I recently graduated after 6 years of working through school. It is a relief and a welcome change to the pace of life. There is also an obvious absence of the work load that filled every crevice of the free time I had.
My wife and I have taken this as an opportunity to reorganize our weekly schedule and refocus it for better purposes. During this process I realized that I am a selfish person. As I looked through the weekly schedule I defaulted toward putting an open weekday evening or weekend afternoon toward “free time” or “chill time”. With this kind of emphasis there could be no margin for loving people, hosting people, knowing my neighbors and positioning my life as a missionary. The realization has got my mind into a space where it is analyzing how I make decisions about how my life is geared.
So often the way I make decisions about my time is based on how I can benefit or how I will feel about the activity. I am naturally quite introverted and would default to sitting in a corner, in a comfy chair, reading a book with curated music streaming through my headphones. Given the chance I would pick this often. Or every time. But in this choice I reveal to myself that the Gospel is not being considered in the way I scheduled my time. Only I am considered.
The Gospel is the great news that I have been rescued by a good King who is working his plan of redemption and restoration throughout the cosmos. This glorious plan culminates in his complete Kingdom. The awesome aspect of this news—well, one of them— is that I have been included in the plan to redeem and restore. I have been called into the great drama and I get to participate by living my life in a Kingdom-focused fashion and making disciples by explaining and reiterating this great news.
This news has implications on every aspect of my life. And if I give it the proper weight in decision making I realize that every piece of my life can be tweaked to better point toward the kingdom.
What time should I wake up and why? When should I go to bed? How should I spend my weekends? How will I incorporate a rhythm of rest so that I am renewed to serve and love? Does my life have margin to love people and meet new people so I can show them the Kingdom or am I more interested in sitting in my corner? How will I work my job and what kind of job will I invest in?
This is still in process for me and I don’t know how comprehensive the influence of the Gospel will be but I have suspicions that it will not cease making changes in my life. The King I align with has not changed my life in a nominal way but in a radical way and the changes will continue to come.
If I think those changes can be packaged in a 2 hour per week time slot I may not be running toward my King the way I thought I was.