Jim Martin's Encouragement Note #103

Do you have enough time? . . . When you navigate the difficulties . . . Not the smartest move . . . What do others think of me? (especially for ministers and other church leaders) . . . Etcetera

Jim Martin

Apr 15, 2024

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The List of Five

Do You Have Enough Time?

grayscale photo of people walking on street

As you reflect on your life and what is important to you, it may be hard to escape the issue of time.

Am I too early? Am I too late?
Do I have enough time left?
How much time do I have left?

Many people seem particularly focused on how little time they have left. I love these words from the French writer Michel Quoist:

All complain that they haven’t enough time.
They look at their lives from too human a point of view.
There is always time to do what God wants us to do,
but we must put ourselves completely into each moment offered now.
I went out, Lord. People were coming and going, walking and running.
Everything was rushing; cars, trucks, the street, the whole town.
Rushing not to waste time.
To catch up with time, to gain time.
Good bye, excuse me, I haven’t time.
I’ll come back, I can’t wait, I haven’t time.
I must end this letter – I haven’t time.
I’d love to help you, but I haven’t time.
I can’t accept, having no time.
I can’t think, I can’t read, I’m swamped, I haven’t time.
I’d like to pray, but I haven’t time.
You understand, Lord, they simply haven’t the time.
The child is playing, he hasn’t time right now… later on…
The schoolboy has his homework to do, he hasn’t time… later on…
The student had his courses, and so much work… later on…
The young man is at his sports, he hasn’t time… later on…
The young married man has his new house; he has to fix it up, he hasn’t time… later on…
The grandparents have their grandchildren, they haven’t time… later on…
They are dying, they have no…
Too late! They have no more time!
And so people run after time, Lord.
They pass through life running – hurried, jostled, overburdened, frantic,
and they never get there. They haven’t time.
In spite of all their efforts they’re still short of time.
Of a great deal of time.
Lord, you must have made a mistake in your calculations.
There is a big mistake somewhere.
The hours are too short, the days are too short.
Our lives are too short.
You who are beyond time, Lord, you smile to see us fighting it.
And you know what you are doing.
You make no mistakes in your distribution of time to men.
You give each one time to do what you want him to do.
But we must not lose time
waste time,
kill time,
For time is a gift that you give us,
But a perishable gift,
A gift that does not keep.
Lord, I have time,
I have plenty of time,
All the time that you give me,
The years of my life, the days of my years, the hours of my days.
They are all mine.
Mine to fill, quietly, calmly,
But to fill completely, up to the brim.
To offer them to you, that of their insipid water You may make a rich
wine as you made once in Galilee.
I am not asking you today, Lord, for time to do this and then that,
but your grace to do conscientiously, in the time that you give,
what you want me to do.
– Michel Quoist (1918-1997) Prayers Of Life.

When You Navigate the Difficulties

“You will either experience the pain of preparation or the pain of failure.” These words from legendary NFL coach Bill Belichick, got my attention.

Duke Women’s basketball coach Kara Lawson put it another way as she spoke to her team. She said that many people think life will eventually get easier.

“No it won’t” she says.

She admonished each person on her team to become a person who “handles hard well.” Choose to be this kind of person instead of someone who is always waiting for things to get easier.

Yet, some Christians believe they should be exempt from pain. Some believe that if they live right and serve God, pain should not be present. Yet, for so many of us, life is very painful.

Stanley Hauerwas once said, “Hope gives you a way to go on when you still are not going to be relieved of pain.”

He went on to say,

Courage is not the absence of fear. It is the formation of rightly fearing what should be feared. If the courageous person didn’t know fear, we would just be fool hearty, they wouldn’t be courageous. The courageous have fears the coward will never know.

Are you facing difficulties? You could wait for things to get easier. Or you may find out how to do hard things better.

A few next steps:

Pray for the courage to move ahead and take the next right step.
Feed your soul. Read Scripture. Read something that causes you to think about God and his character and desires. Listen to a podcast that fills you with encouragement.
Bless someone else. One of the best things you can do when you are struggling or overwhelmed is to look for someone to bless. Send someone an encouraging text. Right in the middle of the mess you are in, show an interest in another’s life.

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Not the Smartest Move

I was sixteen and driving my first car. It was a beautiful, sunny day. There was a long line of traffic on Hilburn Dr., not far from where I lived. The nearby school had just let out.

My window was down and the music was turned up as I waved to two girls, walking home from school. I hoped they would notice and wave.

They didn’t.

That is, they didn’t notice until they saw me rear-end the car that had suddenly stopped in the line of school traffic. I didn’t notice the car had stopped because I was waving.

I got out of my car and looked at the front end of the small yellow car I was driving. The front of my car was smashed! Hardly a scratch to the other car.

Not paying attention to the car in front of me was not a smart move on my part.

Perhaps wisdom is the capacity and desire to make wise and even godly decisions.

Will this decision bring with it consequences that will disrupt my life, my relationships, and most of all, my own discipleship to Jesus?
Am I listening to fleshly urges, desires, temptations, etc. or is this a decision that is rooted in the Spirit’s work in my life?
Is this a decision that will help move me toward Jesus, toward obedience, or toward godliness?
Is this a decision that will simplify my life or will it serve to complicate my life?

What Do Others Think of Me? (Especially for Ministers and Other Church Leaders)

I never intended to be a minister.

Never.

I grew up in a church in southeast Dallas. Our church had three or four different preachers during my childhood years.

I never really knew most of these ministers. I remember dark suits. Some had “pulpit voices,” a sound I never really heard at any other time other than on Sunday.

So, I never intended to be a minister.

Yet, I am a minister. I have been in this role for over four decades. For 36 of these years, I preached each Sunday and did various kinds of ministry within the congregations that I served. I was a “full-time” minister. (Whatever that means!)

Early on, I had to grapple with my self-consciousness. I worried about what people might think about me. Would they think I was odd, weird, or peculiar? Eventually, I learned that the greater problem was my preoccupation with what others thought. I learned to focus on others instead of being so self-conscious.

I remember once being at a luncheon in downtown Fort Worth. Most of the other people present were either attorneys or business people. I was there as the guest of the luncheon speaker.

At one point, we were asked to stand and introduce ourselves to those in the room. In this self-introduction, we were to give our name and our place of work. I was the only minister present.

Years earlier, I would have felt very self-conscious in such a setting. That day, however, I was more focused on the conversation taking place between myself and a very interesting business person whom I had just met. That day, I was more interested in him rather than focused on myself.

Maybe, just maybe, all of us who serve churches might do well to pray that we would be far more interested in loving the people we serve than in speculating as to what they might think about us. Maybe, we might even enjoy our ministries more.