The thing I want to know is just how much time I saved during these past six months. More important, how can I get to some of that time when I need it?
I seem always just a little bit behind and an extra hour or two would help me out of a pinch sometimes. In fact, if anyone has any daylight-saving time they are not going to use, please contact me. I may be interested in buying some. With my luck, if I do see the light at the end of the tunnel it will be an oncoming train.
I have enough time to do everything I want to do. The problem could just be that my 'to do? is too much and I should consider rearranging my priorities. Or, at least cut out some things not that important.
That is the dilemma of my life. Simply put, it is the obsession that I must finish everything I start. But, why? It all started with my parents who . . .
Once again, it's that time of the year when we have turned our clocks back one hour. It is ?fall back? and 'spring forward,? although I never seem to get ahead. Daylight-saving time was designed to add an hour more of daylight at the end of the usual working day. Now it is time to end the daylight-saving time. I shall miss my old friend.
The thing I want to know is just how much time I saved during these past six months. More important, how can I get to some of that time when I need it?
I seem always just a little bit behind and an extra hour or two would help me out of a pinch sometimes. In fact, if anyone has any daylight-saving time they are not going to use, please contact me. I may be interested in buying some. With my luck, if I do see the light at the end of the tunnel it will be an oncoming train.
I have enough time to do everything I want to do. The problem could just be that my 'to do? is too much and I should consider rearranging my priorities. Or, at least cut out some things not that important.
That is the dilemma of my life. Simply put, it is the obsession that I must finish everything I start. But, why? It all started with my parents who always nagged me about ?finishing? everything.
?Hurry up and finish your supper,? they'd say. Then it was, ?Have you finished your homework??
On the weekends it was, ?Go and finish mowing the yard.?
I could never understand this obsession with finishing everything on time. I still can't. The Pennsylvania Dutch say, 'the hurrier I go the behinder I get.?
No matter how soon I finished mowing the lawn, it had to be mowed again and usually sooner than I liked. My idea was to let the lawn go until the end of the summer and then mow it once. Unfortunately, I could never sell this time saving idea to my father who had no time for my foolishness.
Now that I am an adult and free to stop hurrying, I haven't. On Friday afternoons, I usually sketch out the following week. Most of the time, it takes a ream of paper. I have yet to find any red underwear in my closet that says, 'super Pastor? on the front, and yet, I sometimes believe I can leap tall buildings in a single bound and run faster than a speeding bullet.
For me, the perfect agenda has yet to be laid out on any given Friday. Optimist that I am, I still try. Sometimes I even come close, as was the case last week.
Everything was going fine. In fact, I was even catching up on some projects. I was feeling quite good about the week and my progress with my schedule. Then Thursday dawned.
Early Thursday morning a young woman called from the local detoxification center and asked if I could come and visit her. A pastor has difficulty turning anyone away even if it wrecks his schedule. I cast a wistful eye at my 'to-do-list? and sighed. I almost made it. I answered her in the affirmative.
I arrived at the center around nine and registered at the front desk. Then I was taken to see the woman. I introduced myself to her because I never saw her before. A pastor friend of mine gave her my name.
My visit lasted from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. and I must confess, I did think about some of those unfinished tasks lying on my desk. But, I shook my head vigorously and forced myself to focus on the situation at hand.
At times, the best thing 'to do? is to leave everything unfinished, disrupt my meticulously prepared schedule and give my full time to someone in need.
Everyone seems obsessed with time, or maybe I should say the lack of it ? which is silly when you think about it. We all have the same 24 hours per day but we don't all utilize those hours the same way.
Only Americans are obsessed with time. Other cultures have a different idea about time. A retired missionary friend of mine related a story from his first term in Africa. The area where he was stationed was quite primitive, so to keep some semblance of time, he brought with him a sundial.
The villagers had never seen a sundial before but were impressed by the devotion the missionary gave to it. To them, time meant very little and they could not quite figure out the purpose of the missionary's sundial. All they knew was that it was very important to him.
One day the missionary left on a trip taking him out of the village for about a month. The people thought this would be an excellent opportunity to do something special for their friend. Knowing how much the missionary thought of the sundial, they centered their attention on it.
When the missionary returned from his journey, he found to his dismay that the people had built a thatched roof over his sundial to protect it from the sun.
The Bible places a lot of importance on time. The Apostle Paul wrote, ?And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed? (Romans 13:11 KJV).
I can't save time, but I sure can take advantage of the time I have.
Dr. James L. Snyder, is pastor of the Family of God Fellowship, 1471 Pine Road, Ocala, FL 34472. He lives with his wife in Silver Springs Shores. James is an award winning author whose books are available at https://amzn.to/2SMOjwO.
Call him at 352-687-4240 or e-mail [email protected]. The church web site is www.whatafellowship.com.
Hello everyone!Dr. James L. Snyder, is pastor of the Family of God Fellowship, 1471 Pine Road, Ocala, FL 34472. He lives with his wife in Silver Springs Shores. James is an award winning author whose books are available at https://amzn.to/2SMOjwO.
Call him at 352-687-4240 or e-mail [email protected]. The church web site is www.whatafellowship.com.
Hello everyone!