I’ve been thinking about an excerpt from Charles Hummel’s Tyranny of the Urgent that Chato read at the beginning of Weekly Manna this past week.
We all lead very busy lives, making it easy for us to say, with respect to one thing or another, “I don’t have time for that.” The truth, however, is that there is always time; we always time for the things to which we ascribe importance.
Hummel makes this point in the excerpt Chato read, saying that when we say we have no time for something, what we are really saying is that the something in question is not a priority. What we are saying is that we choose to spend our time on something else. Hummel observes, “our dilemma goes deeper than shortage of time; it is basically a problem of priorities. We confess, we have left undone those things that ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done.”
Hummel goes on to say that there is no single set of correct priorities for Christians. Rather, we need to be intentional about what we are spending our time doing, intentional about using our time as best we can in our discipleship.
“I’m too busy,” or “I have no time,” is really a way of letting ourselves off the hook. (“I would do x if only I had the time.”) It lets us get away with failing to prioritize.
So be honest: instead of saying “I have no time,” admit: “It’s not a priority.” The honesty might have an affect on what you devote your time to.
Creo en Dios! 