Daily Dose 5: Time Management

And just how would He have us “handle time?” Is time management the answer to using time His way?

Modern society presents time management as the field of study for gaining control in an uncontrolled world.  Consequently, even parents and school children are fortified with business world planners and calendars to keep their spinning tops in place.  Seminars, books, MP3 downloads, and in-office consultations are big business to assure no opportunity is missed. Vacation itineraries are programmed to the last moment and business management philosophy.

Time Management Problems

One weakness with the time management concept is that it promotes the illusion of control over something impossible to control. We can neither increase nor decrease time’s quantity or its speed. We cannot stop or repeat it.  We cannot stretch or shrink it. Time simply is in its perpetually passing state, like the ever-flowing stream of the hymn writer.

The second deception is that we are the ones in control. While setting personal goals, determining a dream destiny, and making things happen seem to produce tangible results (and who can argue with techniques that produce results?), I’ll ask again, is this really managing time?

In reality, time “managers” are coordinating the events bobbing and drifting along with the flow of time. No person is managing time at all. If our ambition is to know the fullness of His time in our time, then biblicists—whether homemakers or CEOs—need skill with the concept of priority stewardship.