The Stewardship of Time

“His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’” Matthew 25:21

            As Christians, we are called to be stewards. We have been entrusted with the care of the planet (Genesis 1:28, Genesis 2:15), our finances, our resources, our bodies, the Word of God, the church of Christ, and our time. Jesus told the parable of the talents, explaining that those who properly use the resources given to them will receive the commendation, “good and faithful servant.”  I have been thinking a lot about the stewardship the Lord has entrusted to me. In doing so, I have been convicted about those ways in which I have squandered the “talents” entrusted to me, like the wicked and slothful servant Jesus describes further in the parable (Matthew 25:24-28). I want to spend some time considering some of the areas of stewardship God has placed in our hands, and also consider how I have failed to meet the call of stewardship, and suggest ways to best utilize the gifts God has given to us.

            I start with the stewardship of time, because it is possibly the easiest thing to squander. Today, we have so many things competing for our attention. And, we thus have so many things competing to take our attention away from the ministry God has set before us. I know that it is easy for me to become a servant to the urgent (or those things that may be perceived as urgent) and avoid doing those things which are best (or those things God has called me to do).

As a pastor, I have a lot of things vying for my attention. As the only staff member at my church, that can mean that a lot of things (many of them helpful things) fall into my lap. Sometimes, I allow too many of these to overwhelm me, waste my time, or strip me of doing my best. I also have a responsibility for a number of things that I cannot neglect. I must prepare and preach a sermon weekly. I must prepare a weekly Bible study. I must prepare a children’s Sunday school lesson. All of these tasks require preparation and concentrated study. However, it is easy to over prepare in these areas, to the neglect of other responsibilities. There are times when hospital calls, home visits, and phone calls are necessary. There are times when I must attend to counseling, sending e-mails, or cast vision. Add to these, the responsibilities I have to my family, and one can see how easy it would to get off track. Are there times when I spend too much time in one area, at the expense of others? Yes.

I find that I have one of two responses when the burdens of the pastorate are many. One, I try to do too much, and I succeed in doing everything, but not doing anything very well. Or two, I retreat from the responsibilities and create my own “to-do list” which includes those things I am inclined to enjoy or prefer. As I was preparing for a study on spiritual disciplines, I started thinking about how much time I waste in a given day. That time is wasted either by not being adequately prepared, or by being so overwhelmed by obligation, that I waste time considering  what thing I have to do at this moment. I realized that if I were a better steward of my time that I would be able to accomplish a significant amount more than I did. And I prayed that those things that I did accomplish would be the best things to do at that time.

This year, I determined to be far more proactive in planning out my work week. Yes, there will still be emergencies that call for immediate attention. But, as I better plan my work week, I should – in theory at least – have more time to devote to the emergencies as they arise. I also determined some of those things I would devote time to, and determined how much time I should devote to them. Once again, this should free me up to do more things, and more effectively. I have started planning (and writing down) the two main things I want to achieve each day. Some of these require great amounts of time, others are things I avoid because I don’t want to do them, but know I should. I have also tried to create a theme for each day. With this idea, I will not divide my time each day into a number of tasks, such as administrative, sermon prep, vision casting, home visits, working on technology, etc. Instead, each day is devoted to one of these areas.

            Here are some other things I am doing this year.

1)      I am limiting the number of books I read each month. I do need to read for professional enrichment. However, since I enjoy reading, I could avoid other important tasks by burying myself in one book after another. Once I have read my limit of books for the month, I will not read another until the next month comes. This frees my schedule to do many other things.

2)      I am setting aside scheduled time to read my Bible and to pray. I also have a structured plan to read through the Bible this year. This does not mean that I cannot read my Bible or pray at non-scheduled times, but it also means that I will be able to do both each day. Without a scheduled time, I found it too easy to skip one or the other. Or, I would let my other reading (which can be about biblical stuff) take the place of reading the Word.

3)      I am putting things in writing. Yes, it does take time to write. But, if I do not write things, I either think the same thoughts over and over, or I have to explain the same thing over and over. I often rehash thoughts because they have not been put into writing, thus misusing my time. I have found that if I write it in some form, I am able to let that matter rest. Also, I am writing more frequently so that I have an established forum to answer an issue. In the past, I would have to explain an issue more than once, often telling any number of people at different times, how I felt or what I believed was the way to pursue a concern. Doing this, I would often tell one person something that I neglected to tell someone else, or I just felt exhausted by the constant interaction. By writing it all down, I think my overall communication is better, and I should be able to make all the points I need to make at once.

4)      I am filtering out the time wasters. If it is something that has caused me distraction in the past, then I am limiting it or avoiding it altogether. Television, that means you. Worrying-about-things-outside-of-my-control, you’re also in my crosshairs. Facebook and Twitter, I apologize in advance for not checking on updates hourly (in fact, some days I may not look at you at all).

I already feel that I have accomplished more in the past month than I did in the three or four months that ended last year. And that is a good thing, because there are a great number of things I want to do with my time. And there are a great number of ways I want God to be able to use me for His ministry. One day, I pray He will say, “well, done my good and faithful servant. You have used the time I have given to you wisely.”