I just heard, on whichever "Talk" station was running off the Satellite Radio, the top female CEO of the year, or something. She's made great strides in employee benefits, and most recently made moves to extend benefits to the part time employees of whichever company she's the head of. I was only half listening, so all I heard of the thing that caught my attention was the actual quote:
"A third for family, A third for community and a third for work".
I expect she was talking about time management and giving back, etc.
The other thing that caught my attention was my totally Evangelical mental reaction- "But what about God?!"
And then, my Grace covered Spirit remembered... if God is indeed in me, and I take him with me wherever I go, then God is in it all!
How much have I tried to control God, in the past, by "dividing" my time? Oh- let's see... I'll give God, say, 10% of my time or be really generous and make it 20 or 25%. If I went to Church for 3 hours on Sunday and was back for another meeting on Tuesday... then hooray! The rest of the week is mine to do whatever I wish with!
God should really have 100% of my time, shouldn't he? And if I "manage" my life, like this woman did, and give it some definition by making a third of my time allotted to family, and a second third for community and the final third for work... and if I'm striving to walk with Jesus 100% of the time...
I wonder if that is the difference between Evangelical, fundamentalist Christianity and... just walking with Jesus. The way we look at things like this, I mean.
Does the fundamentalist look at it like "taking it in thirds means not giving God any time! You must assign God his portion and be religious about giving it to him".
Does Grace see it as "there is no conflict with taking it in thirds, because God is with me no matter what I'm doing, so family time, community involvement and work should all reflect him."
It still freaks me out a little, my initial mental reaction. It's hard to shake that upbringing!
ReplyDeleteGood one.
Good thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI remember a call to tithe time a while back, but there is a strength in walking all the time with God. I've noticed as I get older that it's easier to just walk through situations, rather than stand there and say "what would you like me to do here?". But God also seems to find it easier to interrupt thinking, so there are compensations.