Paid to Take Time

Life in terms of time is always trying to teach something. Constantly we are reminded to take time in doing the things we need or want to do—when we disobey these reminders we inevitably get it wrong. We take too much on or we try to do three things at once; either way we get frustrated.

Life pays us to take time. The laws of this world bless the patient via contentment and continue to curse the impatient by way of frustration.

Sacrificing One Level of ‘Happiness’ for Another

The reason we try to do more than one thing at a time is usually because there are too many options regarding the things we enjoy. Alternatively, a growingly common thesis, we just have too many have-to-do items on our to-do list for any reasonable human being.

We are tempted to multitask to gain gratification or to avoid pain or failure. We are working for an elusive happiness that brings practically no contentment.

Another option—a life-blessed option—is to jump off the merry-go-round and devote our available mind-space to one task, or one line of thinking, at a time.

This method, which involves a continual modicum of self-discipline, is amazing and cogent in its simplicity, for it opens us up to the experience of a sociable contentment beyond the trappings of frustration.

Take Time by Taking It Now

Is there anything simpler than this?

Right here, right now, right in the crevice of conscious thought, what is God telling us to do—by the manner of what weighs heaviest, this moment, on our heart and mind?

This is wise living in a nutshell; to enter into such poise of momentary self-enquiry.

To reflect over the congruency within, because where God lives there is always harmony present within somewhere, is to believe that such blessed insight is available. And it is available by the pure fact of time, space, and experience. As we observe what is about us, our situations, barriers, and conditions, together with our right minds, we have all information to decide correctly.

The wise thing to do is to take time, and take it now, to establish the sensibility of achieving God’s exact will—his perfect and well ordered will that destines us for a direct path—to do one thing. Any other path we would choose will always be less direct. (We think about taking a shortcut, but it works out to be the longer way to contentment.)

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By the nature of our minutes and years our lives tell us that we are paid to take time: to do one thing at a time. Multitasking is a constant temptation. Besides short bursts, where it is nothing short of inspirational, it leads to frustration and burnout. Contentment rests in the simplicity of God-engagement—doing the one thing, in the moment, that God requires. There, alone, is wisdom. Wisdom pays us to take time.

© 2011 S. J. Wickham.