Outside In: A Time for Everything

The writer of Ecclesiastes did not say, there is time for everything, he said that there is a time for everything.

A strange thing has happened to me. It is something that has long been anticipated and dreamt about. But now that it is here, it feels a little overwhelming and alien. For the first time since being in Cairo I am home…alone…by myself…on a week day! My youngest has just started going to preschool three days a week. Someone has given me the gift of time – and I feel like a kid in a sweetshop not really knowing where to begin.

One of my main goals to give some attention to the projects that I was just managing to scrape through last year. But I also want to do more study, more writing, more reading. I want to have more time in silence. I want to have more time for others. I want to have more time to be creative. Looking around the house, I also realise that I should spend some more time sorting out the dark recesses of my closets – including the much-feared craft cupboard! But to quote Shakespeare, ‘there’s the rub.’ There just isn’t time for everything.

Isn’t this part of the problem in today’s society? Aren’t we all trying to live life like there is time for everything. A couple of people have recommended a great article that includes the comment, ‘The Chinese word for “busyness” means “heart annihilation”.’ It goes on to point out that we are literally killing ourselves through the speed by which we’re living and all that we’re trying to accomplish.

We are so quick to use busyness and exhaustion as the measure of an abundant life. It is easy to feel judged as being lazy if we don’t appear to be mentally or physically preoccupied every moment of the day. A friend and I have made an informal commitment to not answer, “I’m so busy at the moment” when people ask us how we are. Our sense of worth should not depend on how much we are involved in.

Having the discipline to establish different habits is challenging. I am so quick to want to fill my new-found time with projects and activities that I’ve been wanting to do for the last four years! And other people are just as quick to want to fill that time. We’d only been back in Cairo for three weeks, and I’d already had three invites to join different projects.

Somehow the answer lies in establishing margin – to intentionally build in times where nothing is scheduled. Not even times to ‘rest’ but scheduled times just to ‘be’. I feel that this is an art that we have lost in the Western world. Time to simply be, to connect with our environment and engage in the world around us, rather than just rushing through it to our next appointment. If we cannot do this, if we cannot take care of ourselves and give ourselves time to breathe, how can we even hope to attend to the needs of those around us – our families, our friends, our communities? Many of us are frequent flyers. How may times have we listened to the safety announcement tell us to fit our own oxygen mask before we assist those around us? How rarely to we apply this logic to our emotional and spiritual lives?

Those of you who attend Maadi Community Church will know that the current teaching series is about taking a health check as a church. As individuals we might be quite diligent about taking care of our physical health and going to the doctor for a check-up but we might be more neglectful of our emotional and spiritual well-being. There are plenty of sites on the internet to help you evaluate these areas of your life, so I won’t reinvent the wheel here, but remember: time is finite. There is not time for everything. We need to be careful to use the time that we have wisely, not to watch it flutter by in a rush of busyness.

Here are some apt lyrics from the Scottish singer/song-writer, Donovan:

If you want your dream to be

Take your time, go slowly

Do few things but do them well

Heartfelt work grows purely

If you want to live life free

Take your time, go slowly

Do few things but do them well

Heartfelt work grows purely.

(‘Little Church’ Donovan)

 

This article was published in the October edition of the Maadi Messenger