SERVING GOD WITH MY TIME
1.0. INTRODUCTION
God is eternal. But He created
the world in time; time began with creation. That means God is the source and
end of time. Without God, the counting of time will lead to nothingness, which
is what secularism and Satan want to achieve; then death will be the lord of
time, the ultimate end of each person’s time. But God sent Jesus to save us
from the agony of a wasted struggle with time. “In the fullness of time, God
sent His Son, born of a woman, born a subject of the Law, to redeem the
subjects of the Law, so that we could receive adoption as sons” (Gal 4:4-5).
‘Time’ became salvific when Jesus
redeemed us in time. It was a long-awaited hour of salvation, which became the
fullness of time. Abraham longed to see this hour (Jn 8:56). Many prophets and
holy men and women look forward to it (Mt 13:17). When the Blessed Virgin Mary
tapped into this hour Jesus said to her, “My hour has not come yet” (Jn 2:4). At
last, when the time came, Jesus said, “Now the hour has come…” (Jn 12:23).
Again, He prayed to the Father saying, “Father, the hour has come: glorify your
Son” (Jn 17:1). Our life time is now sanctified and given value in Jesus, who
is the Alpha and Omega of our lives (Is 44:6; Rev 1:17). Thus, we live no
longer for ourselves but we live for Jesus (2 Cor 5:15). Our life-time should
revolve around Him for He is the center of our being as believers. That is how
we find value in life.
2.0. SETTING PRIORITIES
The moment of Jesus becomes the
highest point in human history, the fullness of time. He is the First Born of
all creation (Col 1:15). And He must take the first place in our hearts. It is
in Him that all things hold together (Col 1:17). So, we must apportion quality
time for Jesus, and from Him our time spreads out to other activities. This is
how our activities are sanctified, and we draw value from them.
That means we must set priorities
and have scale of preference of which God is at the topmost, and every other
activity revolves round Him. For us to serve God with our time, we must not only
allot quality time to Him, but we must channel every minute of our day to His
glory. From here, we must place proper ordering to all our activities. Our activities
do not carry equal rank. Therefore, they must not be lumped together, and
executed at random. A true servant of God is well ordered. If we do not set
priorities, there is a high tendency that the multitude of activities that are
demanding for our attention will present themselves as more important. Definitely,
most less important activities steal our attention by presenting themselves as urgent
and necessary.
3.0. COMMITMENT
Once we have identified the order
of things, we follow it up by channeling our energies accordingly. We should
not respond to every activity with the same energy or commitment. To be committed
means to dedicate oneself to a cause of action. It implies personal involvement
to the cause, which requires repeated actions, constancy or perseverance in
carrying out the responsibility. “The
phenomenon of commitment is a cornerstone of human social life. Commitments
make individuals’ behavior predictable, thereby facilitating the planning and
coordination of joint actions involving multiple agents. Moreover, commitments
make people willing to rely upon each other, and thereby contribute to
sustaining characteristically human social institutions such as jobs, money, government
and marriage.”[1]
‘Commitment’
presupposes certain opposition in executing the necessary actions for a
productive and healthy life. It is this very opposition that commitment
neutralizes by consistently applying the required energy towards the task. We are
always committed to one thing or the other. The problem arises when we misplace
priorities and apply our energy wrongly. To serve God requires commitment at
the highest level. Jesus said, “And you must love the Lord your God with all
your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength”
(Mk 12:30).
4.0.
Serving God with my Time
St. John Chrysostom (4th Century) said, “The
time is not yours. At present you are strangers, and sojourners, and
foreigners, and aliens; do not seek honors, do not seek glory, do not seek
authority, nor revenge; bear all things, and in this way, ‘redeem the time’.
Give up many things, anything they may require... only preserve the principal
thing, I mean the Faith...” Thus, realizing that time is God’s gift, to serve
God with my time begins with allotting specific time for God and engaging in certain
spiritual exercises and services in the Church and community, but it goes beyond
that too. According to Fulton Sheen (19th-20th centuries), “It is never
true to say that we have no time to meditate; the less one thinks of God, the
less time there will always be for God. The time we have for anything depends
on how much we value it. Thinking determines the uses of time; time does not
rule over thinking. The problem of spirituality is never, then, a question of
time; it is a problem of thought. For it does not require much time to make us
saints; it requires only much love.” St. Catherine of Siena said, “You are rewarded not according to
your work or your time but according to the measure of your love.”
Now, to serve God with my time
implies to infuse the love of Jesus, the sanctifier of time, into my life time
and activities. Since all times and seasons belong to Him, every activity I
carry out in time must be open to the love of God. All times and seasons belong
to Him, and the grace of His salvations is available and awaits us at every
moment. We cannot receive this grace in vain, for the word of God said, “At the
time of my favor I answered you; on the day of salvation I have helped you;
well, now is the real time of favor, now the day of salvation is here” (2 Cor
6:1-2). We cannot withdraw any moment from Him, even when we are pursuing our
personal interests. If we relegate our service of God only to a particular
time, such attitude will become an obstacle that will gradually grow to make
difficult to serve God at all. That is why meditation engages our minds in the
service of God at all times, even when we are pursuing other things.
However, we must specifically
engage in particular services and spiritual exercises as a way of serving God
with our time. As members of choir for example, you have to devote a lot of
time and energy to practice and sing at Mass. Even outside the official times, you
have to rehearse at times, and get involved in other church meetings and
programs. What you are doing by this is a concrete demonstration that my whole
time belongs to God (Cf. Ps 31:14-15). If you do not fulfil your obligation in
the service you have undertaken, you may grow weak in your own contribution to
the growth of the Body of Christ. Then, other lower interests will flood in and
disarm your commitment to Christ. And there are so many activities demanding
our attention and commitment. Devoting time to serve God in this particular ministry
is a gesture of gratitude to God for the gift of life and time, and at the same
time, an act renewal of our expression of faith that all that we have and are
belong to God. This constant expression of our self-offering to God keeps the
light of our faith glowing.
Above all, to serve God with my
time is the work of grace. God inspires us and empowers us from within to serve
Him diligently. He gives us the sweet unction that makes us to serve Him
effectively, and gives us the inner consoling satisfaction whenever we offer
Him our time. It becomes necessary that if we must serve God with our time, we
must not put obstacles on the free flow of divine grace within through sin and
bad habits such as procrastination, idleness, pride (that makes us overlook
little things), addiction (to entertainment, persons, substances, etc). St. Paul
says, “So, then, be careful how you live. Do not be unwise, making the best use
of your time because the times are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but
understand what the will of the Lord is” (Eph 5:15-17). In addition, we must
nurture the right virtues that will enable us to cooperate with grace that is
given to us for effective service with our time. St. Paul advices that we
should make the best use of our time by behaving wisely towards others (cf. Col
4:5). Such virtues include, obedience, self-discipline, piety, love, etc. That
is why I recommend to you the practice of meditation as an effective way to train
yourself to serve God with your time.
Meditation engages the mind with
the word of God, and inclines it to cooperate the divine grace. Then, the heart
is flooded with the love of God. In this way, the person becomes conscious that
He is in the presence of God, and this love of God can easily manifest in all
his or her activities at all times.
Life is God’s first gift to us;
time is the most precious gift of life. We only have a limited amount of time. We
must be careful how we use time, and try hard to improve on our use of time. “Teach
us to number our days, that we may gain wisdom of heart” (Ps 90:12). Indeed, it
takes a wise person to use his time well and to attract divine favor. The proper
use of time to the glory of God becomes an authentic way we witness to the life
of grace. If we serve God with our time, we shall inherit eternal life. For
now, it is important that we focus on using our time to the glory God since we
shall give account of how we used the gift of time at the end of our time on
earth. “But as for that day and hour, nobody knows it, neither the angels of
heaven, nor the Son, no one but the Father alone” (Mt 24:36). Amen.
Fr Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu,
C.Ss.R
Retreat reflection delivered to:
Bethlehem Choir
Church of Nativity,
Festac Town, Lagos.
Saturday November 5th,
2022.
