Buying Time

This post is fourth in the Psalm 127 series "Live Like a King."

~ ~ ~

It is vain for you to rise up early,
To sit up late,
To eat the bread of sorrows.
~ Psalm 127:2 (NKJV)

For some years now, I've considered myself a pauper of time. Lack of time for loved ones truly grieves me. Whether the checkbook has required me to pinch pennies or allowed me to indulge, I've often spent dollars and sense in my attempts at buying time.

Like many people, buying time includes saying 'no' to some things, employing as much efficiency and simplicity as possible, multi-tasking, hurrying (a sickness, I've learned), and forfeiting sleep. And even when I should have time left over, unexpected circumstances seem to steal it back.

The race is not to the swift …
Nor riches to men of understanding,
Nor favor to men of skill;
But time and circumstance happen to them all.
~ Ecclesiastes 9:11

"Buying time" with mere sense is as possible as buying dollars with cents. If traveling at a-mile-a-minute-plus and owning labor-saving devices gains hours, shouldn't industrialized nations be more relaxed and third-world countries more pressed for time? Though a person can have more money by either working harder to earn it or spending less to save it, can more time be obtained except by spending less?

*sigh*

There are twenty-four hours in the day to be had. Sleep is not optional.

Period.

But.

To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven …
[God] has made everything beautiful in its time.
~ Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NKJV)

Not one of us is truly a pauper of time. God gives each of us enough. We simply spend it on the wrong things and have too little left over for the right things.

What's really sad is that I know well the way to have enough time. It's the same method to have enough money.

Give all of it away. To God. He owns it anyway. It's only when we think of time or money as our own that we waste it in the wrong places. Remembering that we are His stewards helps us make the right decisions with both.

I happen to believe in tithing. God's always been given the first tenth, and the other nine have always proven to be enough. Back in the days when I consistently gave God the first two or three hours of the day (at least 2.4 out of 24 was my intent), the remaining ninety percent of my time felt far less scanty.

Along the way of "doing for God," my firstfruits of time spent simply being with God got compromised. Nothing's been as right since.

"Wealth consists not in the abundance of our possessions but in the fewness of our wants."
~ Unknown *

True for a pauper. True for a king.

True of material wealth. True of time.

Lord, I love You so much. Time spent with You has never, ever been wasted. It's saved me untold squandered hours. Please help me—help all of us—to spend more hours with You and be rich in time.

: : :

* This is evidently a paraphrase of words by J. Brotherton:
"My riches consist not in the extent of my possessions but in the fewness of my wants."

Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – use @gmail.com *after* buildingHisbody
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.

Complete Coverage Part III: More Than Bargained For

Then [Naomi] arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the LORD had visited His people by giving them bread.
~ Ruth 1:6 (NKJV)

Ten years earlier, Naomi no doubt favored flight from Israel's famine into Moab, that she might have food for her two sons Mahlon (meaning "sick") and Chilion (meaning "failing"). What good Jewish mother doesn't want to see her children well fed?

Moab's price for food was more than bargained for. Not only did her family lose their land inheritance, her sons died anyway, as did her husband. As often happens, the thing Naomi feared came upon her when she attempted to escape it. If famine signified the Lord's attempt to get His people's attention, then running from famine held little likelihood of prosperity.

The end of Israel's famine came as news that the Lord "visited" His people. The Hebrew word used here is pâqad," which carries the connotation of oversight. Naomi expressed keen awareness that she was under the Lord's oversight.

"Do not call me Naomi [good, pleasant]; call me Mara [bitter], for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the LORD has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the LORD has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?"
~ Ruth 1:20-21 (NKJV)

Whatever bitterness she carried, Naomi remained pleasant enough and retained enough faith to be a testimony of the Lord's goodness to her daughter-in-law Ruth. Ruth's impassioned plea to attach herself to Naomi, Naomi's people, and Naomi's God is among the Bible's most beautiful and oft quoted pieces of poetry (Ruth 1:16-17).

That attachment proved to be salvation for both women. Boaz, the godly man of faith who would redeem them from poverty, explains the means of salvation and blessing for all people of all time in his words to Ruth:

"The LORD repay your work, and a full reward be given you by the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge."
~ Ruth 2:12 (NKJV)

If Naomi received more than bargained for in leaving the shelter of God's Promised Land, then Ruth received more than bargained for in entering it; she received not only the home and prosperity she might have hoped for, but also the husband and son she might only have dreamed for.

Those who attach themselves to Christ are never outside His oversight. Our hearts may wander to the very fringe of the shadow of His wings, into the place where worldly concerns and their accompanying anxiety penetrate the edges of feathers that cover us. Our greatest fears may catch up with us.

And if we see ourselves as going out full and returning empty, then return we must—allowing ourselves to be gathered into the nearness of our Lord's heart, which beats love and prosperity for us, far away and above "more than bargained for."

Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave You, God, whom I love. Most High God, I ask that You please, please work in our hearts so that we will give in to Your desire to gather us closely under Your wings, to the place of Your most complete coverage.

Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC or e-mail – use @gmail.com *after* buildingHisbody
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.

Complete Coverage Part I: No Exclusions

I'm old enough to remember the days when health insurance was more like car insurance, and simply covered the losses too big for the average budget to absorb. Minor problems came out of the insured's pocket rather than insurer's.

I also remember, about a generation ago, being introduced to an HMO (health maintenance organization), which proposed that the way to prevent major problems was to cover regular check-ups and health maintenance, which would ultimately keep medical costs lower.

At least that's how it was supposed to work.

Instead, we developed the prevalent attitude is that complete access to all medical services is an American entitlement. Rather than taking better care of ourselves, as health insurers anticipated, Americans became less fit than ever before. We pretty much expect every affliction to be treatable for a minimal cost to ourselves, and anticipate that someone else, somewhere, will pick up the tab for any medical treatment or prescription available, no exclusions.

We certainly understand that this method wouldn't work for car insurance. Can you imagine being a business owner and being required to pay car insurance premiums for workers? And if "co-pays" were $25 per accident and $10 for repairs, could people be expected to more faithfully perform preventative maintenance and develop safer driving habits?

On the other hand, what if costs for health insurance and medical services were handled more like we deal with our cars? Would we find a way to take better care of ourselves if insurance premiums were adjusted according to how we take care of ourselves, increasing in proportion to our bad habits? What if coverage was cancelled for smoking? What if injuries due to high-risk activities were exclusions to coverage? What if deductibles went up, so that we absorbed more of the responsibility for our own health care?

Mind you, I'm not pointing fingers. I've slid into the entitlement mentality. In the last couple of years, I've gained unnecessary weight. In recent months, I've gone along with all the expensive, cardiologist-recommended diagnostic procedures to poke around my heart for the problem. I didn't make a fuss last week when an x-ray and doctor visit had to be repeated because of a poorly managed urgent care clinic.

And I just found out that all these procedures are now out-of-pocket, to the tune of a $4,000 deductible—effective July 1. Guess who just absorbed more responsibility for my health care?

I don't want to sweat that figure, though. I know that God provides …

And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
~ Philippians 4:19 (NKJV)

We Christians affirm our reliance such truth when financial stress occurs. And He does, indeed, provide complete coverage for our needs—no exclusions.

But.

Our God is also most interested in providing for our spiritual and eternal needs before material and temporal needs—with some significant deductibles and co-pays.

More on this in days to come.

Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – use @gmail.com *after* buildingHisbody
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.