See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. – Ephesians 5:15-16

A few years ago, while hunting for activity ideas for the children’s Bible class I teach, I found a chart of days of the weeks divided into hours, telling the teacher to instruct children to fill in their activities to evaluate how much time they spend with God.

Children.

For one thing, children typically have little control over their schedules. Even as a young teenager, when I decided to start reading the Bible every day, I chose to wake up a bit earlier to have time first thing in the morning even though I am not a morning person… because I still had a bedtime. (This did not last long once I went to college and was in charge of how I spent my time.)

So first of all, please don’t do this to children.

But I hear the same thing directed at adults, and it’s based on such a fundamental misconstrual of Christianity.

Committing your life to God is supposed to involve your whole life. Living righteously should involve your whole life. Serving God is not limited to times you actively set apart for God Things.

I could chart out how much time I spend specifically reading the Bible and praying and going to church. But how does that quantify moments when I think a quick prayer for a patron at the library? Or delight in a lovely tree God created? Or a million other things that are kingdom living but aren’t easily distilled into a simple list?

Holding a child? You’re forming their picture of what God’s love and care look like.

Doing your job responsibly and patiently? Demonstrating fruit of the Spirit.

Listening to someone who needs to talk when you’d rather be doing something else? That’s love.

Preparing and eating food? God designed our bodies to need regular nutrition and he knew this would take time; we don’t honor him by pretending this time isn’t important.

Reading stories? Jesus told stories all the time.

Curled up in bed too sick to think? This world is broken, and our bodies are broken, and we are waiting for Jesus to return again and make all things new.

Your entire life can and should be permeated with prayer and with growth of the fruit of the Spirit and with knowing God and with love and service for the people around you. These things often can’t be measured in minutes on a chart.

In our productivity-focused world, it’s easy to take Paul’s phrase “redeeming the time” as instruction to fill our days with as many spiritual activities as possible. But he doesn’t say, “redeeming the time, because the days are short,” as our world might, but, “redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” The whole chapter is about righteous living in a world full of sin. We don’t have to stuff our lives with activities in order to fill them with goodness and righteousness and truth and wisdom and the Spirit and singing and thanksgiving and fear of God.

We make time for things that matter to us, and if you consistently find yourself unwilling to make time for overtly spiritual things, that could very well be a problem. But on its own, the amount of time spent on a few specific activities is such a shallow measure of someone’s faith.

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