Wasting Time
10-02-2006
by Johann Snyder

I don't have a day planner. I need one, but I don't want one because I know what would happen. If I had a day planner and I wrote down everything I have to accomplish on a daily basis not only would it fill up so quickly that I'd need another one, I know that I would go insane. It would be a one way trip to Arkham Asylum for me every time I looked at the thing, and from what I've heard, Arkham's not a pleasant place to be. Perhaps you can identify (not with the being in Arkham, but with being busy). We lead busy lives here in the twenty-first century, but I was brought up short recently by the thought that as a Christian I should really be wasting more time.

Martha was a busy gal. She was a woman who took the duties of being a hostess very seriously, and on this day she was hostess to a very special, very dear guest. As she went about preparing Hors D'oeuvres and refreshments, she couldn't help but to notice that her sister Mary was just sitting around doing nothing. Okay, she wasn't exactly doing nothing. She was talking with Jesus, but surely that could wait. There was plenty that needed to done right now in order to take care of their guests. Didn't Mary understand that? Martha continued bustling about the house, but as she flitted about, she also kept casting an eye towards her sister to see if she was going to make any move to help. Mary, however, remained in her place at the feet of Jesus. Finally, Martha's irritation could no longer be contained. "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!" Surely Jesus would see that Martha needed the help to get everything that needed doing done. This stuff had to be done now, and the only way that would happen was with Mary's help. Martha gave Mary a smug little smirk as she waited for Jesus to rebuke Mary and tell her to help, but to her astonishment, He turned those loving, compassionate eyes towards her and said, "Martha, Martha. You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her." Surely Martha had heard Him incorrectly. Did Jesus just say that Mary's wasting time doing nothing at His feet was better than taking care of all the necessary details that had to be done right now? It was a statement that rocked Martha's world, and when I really stopped to think about it, it rocked mine two-thousand years later.

Now, the Bible doesn't tell us exactly what Mary was doing. Many point out that the way they were seated was the traditional repose of a rabbi or teacher and their student; the rabbi seated on a chair or stool of some sort with the student sitting on the floor. I suppose that's possible. They could have been talking about some deep spiritual philosophical topic pertaining to salvation or the kingdom of God. However, I find it just as likely that they were just chatting; talking about anything and nothing, just hanging out and having a good time, just wasting time. That may not sound as spiritual as thinking they were talking about the Bible or a Sunday school lesson or whatever, but why should it be any less likely? For all we know, Mary was just sitting there wasting time with the God she loved, and Jesus was perfectly okay with that. In fact, He said that was better than taking care of the business of the day.

Thus we come to the age-old struggle between the immediate and the important. Our lives are filled with the immediate; things that need to be done right now. I work in radio, a very immediate orientated line of work that has me constantly on the go to get everything that needs to be done right now done right now. I'm also married and have two young daughters; one two and one four. Few creatures on the face of the earth are more demanding for the right now than two and four-year-olds. We also just bought a house, and I'm learning that being a homeowner means constantly keeping on top of chores and projects that need to be done right now to make sure nothing collapses. It seems that I'm always going from one "right now" to another. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I'm not saying these things should be entirely ignored; they do need to get done - there's no arguing with that - and in their own way, they're all very important. However, the truth that's revealed by Mary and Martha's experience is that what's truly important in life is rarely what's immediate.

Most of the important things in my life don't have a deadline. Spending time with my wife doesn't have an expiration date. Taking extra time to pray, to just talk with God instead of asking for stuff or complaining about stuff or confessing stuff is never past due. I never have to turn in my quiet times on time to get a passing grade. In fact, most of what's important can wait until all the "right nows" are done. The only problem with that is there's always more "right nows" that need to be done right now. The immediate never goes away, and because of that, it has a tendency to constantly delay the important. Time management is a valued skill in our busy society. We are exhorted to make the most of every minute of every day, but perhaps what we really need to learn to do is to learn how to waste some time with God every now and then.

I know that may sound like a stretch, and perhaps even un-Christian, but take a moment to think about it; how much time do you waste on things and people you love? I love video games, and somehow I find plenty of time to waste playing them. I love my wife, and one of my fondest memories is an evening we spent watching infomercials until the wee hours of the morning doing a whole lot of nothing (although I do think I got a good deal on a set of steak knives that can cut a diamond like a ripe tomato). That was a whole lot of wasted time, but what a blessing it was. As Christians, we say we love God, but how much time do we waste with Him? We have our scheduled times with Him on Sundays and Wednesdays and our fifteen minutes in the morning or evening, and that's great. But how much time have you wasted just sitting as His feet? Not necessarily engaged in the great spiritual mysteries of the Bible or time and space, but just being in His presence? How often do you talk with Him about a whole lot of nothing? It may seem incomprehensible now, but what do you think we'll be doing in heaven for all of eternity? True there'll be worship beyond imagination, but I also get the feeling that we'll be wasting a whole lot of time just hanging out with God; and what a blessing that will be.

You know, if all Satan has to do to keep us from having a truly intimate, deep relationship with God is to keep us busy with the immediate; he's got it pretty easy 'cause that isn't all that hard to do. Now, I'm not about to pretend that I know what your life is like and tell you how you should do this or that or the other thing to make time to waste time with God, but I would like to encourage you to find a way to waste some time every now and then. The important doesn't have a deadline because if it did, I don't know how important it would be any more. What makes the important important isn't that it's a one time event that needs to be done by a certain time, it's important because it always needs to be done, and that need never goes away. So what's winning in your life; the immediate or the important? I can safely say that up to this point the immediate has had a good strangle hold on my life and especially my relationship with God, but I plan on fixing that by learning how to waste a whole lot of time sitting at the feet of Jesus. What will that look like in my life? I'm not sure. What will wasting time with God look like in your life? I couldn't tell you; but I think it'll be fun to find out.