"Calendar Clutter" 

By Calvin and Lisa Wulf

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.”

Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV)

“Next Thursday at 2:30?” he asks, whipping out his palm pilot.

“Sorry.  Staff meeting,” his wife answers, scanning her calendar.  “A week from Wednesday at 7?”

“Little League.  Two weeks from Saturday morning?”

“Church meeting.  Three weeks from Friday at 5:30?”

“That works.  But why is it so hard to get a date with my own wife?”

We’re drowning in commitments.  Keeping up with family, church, and work is a real struggle.  Add in friends and community activities and we start to submerge.  Soon precious relationships fall through the cracks.  We’re exhausted but there’s no time for rest.  No time – even for God.

So what’s wrong here?  God specifically asks us to unselfishly honor Him and those closest to us.  But the tyranny of the calendar has edged everyone out.  Honoring means being in relationship.  But relationships take time and priority.  Our full calendars may look impressive, but who’s really getting our time?

Life is full of competing demands and priorities.  Who gets our attention?  Instead of running to and fro every day like robots, it’s time to ask for directions.  Requesting God’s roadmap is the first step in ordering our lives.  We just need a new G.P.S. – God’s Priorities for Scheduling.

There is a time for every heavenly purpose.  If you are too over-committed to spend quiet times with loved ones then you are too busy.  If you don’t have time to sit alone with God, then you are lost.

Before you drop from sheer exhaustion, consider these alternatives:

·        Check out your priorities.  Ask yourself what is really important.

·        Find your balance.  Are you honoring God and those closest to you?

·        Spend time with God every day.  He misses you.

Sometimes it’s really hard to say no.  But in God’s plan there’s time for everything that really matters.  When you apply wisdom in ordering your life, chaos transforms to joy.  So clean the clutter off your calendar and start over.  Just don’t forget to ask God for directions!

Living for God (TM) offers resources on Christian living.  Check them out at www.livingforgod.net or call (719) 578-8837.

© 2007 Calvin R. Wulf and Lisa Are Wulf