Over the past year, I’ve been rediscovering my identity as someone who likes to read. For Christmas, my dad gave me a book entitled Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. If you’ve been talking to me at all over these past few weeks, you’ll know that I haven’t shut up about it. It looks like your typical self-help book, though I’m suspicious the author, Oliver Burkeman, only titled it the way he did so that the type of people in the market for your typical self-help book would see it on the shelf and grab it. What it really is, is a book about the philosophy of time. Did you know that if you live to be 80 years old, you only get 4,000 weeks worth of time on earth? And we certainly aren’t guaranteed to see 80.
I’m turning 23 tomorrow. At this point, I have maybe 2,804 weeks left. Or maybe less. Or maybe more. Operating on the 2,804 assumption, that’s 54 more Christmases. 54 more times to experience winter turning to spring (and tl;dr on my last blog post, I love it when winter turns into spring). If you can push past the harrowing despondency of it all, you may happen upon the realization, as did Burkeman, that it matters not so much how much time we have, but how we spend that time.
He writes: “It’s natural to see this situation as highly regrettable, and to yearn for some alternative version of existence in which we wouldn’t have to choose between valued activities in this way. But if it’s amazing to have been granted any being at all…then wouldn’t it make more sense to speak not of having to make such choices, but of getting to make them?”
It is just as important what we choose NOT to be doing, as what we choose to do.
Ashley has often spoken of “the Holy no” – the “no” we give to things that are good in order to say yes to the (equally good, or better!) things God may have up his sleeve for us.
All that said, I want to use more of my time to try new things. In no particular order, here is a list of new things I tried in March:
Making a March Madness bracket: I fear I may be turning into a college basketball fan.
Watching wrestlemania: I can’t say I’ve ever had any interest or desire to do this… but reluctantly I will admit I had fun.
Silent retreat: That’s right! We retreated to St. Francis Prayer Center in Greensboro, NC, to spend time apart, together. Mary Young guided us in spiritual practices of lectio divina, viseo divina, silence & solitude, and good ol’ reading your Bible. It was a time set apart to shut up and shut out the noise of the world, that we might be able to listen to the voice of the Creator.
Party bus: This one is just exactly what it sounds like.
Consensual cyberbullying … I’M KIDDING (I’m not kidding): We completed a series of anonymous 360-degree reviews for each Fellow, with consideration to each others’ strengths and ~areas for growth.~ I thank God for friends who are committed to my edification; friends who not only think of me kindly, but think of me at all.
Got pulled over by a cop on a motorcycle (The cop was in the motorcycle. I was in my car): Avoided a speeding ticket somehow. Still cried in the parking lot for 30 minutes afterward.
Lenten practices: I’ve spent each Thursday fasting from the time I wake up until round table that night. How sweet it is to break my fast surrounded by friends (not to mention, each week it tastes like the best meal I’ve ever had).
Saw a Beatles cover band: AND IT WAS PHENOMENAL. If I’m not in a cover band when I’m in my mid-50s, I’m probably doing something wrong.
Serving communion: This past Sunday (which may have actually been April, oops), I served communion for the first time. I was almost brought to tears multiple times seeing everyone come through the line and having the chance to bless them. It was just unexpectedly and unequivocally good.
As God sent man into the world to “subdue and rule over it,” (read: steward it well until the Resurrection), so also do I believe he desires us to subdue and rule over our time. Ephesians 5:15-16 says “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” It doesn’t matter how many days I have until I will meet Him face to face, but if, and how, I am choosing to make the most of every opportunity.
HE REDEEMED US. HE BOUGHT BACK OUR TIME. THESE DAYS ARE GIFTS.
pgfwabf
Madelyn