Soul Fixation: Schedule

For a brief reminder of the purpose of this series, read this post: My Life As a Plant.

Also, as a sidenote: I'm pretty sure I have the flu or something like it, so prayers are incredibly appreciated. I'd love to have peace and a servant's heart even in the midst of feeling as if a hammer is being hit against my head every five seconds. I'm not the most gentle-spirited person when I'm under the weather, but I know God's Spirit can work in empowering ways.

Also, I've been writing you all novels lately, and I apologize. I haven't quite mastered concise blogging, relaying messages that are short and sweet, but I am attempting to improve.

Anyway.

When I think on the word 'schedule', there is so much that could be said. I could talk about how we need to schedule in rest, how too many people (including myself) stress themselves out over a to-do list, or how our schedules need to be intentional, because our lives need to be intentional.

All of this is true, but none of it is on my heart tonight.

This, however, is: our lives should be made up of love, not schedules.

Not that schedules are evil or wrong. I love my daily to-do lists, but when schedules become idols, when events simply become items to check off the to-do list, then we need to to recenter our hearts.

It's easy in America to forget this, because many of us go through our days from penciled event to penciled event, and oftentimes this leads to anxiety. Schedules seem to run our lives. I'm convinced they don't have to (and shouldn't).

Some of us fall on the other end of the spectrum, schedules being at the bottom of our priority lists. This is usually where laziness sets in, where carelessness reigns and depression controls us. This also is a problem.

Not everyone in the world would even use the word schedule in their vocabularies, because not everyone in the world has one. Not all of us have schedules, but all of us have time.

How we spend it is up to us.

The point is intentionality: is our time wasted or well-spent, meaningful or in vain?

Lately I've been thinking a lot about how time is fleeting, how each day is uncertain and hardly promised. Tomorrow isn't guaranteed, and I think Jesus knew this. What's strange to me is that He only lived to be about thirty. His lifespan was less than half of the life expectancy for the average woman in the United States, and yet He lived a more abundant life than any person could ever hope to live.

He lived His life for love, and I think that's about as close to meaningful as one could hope could to get.

Reminders of the Gospel motivate me to live my life only one way: in sweet surrender to God and to other people. Jesus spent His life for love, spent His life for me and you and every person, and this should motivate me to spend my life for Him.

When I believe that He is God, that He came in flesh, that He died undeservingly for the sins of the world, and that He rose victorious, turning over death itself, all I can do is spend my life for what I believe He's done. All I can do is live my life as praise, is live my life in love.

This is why I love the Gospel so much, among other reasons: it's a call to spend one's life for, by, and through love. It's a humble call for each person to be a living sacrifice, a call to respond to what Christ has done.

It's a call to live in love.

It's not only the message that salvation is coming. It's the message that salvation is here.

Today, right now, in each moment.

This perhaps is primarily what the life, death, and resurrection of Christ teaches us, not to dwell solely on the idea of eternal security, though this is important as well, but rather the main message is one that invites us to focus on the present moment, because the message of Christianity is that the kingdom is here, now. It's both today and to come.

The kingdom is ready to be lived, the kingdom is here.

We can live it out, praying 'God let your kingdom come, Father let Your will be done'.

Or we can ignore it, letting moments of love pass by without a second glance.

I'm not sure what this looks like for you. It may mean setting down the video game that you've spent hours playing, the social networking site that you've spent way too much time browsing, or that textbook you've been reading over and over again and talking about life with a friend. It might mean inviting someone over to do those activities with you. It may mean serving your community or simply calling a family member or telling someone you love them. It may mean leaving the dishes for later or not being so uptight about the house being clean if it means you can spend more time with your family.

For all of us I think it means to set aside the concept of a set schedule or a lazy, uncaring routine and welcoming the idea of a spirit-filled life. It means looking outside of ourselves and asking, 'what are the needs of those around me?'

It's asking this question: how is God wanting me to live out His kingdom today?