Contentment with Time

“My times are in your hands…” (Psalm 31:15a, NIV 2011).

It had been a long week and I was counting on getting home early on Friday to wind down for the weekend. I left the hospital at a reasonable hour and planned to pick up supper at a local Japanese restaurant. Halfway home, my father called and was ill, so I detoured to check him out. I did so fairly quickly; he was okay and I headed for the restaurant, still expecting to relax for much of my evening. I then remembered a patient who had called earlier and phoned him from the car.
Almost to my supper, I discovered that the patient wasn’t doing well, so I turned around for a house call. My examination revealed an obvious bowel obstruction, so I phoned the Emergency Room and then the ambulance. I did get home, but the tempura was soggy and it was time for bed.

I still don’t have control of this “time” thing. Every morning I pray to surrender “my plans.” But with that prayer, I’m speaking of my big plans for the day, the block accomplishments. Then a myriad of momentary events erupt within my day; the goals I have set take longer to complete than I had planned; and the end of the day finds some of my block goals unaccomplished.
God would have me change.
His will is that I surrender not only my major plans but also my momentary plans, allowing His events to invade them—even when these divine events interrupt the big plans I surrender to Him every morning. The problem with continuing my present course is not that I fail to complete God’s work each day, but that I hurry in frustration to make them happen. That frustration then hides the Christ in me from those He would have me serve.
Dick Swenson in his enlightening work Contentment writes, “We all say that we want God to run our lives, but running our minutes is a different proposition, and nothing less than walking in the Spirit.”
I am dedicating this year to giving God my moments just as I seek to give Him my days. I am determined to accept the disruption of the moment as an opportunity to let Christ pour out into my present.
Does that mean I have to slow down? I hope not.
Another very helpful statement in Swenson’s book allows me to keep up my pace,
“It is okay to go fast, as long as we don’t hurry.”

Dear Father,
Let me place every moment into your hands.
Amen