace.
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Yes, the hope isn't in finding a better system next week.
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The hope is that the mercies of Christ are new every morning,
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even every hour, the sources say.
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We can always start fresh right now, trusting His grace.
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That's incredibly freeing. It is.
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And when we do manage by grace to live out this balance,
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proactive discipline fueled by love, reactive flexibility was
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the outcome. The sources promise real joy,
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Not just satisfaction, but deep joy.
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They argue the greatest joys in life actually come from that
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self sacrificial pouring out of our time and energy for others,
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all for God's glory. So it's not about the joy of a
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perfectly clean inbox. Not primarily, no.
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It's about experiencing the truth of what Jesus said, quoted
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in Acts 20. It is more blessed to give than
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to receive. That giving of our time, our
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energy for the neighbor. That's the blessedness.
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That's the real goal of Christian time stewardship.
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It's about being effective for love, not just efficient for
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self. OK, so let's try to wrap this
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deep dive up. The big picture seems to be this
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reconciled approach, right? It involves discipline,
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intentional planning, but the motivation has to be love for
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others, and that structure needs to be balanced with generous
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flexibility with margin build. Simility factor.
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And the whole thing, every plan, every minute, needs to be
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submitted to God's sovereign will, always praying if the Lord
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wills. That sums it up well.
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It takes time management out of the self help aisle and puts it
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right where it belongs, at the heart of Christian discipleship,
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making our efforts count for the mission of love.
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So here's a final thought for you to chew on based on what
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we've discussed. The sources say the greatest
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joys come from pouring yourself out for others.
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How does remembering that change the way you feel when that
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flexibility you carefully planned gets used up not by
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something you wanted to do, but by a neighbor showing up with an
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unplanned, urgent, maybe even inconvenient need?
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Does your schedule and your heart submit joyfully to that
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call of love? Something to think about.
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A challenging question indeed. Thank you for digging into these
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sources with us today, everyone. It's been a great conversation
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on time, intentionality, and the Christians clock.
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Yeah, thanks for joining us for this deep dive.
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We'll talk to you next time.