By Heather Melton, (she/her) UTO Staff Officer
Lately, it seems like every conversation I’ve had includes the following two topics: how hot it has been this summer and how busy everyone is. Maybe it’s not been incredibly hot where you are, but my guess is that it feels like we’re all overserved when it comes to things to do. Personally, I keep making to-do lists and think if I can just get everything on this list done, then I’ll be less busy, but my to-do list items keep making friends, and it never seems to shorten. All this busy-ness has got me thinking I need to reset and think about my time differently.
For a long time in the church, when we talked about stewardship, we’d say to people, “Look at your checkbook and see where your money is going. Does it align with your values?” I always found this a lovely idea, but often I was barely scraping by. From the looks of my checkbook at the time, my values were rent, student loans, and food. Today the exercise would look a lot different, but the question always made me feel shame about my giving instead of challenged to make reasonable cuts to give more. I realized recently that this question would be better asked about my time. What if we asked everyone to look at their schedule or calendar and see if it aligned with their values? So, I decided to take a moment and do just that. Turns out, I need to use my time a little differently going forward. It is time for a reset.
One of my favorite pieces of Scripture is Leviticus 23:22, or in Judaism: The Law of Pe’ah. The Law of Pe’ah instructed that when one reaps the grains from the field (or the grapes from the vineyard) that one leaves some behind; specifically, the corners of the field are left for those in need. There is a lot of commentary about this law, but the piece that I find interesting is from a 16th century rabbi who used this law to talk about who owns the land. Ultimately, he believes that the land is God’s and we are simply stewards of it. So, leaving some behind reflects good stewardship of the gift God is giving us. As Christians, we believe that everything we have is a gift from God, and that includes our time. We are simply stewards of these gifts: the land, our time, our bodies, and so forth. So, when we look at the gifts we are caring for, are we using them to help others, or even leaving space open for the possibility to help others? Are we leaving any corners open in our lives so that the Holy Spirit can break in and use them? My answer to this question, when it came to my time, is that I am not leaving any corners behind and need to free up space so God can break in.
I used to work for a priest who always went for a walk to get a coffee every afternoon. His walk sometimes took a long time. I once passed him on his walk and learned that he took his time, stopped to talk to people, maybe ducked into a store if he saw something that made him think of someone, and generally was just out in the world and available. I realize now that this was the corners of his field and how he shared with the world. There were days when no one took him up on it, and others when the corners got picked clean. Freeing up some time isn’t just about making time to do more, it is about making time to be present in the world. If we can make space for unstructured time in our schedule, what might happen? This fall as the fields around us are being harvested, may we all take that as a sign to free ourselves up—be it time, talent, or treasure—so that God might surprise us…or we might just get a little break for ourselves in the busy-ness of the time we are living it.
