Conserving the Necessary

"Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching . . . has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her" Luke 10:39, 42.

One of the things we are eager to conserve is time. This was a topic for our retreat. But what do we do with all that time we save? What gets left out? Too often, we concluded, the one necessary thing is neglected. Sitting at Jesus's feet is either cut short, hurried through, or skipped altogether.

Why does this happen? We discussed a number of motivations that drive our decisions. Ultimately, people do what is important to them. Claiming to value doing something is empty unless the thing is done. These heart issues must be confronted and corrected if the one needful thing is to be done in our day.

Practically, though, why do we fail to spend time in communion with our God every day? A very simple, obvious, but talked-around reason is that we don't get up early enough in the morning to do all that must be done. No one at work will ask my husband, "So, did you pray this morning?" But if he's not wearing a tie or his hair isn't combed, people will know. There are days that, quite frankly, no one would know the difference if I stayed in my PJs until I went to bed again, but there are pressing things to be done, and I've got to make the most of this time of sleeping crib confinement.

So, readership. I'll let you in on our decision. We've decided to try out for membership in the 5:15 club. We made it up (Well, actually, we just renamed it; the idea is heavily plagiarized from this blog.), so you wouldn't think it would be hard to gain charter membership. Well, it is. You can't be a member unless you actually get up at 5:15. We're still auditioning.

The encouraging news is that 1) though it's a little sporadic, we've not slipped backward every day, 2) though we've not yet hit the 5:15 mark, we've been able to have a time in the Word and in prayer in the mornings (but we'd like to do some more other stuff too).

It seems like everyone agrees--the first few hours of the day are the most strategic. They contain the best time for personal devotion as well as some key crib time. By God's grace we plan to keep striving to reclaim some more early morning hours for profitable use.