Time

The Christian God is a God of time.  He is the other person in your relationship with life and the universe. In my experience, I believe that the thing he wants most from us is our time.  Time, interestingly, is the thing that is increasingly the most precious commodity in our society.  But it takes time to be in relationship with someone. 

Lives without the intentional giving of time to others become increasingly superficial.  We know from relationships that the thing people want most from us is our time.  My wife desires, above all things, for intentional, present time with me.  My friends, the close ones, are one side of a relationship invested with time.

God is a person too.  He wants our time.  Uninterrupted, focused, intentional time.

God designed us to be in relationship with one another to teach us how to be in relationship with him (or her). But I am too busy. I am raising three screaming children, I have work and commitments.  

And at night I just want to come home and crash.

Your relationship with God is the most important thing in your life.  It supersedes your relationship
with your kids or your wife or girlfriend or your book group friends. We are supposed to invest in the most important relationship. It is the purpose of life.  And everybody is looking for a purpose.  Well, here it is.  On a platter.

Take a half hour.  Tell the kids this ½ hour is mom’s time.  Take a day off.  Stay in for a night. Take

20 minutes or ½ hour. Get out your bible or a spiritual book and read.  You may want to pray a quick prayer. Journal your prayer, if you’re a writer. Then listen.  See if God shows up.  Remember he may not answer you at that moment. 

You are doing the most important thing you can possibly do with your life: giving of your time. If your commitments get in the way, try sitting something out.  Free up your schedule. Everyone and everything else can wait.  God is more important.  We have to shift our focus and set our hearts on our priority: the reason for our existence – to spend time with God.

And you will find that all your other relationships will improve.  You won’t need the book club every week to develop friends to keep you from getting lonely.  You will see the value in the friends you have and people will be attracted to someone who is intentional and present with them.  Your wife will appreciate that you’re not moody and rushed. The relationship and love you crave, in this way, will be provided by God.  Because the more time you give him, strangely, the more time you have.