With Apologies

“One of the very worst uses of time is to do something very well that need not to be done at all.” 
        ― Brian Tracy

Today I was on the phone with a dear friend. And our conversation led to her saying a phrase I don’t routinely hear in a day. “I had to repent.” Wow. The result of our conversation opened my eyes and opened my heart.

We were talking about her desire to create some short videos for an organization, project, and cause of which we both support. We talked about how people’s short attention span has led to the popularity of brief 10 – 30 second clips on such sites as TikTok.

As we talked, she recalled the time where she was attracted to one short clip, which led to her watching a series of related clips. You know the ole “If you liked this one, we suggest watching this one, and this one … and this one…” You get the idea.

Well, she recalled how a 1-minute timeout turned into one entire hour of being glued to the worldwide webspace.

Her response to this experience?

“I had to repent.”

I thought that was a bit of an odd statement. Repent? What the hell was she watching?

Knowing her, it was of course something pretty benign, maybe even silly.

She then said the magic phrase that hit me deep in my gut and heart. She told me, “I had to say out loud, 'I am sorry Lord for wasting your time.'”

Oh my.

It wasn’t about just wasting time. It wasn’t just about using her OWN time unwisely. But it was about using unwisely the time that God had gifted her on that day. This woman values time in a very elevated way - as a gift from the highest.

She holds time spent not just for her and what she can get out of life, but what she can give to others in the most precious way.

Sure, there is time for fun in life. And yet, if we are aiming towards a higher purpose, each moment can be consciously spent. The gift that this woman gave to me this day was the awareness that my time can be held precious as well.

Thank you God.