Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, and revive me in Your way.
Waste of Time – Part 1
Distractions are EVERYWHERE. There’s always another book to read, movie to watch, friends to catch up with, post to make on Facebook, picture to perfect with VSCO for Instagram, emails to write, room to clean, friend to call, errands to run, Netflix show to binge, shopping to do, food to cook, services to go to, hair to wash… ha! You name it, there is an endless amount of things for us all ’to do.’
And I don’t know about you, but most things on my list seem viable. Even Netflix. (yep… I said it. Ha!) How do you decide what is a distraction and a worthless project to engage in and what activity is beneficial and productive for you?
I told someone once that I wanted to write fiction. His response to my desire was that fiction didn’t change lives and, therefore, wasn’t a worthy pursuit. I don’t think he quite meant it in that way, but at the same time, some of the “less practical” things in life can be seen as wasteful, and an added extra if we have time. We tend to think that the most important things are the tangible, measurable, productive things… The physical output of our lives. Everything that doesn’t directly correlate to that can be (I’m definitely not saying should be) labeled as wasteful.
Here’s what I know. You can waste your life away on productivity – you can waste your children’s years, you can waste every sunrise and sunset, you can waste the art galleries that adorn our towns and cities like Christmas lights shining all kinds of beauty into the world, you can waste that song on the radio, you can waste the love of your life, you can waste your youth, you can waste your wealth on material possessions, you can waste knowledge on greed and fortune… you can waste everything you have on productive, measurable, workable things. And at the end of it, have no one to share it with.
Socrates said, “Beware the barrenness of a busy life…” and Dolly Parton (Did I just quote Socrates and Dolly Parton in the same sentence – INDEED I DID – #winning) said, “Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.”
If you spend your life on productivity alone, it will kill your soul. We need both beauty and productivity, rest and play and work, sleep and exercise, food and water – we need a balance of all these things to keep our heart, mind and body functioning at their best.
If you spend your life on productivity alone, it will kill your soul. We need both beauty and productivity, rest and play and work, sleep and exercise, food and water – we need a balance of all these things to keep our heart, mind and body functioning at their best.
Spending a day resting is not a waste of a day. Feeding your imagination with a novel or a film is not a waste of time. Walking slowly through an art gallery is not a waste of a walk. Listening to a podcast on science is not a waste of hearing. Tinkering in the shed fixing up an old classic is not a waste of elbow grease… on the contrary. It’s often these things, these seemingly wasteful things, that empower us for our best productive work.
So again, the question is, what is wasteful? What should we divert our eyes from?
Ps 119:37 in The Passion Translation reads,
“Help me turn my eyes away from illusions so that I pursue only that which is true; drench my soul with life as I walk in your paths”
“Help me turn my eyes away from illusions so that I pursue only that which is true; drench my soul with life as I walk in your paths”
Perhaps the better question to ask is, “what is my path to walk?”
To be continued…
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