The excerpt from Light from Many Lamps on Arnold Bennet and his view of time was challenging, inspiring and very applicable to my leadership. The main lesson I took from this reading is: the value of time and that it can be used wisely and to its full potential (Watson, 1951, pp. 142-144). As a result, I reflected on how I use my time and also how I teach time management to the staff and students I mentor in my ministry. I have found time has been a consistent struggle in life and ministry, as I often I feel like there is never enough and find managing it frustrating.

Bennet states, “Time is the inexplicable raw material of everything. With it, all is possible; without it, nothing. The supply of time is truly a daily miracle, an affair genuinely astonishing when one examines it” (Watson, 1951, p. 143). The way Bennet viewed time is refreshing as he knew how precious it was and the miracle of it.

Bennet’s view reminded me of some lessons I believe God taught me last year. Last year, I was confronted with how precious time is with the death of a dear family member. It was a jarring experience and it made me re-evaluate my life and how I spent my time. Typically in North American culture, we think and behave as if we will never die and that time on earth is endless. We generally do not see time as a daily miracle or gift, as Bennet did (Watson, 1951, p. 143). However, when death hits close to home, I recognized that the allusion of our time never-ending, gets replaced with the stark reality of how limited our time is. Seeing this family member take their last breath will always stay with me, it was something I had never seen or experienced before and the grief is still with us, as they are dearly missed. It was a very difficult time, but amazingly I experienced so much of God’s grace, assurance and peace that this person was now with in heaven and their suffering was over because they knew Jesus.

In the face of death, I found I gained a renewed perspective on my time here on earth and how short it truly is and I experienced a profound gratefulness and resolve to not to waste it. Arnold Bennet was resolved that the way he used his time made the difference, spending it wisely and not wasting it (Watson, 1951, p. 143).  As I said above, facing death caused me to re-examine my life and priorities and where I was wasting time. I realized a few things that needed adjusting:

  1. Faith over Fear: fear was holding me back and causing me to not fully be who God called me to be, as a result my time here on earth was not reaching its full potential.
  2. Relationships over Ambition: before I was very driven by a somewhat unhealthy ambition. This caused a lot of my time to be task-orientated and self-motivated. I recognized time in relationships and pointing people to Jesus in all I do is never wasted time and to value people over task.
  3. Full surrendered to Jesus: as a Christian, I know Jesus personally and through the Holy Spirit’s guidance I trust God to help me make the most of my time here on earth. I think before this, I was very self-reliant and not reliant on God in all things. This is a journey that I am still walking in, but I have noticed my self-reliance has significantly decreased.

I appreciate and value Bennet’s thoughts on time and it is very inspiring and I do not doubt the influence it has had on many! We see that Bennet “budgeted his time, so that every hour served some useful purpose and it worked” (Watson, 1951, p.142)! However, I actually think he is under-emphasizing one thing, which is the basis of God being the giver of time and that in right relationship with God through Jesus flows an understanding of God’s will and purpose for our daily lives. I would suggest that purpose without understanding God’s greater plan and purpose for our lives in His world creates a vacuum. We find ourselves needing to create our own meaning and purpose and with a constant question of, “are we using our time wisely?”  How do we ever know the answer, without a greater purpose and/or moral framework to base it off of?

To be clear, I do not doubt that in the human spirit, with strong will and discipline people can use time well as Bennet speaks about how he encouraged people to budget their time and spend it wisely and to use wasted hours to advance and improve their minds, personalities, careers and ultimately their lives (Watson, 1951, p. 144). However, my question is this:

Is the sole purpose of advancing and improving ourselves in life a good reason for why we should not waste our time? Or is there a greater purpose in this life to live for?

Monica

 

Header photo: pexels.com by JESHOOTS shared under Pexels (BY) license.

References

Watson, L.E. (1951). Light from Many Lamps. New York: Simon and Schuster.