In Need of He Time

A Twitter Follow Fridays note from one of my Tweeps, Reporter4651, led me to an interesting blog, Reflections From a Christian Mommy Writer. The sister who runs this blog recently had a post titled "God as an Inconvenience?"

As someone who, for a month, had been struggling with work/life balance in the midst of a period of change, this post hit me hard. I had been experimenting with making regular time to focus on fellowship with God. And I didn't find too much success at it.

My problem? A long commute, plus long work hours was a recipe for exhaustion. I was missing the regularity of my life before being laid off, missing being able to spend more quality time with my family, missing there being more to life than driving, working, eating and sleeping. That period is over right now, as I am in between contracting positions and still searching for a permanent job. But I feel like I need to learn how to handle myself if a similar situation arises.

During that wilderness time, I wanted desperately to be able to say that 6 a.m. or 9 p.m. every day worked perfectly for reading and studying the Bible or engaging in prayer, but I couldn't. The best thing I could do was to ensure I was weeding out as many unnecessary distractions as possible, to focus. That meant putting down Twitter and picking up Thessalonians, trading in complicated meal recipes for simpler ones, and turning off the TV for quiet time. I often found this hard to do, though, as I felt like I was always playing catch-up with everything in my life and didn't want to miss a thing. Clearly I chose to chase the wrong pursuits.

Last week, I realized I needed a change. I backed away from the BlackBerry, and I even turned it off when I needed to really stop myself from wasting time. (However, one useful thing with my phone is that I now have the Bible downloaded to it, so I can review verses any time, anywhere.) I spent more time in prayer, any time I felt the need. I made a point to carve out some family time and be fully present for it, then to move on to other things that needed to be done.

As I said, my schedule is wide open at the moment, so time will tell if this works when I find myself beyond busy again. I'm praying that it does. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the downtime. I've purchased several books from my local Christian book store to feed my spirit. I am also making an effort to work through some emotional issues that have been blocking me from a deeper relationship with God. Prayer and reading these books and working through the exercises that come with them have been helpful in the past few days of freedom.

I want to learn from others, though, because I know this period of career hibernation will not last forever. How do you ensure you are making adequate time for God? You may be doing something else that I'll find helpful. I'm all ears!

In the meantime, this song on the topic has been on my mind lately: “Pause,” by Lisa McClendon. Check out the video, if you haven't already. And thanks for any advice or pertinent scriptures you have!