What is one of the (if not the most) valuable things that you have? Something so valuable, that depending on how you use it the most, determines the kind of life that you live? It’s time.
Time tells us where to be, how long to be there, it determines how rested we are, it even tells us how important things are depending on how much of it we give it to different parts of your life. Time is an investment. But even something that is as important and all-powerful seeming as time submits to one force that has everything in the palm of His hands. Emphasis on the capital H. Now what happens in the life scenario where you end up giving a bunch of this time to the one who lives where time is not a factor? The one who lives in eternity? Well to not be too mystical, here is my testimony about time.
Time is something that I used to believe I had none of. About four years ago before going into university to continue my academic career in architecture, I was blessed with a position in an office with the demands to complete full time work (40 hours a week). As soon as school began about 8 months later, I was no longer able to go into work 5 days a week. But by the grace of God I was not let go because I was able to work out a deal to remain at 30 hours a week by coming into work every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for 10 hours each day. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I had a school schedule from 8am to 6pm, more 10 hour days. The only time I had off were after school, after work, and the weekends. I used these times off to be sure that I completed the homework assignments that would at times overwhelm me. I was booked up all day, every day of the week!
At this point in my life I did not have much of a spiritual life. I believed in God, I went to youth group once in a while, I prayed once or twice a week, but that side of my life was not something that I would invest much time in. This changed once I was invited to a HOP (House of Peace) from one of my good friends from school. I felt a sort of conviction to go, and once I did, I continued to go time and time again because of the encounter that I had. HOP was every Thursday night. That alone was me thinking to myself, “ok one night is ok, I will still be able to push a little harder to be able to go HOP every week and still get all my work done”. That is exactly what I did.
Eventually that same friend informed me of all the other services that her congregation had. They had services every Wednesday night, HOP Thursday nights, youth group every Friday night, and every Sunday morning AND night. I knew I was at a point of conflict with my own brain. Something in me wanted to go to these services, get into a congregation that I felt a lot of impact from and actually be a part of it, and then there was the part where I thought to myself “how on earth am I supposed to finish any homework at all when I have been busting my butt every single time that I have free time and I barely finish my assignments on time, if I begin to go to these services which would take 4 full nights from me and a chance for me to sleep in on Sundays?!”. I prayed about it, and I knew that I had to do it, I knew I wanted to do it! My friend kept telling me “put God first and everything else will align itself” and I kept telling myself “HOW?” but I made the decision anyway.
We’ve all heard that God works in mysterious ways. To this day, I can’t understand how it worked out the way that it did, and that’s to emphasize the fact that we do not need to know how God will do something. We just need to know that when we follow in His plans, that He just will. Once I began to go to the services that the congregation had to offer and was even more immersed into this life that God has for me, things in the realm of time began to change for me. Where once I felt pressured and had no time for anything but homework, I was now dedicating most of that time learning more of this Father that has been with me since the beginning.
Everything suddenly stopped being a pressure to me. I was able to complete my assignments without having to go crazy the night before it was due, school in general was lifted off my shoulders and no longer a burden and it remained that way even until this day. It was not a temporary thing that God did for me. I continue to go to this congregation every chance I get and God continues to give me the time to do it all and more. He expanded the time that I have in a way that I could have never done myself. The more I do His will, the more he gives me the gifts that He’s been holding for me.
