Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

Prepare Straight Paths for the Lord!

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Prepare Straight Paths for the Lord.
I am re-reading The Gospel of Mark which starts, well, startlingly
“a voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
    make straight paths for him.’”[d]
How does one prepare straight paths for the Lord?
                                                * * *
And therein lies the beauty and richness of Scripture—the answer varies according to gender, culture, and historic period. It varies according to the seasons in our lives. This is what I thought last year.
For me, the answer today is “Pace yourself. Slow down.”
Christians (perhaps particularly those who have had an experience of the Holy Spirit, like my first one, though of course, the Holy Spirit respects no templates, see Gordon Fee’s experience) have the Holy Spirit within us, “a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
A spring is an apt metaphor. It can get clogged with rubbish and debris. Do you remember Marcel Pagnol’s beautiful Manon of the Spring, in which the idealistic young would-be farmer’s farm is desertified and fails because of the spring blocked by concrete by those who wanted his land?
Busyness does that for me. Chokes up the springs of the spiritual life—of thankfulness, of seeing God in little things, of clear thinking, of joy.
Sometimes, I go on a prayer walk, and I think, “This hardly qualifies as prayer. My thoughts are a racing, incoherent jumble.” So I credit the intention to pray as prayer, and walk, slowly calming down, my thoughts slowing down.
And then, as if from a secret spring within me, I find myself praying in tongues, and joy begins to seep up, and calm and surrender.
And all this would have been forfeited if I hadn’t stopped to slow down.
·      * * *
This has been an exceptionally busy half-term—daily blogging; writing a chapter in a book; meeting a number of blog readers and fellow bloggers; leading two sessions of our small group; hosting a complex sleepover in tents for Irene’s 13th birthday; the whirl of social life—garden parties and barbeques which step up in England when the weather is supposed to be good; a major purchase (a camper van!); and of course the usual busyness of motherhood, domesticity and keeping up the wildly growing garden!!
Funny, when I am doing too much, even lovely things–and most of my busy things this month were lovely–I enjoy them less. I guess it’s like when I upgraded to buying relatively expensive but ridiculously comfortable shoes, or luxurious cashmere sweaters or “Tiffany” lamps. The first purchase delighted me, but each successive one brought less joy, became more ho-hum.
So I guess I will have to go back to pacing my social life to two intense lunches or coffees or dinners with friends per week. For deep conversation sparks my creativity and brings joy. Less than that, and I begin to get a bit bored and restless with just family and writing. More than that is distracting, and eventually I begin to enjoy everything a little bit less.
To say no to good things to focus on the best things is a lesson I have been trying to learn for years, with many, many failures. But I am still alive and so capable of learning–so I am going to add it to the  long-term projects—the long trudging in the same direction– which I am persisting in, despite many failures.
And these include
1)   A house in which everything is both beautiful and useful and in which everything is in the right place
2)   Physical health, strength and endurance, and shedding some of my toxin-storing extra pounds. Relatively healthy eating.
3)   A disciplined schedule which has time for much reading and much writing.
4)   A permaculture garden, full of perennial fruit and vegetables and flowers.
These are all long-term projects and commitments, in which a failure is like stepping off the trail for a brief meander. Not final, not a disaster. Since I have unshakeably committed to these long-term Inca Trails, after a little dalliance in the fields of weak resolve, I just “strengthen my feeble arms and weak knees” (Heb 12:12) and persist.
A slow pace of life opens the door for the Holy Spirit. You are, of course, far more likely to be able to sense the presence of God in a slow, quiet day than an over-scheduled one.
As A-type personalities, naturally driven and intense, who are trying to slow down our pulses, schedules and lives, Roy and I frequently need to remind ourselves and each other to slow down enough to make straight pathways for the Lord to our restless, busy hearts.
How about you? What is the best way you’ve found to make straight paths for the Lord?

The surprising “reward” for my only long fast–breaking a coffee addiction

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God promises rewards—sometimes open and public ones—for those who seek him in the secret places and in secret ways. (Matthew 6 1-17).

I had a serious coffee addiction as an undergraduate and graduate student. I pretty much had a cup on my desk through the day. One day, I decided to count how many cups I had—and it was 17. And so I tried to reduce it to 16, then, 15, 14, etc. But I never did manage to reduce it sufficiently to kick the habit!
Drinking coffee to help you concentrate when you are flagging because you need fresh air, a nap, or exercise is like flogging a dying horse. You will get some more action out of the horse, but it will die sooner.
And so it was with me. I think my coffee-fuelled overwork—I could sit and read for 14 hours at a stretch, with breaks only for meals in my twenties—led to frequent burnout. It set me up for adrenal fatigue from which I have slowly been recovering for the last few years. It also got me into the habit of crash and bust cycles of work—definitely not sustainable.
                                                 * * *
In my second year of marriage, I was disgusted with the weight I was gaining with a suddenly sedentary life of reading and reading! 27 pounds that first year of marriage!! So I naively thought I would stop eating till I lost weight. I tried to fast, and just drunk water with a twist of lemon, and tried to read Scripture.
I survived for 3 days—and felt ill for most of it as the residual toxins from years of poor eating habits were burned.
And when I gave up—prematurely!!—I found I couldn’t stand the thought of drinking something so toxic as coffee. I hadn’t gone on the fast to kick the coffee addiction—it was a side benefit!! That was 20 years ago, and I haven’t had more than the occasional cup of coffee, generally in coffee shops with friends, since then.
I do however drink green tea, which has numerous documented health benefits!
                                                * * *
I haven’t tried a long fast since then, and don’t believe I will. Fasting seriously lowers one’s metabolism—and I need to increase mine. On the other hand, a Daniel fast (eschewing particular “pleasant” food for a season, as described in the Book of Daniel), can only bring physical and spiritual benefits, especially if one turns to God instead of turning to food or sweets or chocolates for comforts or highs.
And isn’t it exciting that God himself promises us a reward when we fast, or pray or give? And that the reward is unspecified? Because God is good that makes  receiving this secret, unspecified reward so much more exciting!!

The Superlative Christian Books Which Have Most Influenced Me.

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A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World

1 The Bible
2 The Imitation of Christ. I read it as a teenager in school, and again when I was a novice at Mother Teresa’s. Its thinking has influenced mine. It is a book of pure devotion to Christ for Christ’s sake, regardless of rewards which Thomas a Kempis did not expect or receive.
It has practical wisdom such as “Don’t be too hasty to change your situation for wherever you go you will take yourself and there you will find yourself.”
That advice has helped me to stick it out in numerous times of discontent, if I have sinned too. When I experienced unfairness and injustice at a church, for instance, I stayed there for three additional years. I had sinned too, and it’s sometimes better to heal in the place of pain than take your pain with you to the next church. When I finally did leave, I left with a heart with a lot of love and a desire to bless, not the wounded, bitter, angry, vindictive heart I had when I first suffered injustice.
2 When I was 17, I was not sure if God existed. And I was bored to death by Catholicism. During a curfew imposed because of religious riots in Jamshedpur, where I lived, I picked up Catherine Marshall’s lovely Beyond Ourselves and Something More.
It was a blueprint of the spiritual life. I read it, and then re-read it. Soon, I was going through the steps of committing one’s life to Christ. On 15th April, 1979, I became a Christian.
When I’ve been bored, passionless or stuck in my spiritual life, I’ve often turned to these two books, which I’ve read several times. Chapters have been very important to me, especially, “The Prayer that Makes Dreams Come True,” about praying the kind of big, daring prayer which really interests God.
When I applied to read English in Oxford from a small town in India, and was feverishly praying for admission and funding, I read and underlined and practised that chapter again and again! As I have at various junctures when I needed to dream and pray big to get out of small places!!
Catherine’s chapter on forgiveness, releasing the AUGHT against ANY is sweeping and purifying. Could Jesus have been more definite, more clear and sweeping than he was? Forgiveness as a life-style, the ultimate of positive thinking. Oh, help me God!!
3 The Cross and the Switchblade also happened to be in our house during that curfew. I was captivated by the power of God transforming the life of Bronx gangsters such as Nicky Cruz. In fact, I wanted to go to the Bronx and work with them, which was one of the many reasons I joined Mother Teresa’s convent, since her nuns worked there!! (And when I finally did land up in the Bronx a decade later, having got off the subway before Scarsdale where the cousin I was visiting lived—I was terrified!)
I love this story from the book: David Wilkerson used to watch TV from 11 to 1 every night. He wonders what would happen if he sold the TV and prayed instead. So he puts out a Gideon’s fleece : If the TV sells within 30 minutes of the ad appearing, he’ll sell it and pray for two hours every night. It did; he did.
Well, can you think of a more life-changing thing to do than pray for 2 hours a day? Me neither.
The other thing I LOVED was that David discovers his ministry though trial and error, false starts, making an idiot of himself, financial loss, failure and heartbreak.
Just because God is guiding us and we are praying does not mean we will stumble on the right path immediately. For God gives us experience, and forms our characters through all the generous, foolish things we embark on, convinced we are doing his will.
4 Here’s a strange book I love and which has shaped the external events of my life significantly. It was recommended by Catherine Marshall, who knew Clark, and went to his camps: I will Lift up Mine Eyes by Glenn Clark. I’ve written a little about my experience with it here but it deserves a whole post.
Clark guides you through the big prayers—for friends; for “opulence” and wealth, should you desire it; for creativity; for success and influence; for health, helping you to pray for these in a way that’s in tune with the Father’s heart. He points out that we are truly creative and can achieve our heart’s desires when we mount with hind’s feet to the high places, achieving an integration of mind, body, soul and spirit.

Many, many of the prayers I prayed as I went through Clark’s book have been answered!
5 The Celebration of Discipline. Again, a book I read early on in my Christian life, and have often re-read. I love and have been influenced by Foster’s ideas on prayer, silence, fasting, spiritual reading, simplicity, and holy leisure. A gem, like many of Richard Foster’s books.
6 C. S. Lewis– If I want to think about a right-brain subject like faith or sanctification or the Christian life in an analytical left-brain way, I turn to Lewis, who has already thought and spelled it out. I love Mere Christianity, The Four Loves, The Weight of Glory, and his books of essays, such as God in the Dock.
6B And for incisive, thoughtful, brilliant reflections on the spiritual life,
try Thomas Merton. Perhaps start with New Seeds of Contemplation. 

7 Prayer—Prayer has been one of the delights and most influential things in my life, and I love reading the books of bold and deep pray-ers. I love O Hallesby’s  lovely, deep book Prayer, and recently have been interested by Sun, Stand Still by Steven Furtick and am reading The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson. 


I was influenced in praying bigger by Wilkinson’s The Prayer of Jabez, a prayer I pray regularly when I find my life and (godly) influence stalled.
8 Memoir—Lewis’s Surprised by Joy, Thomas Merton’s Seven Story Mountain, Augustine’s surprisingly honest Confessions,and one I read recently, Grace Outpouring by Roy Godwin, founder of Fflad-y-Brenin.
Frederick Buechner memoirs Sacred Journey and Now and Then are prose melting into poetry. I also love his The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy Tale.
9 Other favourites—John Piper’s Desiring God, which rightly focuses on the joy in the Christian Life if we live it correctly.
10 The Pilgrim’s Progress. How often Bunyan gets it just right!! See his musings on The Valley of Humiliation.
11 Poetry. My thinking has also been shaped by the poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins who plumbs the heights and depths of the spiritual life!
 Father and fondler of heart thou hast wrung:
Hast thy dark descending and most art merciful then.
and George Macdonald’s exquisite Diary of an Old Soul.
12 The Holy Spirit—I will happily read of anyone’s adventures in chasing Him. I love Martyn Lloyd Jone’s Joy Unspeakable, about the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, and Simon Ponsonby’s More. Also Jim Cymbala’s Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire.
13 Best book on forgiveness as a lifestyle in difficult relationships—Jack Miller’s superb Come Back, Barbara
14 Simple Living—Doris Janzen’s amazingly inspiring Living more with Less. Just reading her ideas excites and stimulates me.
I love reading. Someone stop me before I ramble on!!
Tell me about some of your favourite spiritual books! Please!

On the Importance of “Sabbaths”

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Okay, I’ve worked for two Sundays in a row to keep a deadline I had neglected in a most cavalier fashion. And so I am going to take a two day mini-retreat from 8 p.m. today to 8 p.m. on Friday.
Working on Sunday is always a very bad idea. The rest every seven days is  enshrined in Judeo-Christianity and Islam, and possibly in our bio-rhythms, what the Germans call ‘zeitgeber,” “time-keeper.”
During World War II, Great Britain experimented with 10 day “weeks,” then 74 hour weeks, but found that accidents dramatically increased and people could not maintain the pace. After experimenting, they found that a 48-hour work week, with regular breaks, plus one day of rest each week, resulted in maximum efficiency.
And so, I know that even if I force myself to write for the next couple of days, it will be inefficient. My mind, body and spirit will protest; they know I need a break.
And it’s going to be a lovely one: brunch with friends on Friday, and then a mixture of napping, walking, gardening, tidying up, praying, reading Scripture, and light reading. With my regular blog post a day, but hopefully not demanding ones. I know it doesn’t sound like much of a rest, but in fact the physical activity will give me a complete mental rest.
Thomas Merton: “Man was made for the highest activity, which is, in fact, his rest.”

The price for some things has to be paid. If we skip our weekly day of rest, we will burn out sooner, and need to take a week or month or less pleasant Sundays. If we neglect our health (as I have for too many years) sooner or later, we will pay in diminished productivity. We pay for neglecting relationships in increased stress. And so on.

 How about you?  When’s your next scheduled rest?

 

Bees, Blessing and Permaculture

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Chives in full bloom in our herb garden

We have a hive of Buckland bees, a mild, docile breed at the bottom of our garden.
A hive of bees in the garden apparently “blesses” the entire garden. The flowers pollinated are bigger and brighter. Vegetables pollinated by bees are bigger. The harvests of fruit increases exponentially, tempting to me since our garden includes a small orchard.
Bigger vegetables, brighter flowers, bountiful harvests of fruit. Introducing bees to one’s garden certainly resembles the blessing of God.
Carol Wimber, in her amusing book The Way it Was, writes lyrically of the joyous years after she and John Wimber first became Christians. Joy filled their hearts, the songs flowed, lyrics flowed. “Even our gardens were more brighter, more lush and verdant.”
                                          * * * 
The honey from local bees–and how can one get something more local than from the bottom of the garden?–is meant to protect one from hayfever. My hayfever hits in June/early July and is probably an allergy to the grass pollen and mould spores in the garden and orchard. 
We are also experimenting with permaculture, using perennial vegetables and fruit, and sustainable techniques. Our garden/orchard is a really large one–1.5 acre, and I could like to plant it intensively–fruit, veggies and flowers, but spend no more than 1 an hour a day in the garden on weekdays, 2 on Saturday and 3 on Sunday, with Roy (who has more time and strength and gardening passion) spending 2 hours a day in the garden.
So I am learning permaculture techniques to minimize labour in the garden. People estimate that, if one uses the techniques of permaculture, one can grow enough fruit and veggies to feed one’s family as well as having a pretty flower-filled garden with no more than a few hours a week in the garden (which I need for the exercise, tranquillity, and the opportunity for clear thinking and praying it affords.) 
Permaculture involves minimizing human labour with techniques such as chipping all garden waste to make thick mulches which dramatically decrease the amount of watering and weeding. Roy really enjoys this–turning our unruly hedges, prunings and garden waste into mulches, which will soon become nutritious compost and increase the soil’s fertility for future years
Another permaculture technique we are adopting is focusing on perennial vegetables. We’ve planted 40 asparagus crowns, rows of strawberries, perennial Welsh onions, and some old English traditional vegetables–lovage, good King Henry etc. 
                                      * * *
Another permaculture idea which is interesting me is creating a tight ecosystem in the home and garden in which nothing is wasted. Our ducks eat our table scraps. We eat their eggs. Their waste and the egg shells go into the compost. The rabbits eat the garden waste (well, the things they love, apple branches, hawthorn, willow, all fruit tree branches, twigs); their nitrogen rich droppings go into the compost. All paper and cardboard–and about a third of our household waste–goes into the compost.
Compost itself is magic–all this waste becoming black, rich, nutritious soil.
Our garden is all organic, of course, and we are learning as much as we can of natural methods of pest control, using, for instance, the birds who come to our five feeders, who are, of course, sheer delight!
                                                                  ~ ~ ~
One of my dreams–and this is a long-range dream!–is to grow the vast majority of the fruit and vegetables we eat. We were lucky to have inherited an orchard planted by previous owners with several apple trees, pear trees, plum, mulberry, quince, medlar, fig, grape, peach, blackberry and raspberry bushes. 
We are using a Rocket Garden for the second year in a row which sends you plug plants at the right time to plant, so (if it works) we’ll be growing all our vegetables this year. And are slowing expanding our flower beds.
We got addicted to gardening when we lived in America and went out with the girls after school spending 3 hours or more in the garden, even on weekday evenings.
And I do love gardening–but I go into the garden with my timer on my iPhone set for an hour, so that with the pleasures of being out with the birds–and now the bees!!– I do not entirely lose track of time.

Incidentally, if you are interested in permaculture, and sustainable time-efficient, human energy-saving gardening, please read Robert Hart’s Forest Gardening. It’s inspirational!

There is always water

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Do you remember Joshua’s outrageous prayer, “Sun, stand still.”

On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel:

“O sun, stand still over Gibeon,

O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”

So the sun stood still,

and the moon stopped,

till the nation avenged itself onb its enemies,

as it is written in the Book of Jashar.

The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day.  There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a man. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel! Joshua 10:12

* * *

I once asked my Bible study group if they had ever prayed a huge prayer– and what happened next. And we heard a faith-building flood of stories.

And here was one which struck me. A woman told us of the time she, aged 28,  was leading a team of 18 year olds on a gap year at a mission project in at an orphanage in South America. There was a drought, so tap-water was mostly unavailable. And the water ran out in the orphanage.

The 18 year olds freaked out, “What should we do; what should we do?” My friend who had no idea herself, so said, “Let’s pray.” And they did–had a little prayer meeting asking for water.

Even as they were praying, there was a knock on the door, and an old farmer they had never seen before or since, said, in Spanish, “I’ve heard you’ve run out of water. I have a well. I have come in my pick-up truck, and can take you there.” And so they scrambled into the pick-up with every container they had, and there was water.

* * *

Even in times of drought, there is always water. There is 35 times more freshwater underground than in lakes and streams. There is fresh ground water, even in desert regions. (Seriously, perhaps development charities should prioritize digging wells in drought prone regions of the world?).

I thought of Heidi Baker’s transforming vision, “There is always enough.”

And I thought: there is always water when we are sad. We might need to quieten down and dig deep within, or deep into Scripture for the water which Jesus gives,  a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14).

* * *

And as for ideas, there is no writer’s block in heaven. God is always thinking, his thoughts towards us are like the grains of sand on the seashore. Part of our job is to quieten down, get out of the way and listen.

Creative blocks are caused when we don’t tune in to God, when we don’t slow down enough to sense his smile on us and our work. (And often, when there is unforgiveness. Then we need to forgive ourselves, forgive God, and forgive all whom we perceive as contributing to the block.)

We might need to realign ourselves with Jesus for streams of creativity to flow out of us, for Jesus promised, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” (John 7:37).

* * *

 We are never without water, spiritually; never without grace. The rain of grace is always available. When things seem dry, and wild fires rage, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to rain down on us, in mixed metaphor tongues of fire. And prayer for the Holy Spirit, according to Jesus, is a prayer which is always answered. (Luke 11:13)

And thanking God for what we have, for the equal opportunity blessings which persist when all seems lost, opens our eyes to the goodness of God.  And restores our joy–bringing rain to our parched, ungrateful hearts!

 

Do not forget that when we weep, the Lord weeps with us

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Image Credit

(Revised, updated, July 21, 2013)
In a memorable scene in John Wimber’s biography, The Way it Was, a “prophetess” comes to him, saying she has a word for him from God.She sits and weeps wordlessly. After about ten minutes of this, Wimber, who has a sermon to prepare, gets irritated, and asks her to give him the word. “Yes,” she says, and resumes weeping silently for another ten minutes.

Finally Wimber says, “Listen, I’ve got to go. If you have a word for me, please share it.”

And she says, “I did. That was the word.”

And Wimber, who was then overworking and miserable, a victim of his own success, was shaken.

The Lord was weeping over him.

* * *

Jesus feels our pain, in the same way that we wept with Martha over the death of Lazarus. The wrong tracks we take, the times we hurt ourselves with our sin, the times we exhaust ourselves for nothing. He sees the futility of it all, and he is grieved.

I am resuming writing the book which I most want to write. After working in it, off and on for 15 years, I shelved it 7 years ago.

And I have been having extensive conversations with God about it.

I have mentally put into his hands, this book which, in many ways, is blood-soaked. In my ambition for my writing, I blew off health, not exercising enough, or eating healthily or taking time to cook, and so gained a lot of weight—85 pounds, to be precise. I sacrificed quality time with my husband. I could have invested even more in the girls. I let the house slide into mess. I overstrained my nervous system with frequent burn-outs.

Oh, that period of idolatry had physical, mental, spiritual and emotional costs, for idols are like that—cruel. They suck you dry and still want more.

But I still feel it is the book I have to write. So claiming the promise that “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18) I put the book into Jesus’ hands, and ask him to redeem it.

And in my mind’s eye, I see him bend down over my book. I see his tears fall over it.

The Lord is weeping with me over all the unnecessary pain, and his tears of love and forgiveness are turning the scarlet of sin as white as snow.

I seem them as tears of redemption, merging with my tears of repentance.

And I am set free to go forward with joy.

 

 

 

 

Time is Better Spent “Earning” Happiness rather than Additional Money

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What I read yesterday as I wrote a post on the Prophet Habakkuk:

Has not the Lord Almighty determined
that the people’s labor is only fuel for the fire,
that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing?
14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea. Hab 2 13-14
What I thought yesterday:
Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” John 6:27
Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.Isaiah 55: 2
What I am reading today: Slow by Carl Honore.
* * *
 My husband and I own a small publishing company which provides our family enough to live on!
But, you know, there is a mortgage, and we have two children. And so we keep wondering if we should expand our business. The law of empires—expand or contract—is the same for businesses: expand your market share, or lose it and contract. So, against our better judgement, we have in fact been slowly expanding the company, in the last 3.5 years since we realised that we had enough to be happy.
We have now caught up with much of our backlog of procrastinated chores built up over a couple of decades of privileging work, and procrastinating everything else. So we were wondering if Roy should throw himself into expanding our business.
* * *
I am reading Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness Project. So thinking about what will make me happier has now begun to enter the equation.
Money can increase happiness up to a point, because it can help you cope with some of life’s problems, so that you are less sad and stressed. However, after your income reached a certain level, more money will not make you happier, according to Nobel prize winning economists Deaton and Kahneman at Princeton.
For me, because I don’t have any particular material thing I’m hankering for, a 10% or even a 50 % percent increase in income will not probably not make me particularly happier, I realized.
What will make me happier is
* To be able to keep up with my 1.5 acre garden, which I am afraid is looking rather shaggy and unkempt with all the rain we’ve had.
* To be have a tidy, organized and decluttered house.
* To eat healthy, body-blessing “Slow Food,” homecooked meals, homemade bread, and homemade stuff like Roy’s delicious salad dressings and dips!
* To exercise everyday.
* To have more time to read.
* More time to write.
* * *
So yet again, we are again putting off the decision to expand the business so as to spend more time in the garden, and kitchen, and in creating domestic order and serenity!!
You know, I think it makes sense. Time spent making extra money is not as well spent as “free time” spent on things which bring you bliss.
People are realizing that time is more important than money.  Money is a renewable resource – there are always ways to get more of it.  But time is a limited resource.
You only have a certain allotment of time in your life.  When it’s used up…that’s it!  YOUR TIME IS YOUR LIFE.  When you give someone your money, you’ve given them something that you can replace.  But when you give someone your time, you’ve given them a part of your life.  This means “time management” is really “life management.”
A question to consider as you work this week:  “How much of what I’m doing right now is going to count ten years from now…50 years from now.. or for eternity?”
You have just enough time to fulfill God’s purpose for your life.  If you “can’t get it all done” it means (1) You’re doing things God never intended for you to do, or (2) You’re doing the right thing in the wrong way.
                                             * * *
Time is always more precious than money, because money spent can be earned again, and money earned can be used to buy time (by farming out whatever work can be farmed out, cleaning, housekeeping chores, gardening, business admin.) Time, however, is an irreplaceable, non-renewable resource.
As Michael Hyatt wrote recently: Your time is a zero sum game.  You must say no to good things—worthy things—in order to say yes to your most important priorities.
                                          * * *
To celebrate life together, to be together in community, to simply enjoy the beauty of creation, the love of people, and the goodness of God—these seem faraway ideals. There seem to be a mountain of obstacles preventing people from being where their hearts want to be. It is so painful to watch and experience. The astonishing thing is that the battle for survival has become so “normal” that few people really believe it can be different.” Henri Nouwen, Seeds of Hope
So for a season, a few months, or years, or the rest of the my life, I am going to say No to working additional hours for more money in exchange for more happiness—happiness in my garden, in an orderly house, with more time to read, to write, to exercise, to pray, to read Scripture, to eat slow, home-cooked food, and to cook for and eat with friends and family!!