Time

My dad was a musician. In fact as a kid my family spent much of the time traveling around the country as he would play and sing in different places. So naturally my brother and I got the music bug too. Dave is a sax player, a jazz professor at the university level and just released an amazing new CD. (In fact if you like jazz, check it out! Click here) I’m a drummer. Started playing in 1968 and eventually made my living playing in bands and stuff for a lotta years. Still play in church all the time and had a band up until just a couple years ago. Anyway, in college I remember talking to another drummer friend of mine and he asked, “Have you been practicing?” I said, “not much, haven’t had the time.” And I’ll never forget his answer, he looked right at me and said “No one has the time, you make the time.”

Each of us has the same number of minutes every day, no one has any more or any less. So why is it that some folks develop such amazing skills, and others don’t? It’s what they do with their time.

My brother is 1000 times the musician I’ll ever be, and that’s because while I was out goofing around doing other stuff, he was practicing scales and learning his craft. He didn’t have any more time than I did, he just used that time to focus on and improve his skills.

I see that all the time at Whole Armor. The students who practice their Karate outside of class really stand out, and those who don’t, well, don’t. The students who practice don’t have any more time than the other students, they just make that choice to practice their martial arts rather than watch TV or do something else. And the end result is that they enjoy class more because they are ready, practiced up and can then improve at class rather than have to try and catch up again.

God cares about how we use our time too. Ephesians 5:15 tells us, “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” It just does take time to read our Bible, pray, go to church, youth group, small group or whatever, but that is time well spent as we find ourselves growing in our faith and learning more and more how God wants us to live.

So let me encourage you to think carefully about the choices that you make and the things that you let occupy the minutes and hours of your day. Some you can’t control like work and school, others you really can, and often a lot more than you might think. And let me also encourage you to put God first in those choices every day, remembering like my friend told me a long ago – “No one has the time, you make the time.”