During
yesterday’s declaration (blog) we began the discussion about balance using Ecclesiastes
1:1-8 as our foundation text and we discovered that “time” is interwoven with
balance. Simply put, an equal
distribution of time creates balance.
It
goes without saying that we live in a fast paced society complete with various types
of technology that can add to or take away from our quality of life depending
on how or whether we use it or not. For example:
· Social media can
be a great way to keep in touch with friends and loved ones; advertise your
business at little or no cost; promote “causes”, etc. However, if I use it for purposes to de-edify
others, trash talking and/or if I spend excessive amounts of time on it to the
point where I cannot perform my daily tasks, that’s problem. I am living out of balance;
· Instant
Messaging/Texting: It’s a great way to
send “short” messages to recipients for a variety of reasons: e.g.: love text to your spouse/children;
notify others of your whereabouts; request for information, etc. However, if I
use this medium practically “all” the time: during meal time, at work, at the theater, during church service, doctor’s office, bank, in the store, engaged in
a face to face conversation, driving, etc.
I am living out of balance;
· Obviously we need
to need to eat to live. Given that so
many of us are on the go from sunrise to sunset, there are occasions when we
may not have time to cook so we grab some Fast Food – sometimes. But if we eat fast food every day, we are living
out of balance, teaching our children unhealthy eating habits and we are slowly
killing ourselves and them;
· Most of us have
some sort of monthly income or at least we are working towards it. If we spend our paychecks before we get paid
(Pay Day Loans, borrowing from others, living on credit cards, etc.) on “things”
(e.g. nails, hair, eyelashes, clothes/shoes we don’t need, entertainment, etc.). We are living out of balance and above our
means;
· If you are
always late, people cannot depend on you to be punctual or to arrive at all,
you are living out of balance and there is more than likely a much deeper
cause;
· If you commit to
work on a project, help someone with something, meet someone somewhere, etc.
and you rarely follow through you are living out of balance and you are a
liar. If you don’t mean it, don’t say
it; If you don’t think you can follow through, don’t commit and if by all means
you blow it, call the person and repent, turn from your reckless behavior and
ask God to help you manage your time better.
o Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’
Anything beyond this is from the evil one. Matthew 5:37 (NLT)
Tania
Not Tanya: Have you ever heard the
saying: “Time is money?” Do you believe
you can put a dollar value on your time?
I don’t know about you, but my time is valuable, especially as I become
more seasoned in life. I don’t want my
time wasted by people who tell me they are going to do this, that and the other
but don’t and then you can’t find them with a flashlight until they need
something from you. Uh, excuse me? When we commit to do something or meet
somewhere, you never know how much trouble the other party(ies) went through to
keep their meeting with you (e.g. babysitter, coming even though they aren't feeling
well, rearranging their schedules, etc.)
People who are late ALL the time don’t respect time, yours or theirs.
There
are so many other examples I could give about living our lives out of balance
from a natural aspect but I will stop at those above because I think by now you
have an understanding of what I mean.
But before I cut it off, let’s look at a different set of examples:
· It is important
for us to share our faith with others, but if the only subject I can talk about
is God to my non-believing friends, family members, co-workers, etc. I am living out of balance. It’s a turn off and eventually people will
start to avoid me and I will probably be a challenge for me to win anyone to
Christ because their idea of a Christian is someone who pesters people and runs
their friends away and that’s probably not going to be very appealing;
· It is important
to read and study the word of God, but if I spend the majority of my time
studying to the degree that I neglect my household chores, hygienic needs, my
family and/or my job, I am living out of balance. I am causing division and strife in my house,
on my job and I may very well find myself reading by candle light because I
didn’t pay the utilities, catch a CPS case for neglect, on Divorce Court
because my spouse left me or on unemployment because my boss is sick of me and
Jesus;
· It is important
to fast, but if you are fasting “all the time” with no clear direction from the
Holy Spirit to the point where you are losing excessive weight and experiencing
health challenges you are out of balance;
· It is absolutely
vital that we pray, but if your prayer interferes with your ability to carry
out your household chores, meet your family’s needs, you are hollering and
screaming to the top of your lungs early in the morning or late at night waking
your neighbors, children or spouse and one or all of them bring it to your
attention but you continue because you think you’re gonna win them to Christ
through the prayer or you’re prayer time is causing you to be late for work,
school or other important appointments, you are living out of balance, you are
out of order and it is a poor representation as an Ambassador for Christ;
· It is important
that we communicate with others, but if when someone asks you a simple question
about how you’re doing, if you had a good weekend, etc. and you start speaking
in your religious tongue:
o Oh bless the
Lord, the Holy Ghost came in like a rushing mighty wind and Bishop preached
under the anointing, people were slain in the spirit, knocked out under the
power of the Holy Spirit and we "churched" it until we worked up an appetite. Now that would be fine if I didn’t want to be
bothered with that person again and I was trying to scare them. But if my intention was to use that as a tool
to invite them to church it most likely ain't gone happen.
§ Why? I gave them
a drink of water with a fire hose and my non-believing friend who has no
knowledge of the Holy Ghost, rushing might wind, etc. might think I was talking
about a ghost who was in a storm that put some kind of ointment on people who
got killed at my church because someone knocked them out and then we sat around
and ate chicken while the people died.
I’m
way out of time but I don’t wanna keep you hanging, so make sure you’re on the
call tomorrow so we can go deeper
In
His New Excellence,
Tania
Not Tanya
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