For some, the past month has been one with more free time than usual as people navigate the combination of loss of work and loss of community. For others it has meant a different kind of busy—one that involves troubleshooting Zoom for remote work or school, adjusting to new rhythms as regular activities move home or are delayed, sharing space that wasn’t necessarily shared a little while ago. And whether experiencing more free time or less, we are also facing the uncertainty of not knowing what the next week will look like. This season is challenging, uncomfortable, frustrating, and often mundane. As milestones that ought to have been celebrated and moments that should have been shared pass by, and events that should have taken place are postponed indefinitely, it often feels like we are being kept from all the things that we should be doing.
It is true, there are many good things that we are not able to do right now, but Amy Carmichael once made an observation that may reframe the way that we think about this time. Commenting on a season that she felt seemed to involve a lot of busywork and mundane tasks, she wrote, “Is it the bondservant’s business to say which work is large and which is small, which unimportant and which worth doing? The question answered itself and was not asked again. It was a foolish question, for the Master never wastes the servant’s time.”
These days feel like a waste of time, a waste of potential, a waste of all the work that went into something that is now postponed indefinitely, but God does not waste our time or resources. Our moments matter to the sovereign God of the universe. In Psalm 139, David writes, “all my days were written in your book and planned before a single one began.” We have all experienced interrupted plans this year, but God’s plans cannot be interrupted. He is lord over our moments, and we were created for good works that he prepared in advance for us. Those good works include the good works of everyday life in the midst of stay-at-home orders. They include the good works of faithfully changing diapers, cooking, cleaning, doing homework, facilitating remote meetings, and stocking shelves.
What God has given us does not always match our idea of what is important, but this is a problem with us, not him. And while it is true that the master never wastes the servant’s time, this does not mean that the servant never wastes the servant’s time. Because God does not waste our time and resources, we are called to faithfully steward the time and resources he has given us. Perhaps the majority of our time-wasting comes from the assumption that the task before us, whatever that may be, is unimportant. We forget that we are created to live our lives for God’s glory by faithfully living the life he has given us, and instead spend our time in self-pity, anxiety, procrastination, or laziness.
God does not send us circumstances and seasons that serve no purpose. We know this because he has told us who he is. He is a father who delights in giving good gifts to his children. He is the God who has written our days in his book before we were even born. He is the God who is our portion and our inheritance. We may never know exactly what our quarantine moments were for and what God is doing during this time, and ultimately, God does not owe us an explanation. When God speaks at the end of Job, he does not explain why Job experienced suffering, but instead reminds Job who he is. Spending large amounts of time trying to figure out exactly what God is doing right now will likely only leave us frustrated. We would do better to spend the time that we have been given to be reminded of who he is, to be in awe of his sovereignty, and to faithfully carry out the daily tasks we have been given, comforted by the fact that the master never wastes his servant’s time.
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