Are you wasting your life?
A 2022 poll taken in Britain showed that, on average, people waste almost 2 hours per day, which comes out to 26 full days per year. This includes things like waiting on hold, waiting in traffic, and in general just waiting for life. Frankly, I'm surprised that the number isn't even higher.
Business professionals also say that they waste much of their work time being interupted by co-workers and employees, attending unecessary meetings, and replying to phone calls and e-mails.
Most of us also know how much time social media and playing stupid games on our phones can waste.
A few weeks before he died, the American novelist Jack London said, “The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.”
How much of your time do you simply waste?
It’s important for us to think about how we’re living. We shouldn’t want our lives to be wasted. This is even more important for believers, since we exist for a purpose: to glorify God. But part of the good news of the gospel is that with God as our Father, Jesus as our Savior, and the Holy Spirit as our Guide, we can truly live.
He's Not From Around Here
The Christian life is a call to become a follower and imitator of Christ. No matter when or where, the faithful believer has always been counter-cultural. When we live like Jesus lived, we leave people wondering where we might be from.
"All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own." (Hebrews 11:13-14).
Spiritual ADHD
Cecily Knobler of Upworthy asks,
Have you ever had that friend who goes on vacation for four days to London and comes back with a full-on Queen's English posh accent? "Oooh I left my brolly in the loo," they say, and you respond, "But you're from Colorado!" Well, there are reasons they (and many of us) do that, and usually it's on a pretty subconscious level.
It's called "accent mirroring," and it's actually quite common with people who are neurodivergent, particularly those with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder).
According to researchers, "Accent mirroring ... is the tendency to unconsciously adopt the accent or speech patterns of those around us," likening it to a "linguistic chameleon effect."
They suggest that we all have a tendancy to do this to one degree or another, but that, "those with ADHD might be more sensitive to auditory cues," and that this, "coupled with a reduced ability to filter out or inhibit the impulse to mimic…could potentially explain the increased tendency for accent mirroring."
When it comes to staying focused on the only "legitimate" object worthy of our mimicry (God Himself!), we're all a little ADHD. Am I right or am I right? And the more we are entrenched in a worldly mindset, the more likely it will be that we will experience "a reduced ability to filter out or inhibit the impulse to mimic," leaving us subject to the spiritual "chameleon effect." It's the classic monkey-see-monkey-do dilemna.
It takes uncompromised discipline to stay the course, not allowing ourselves to yeild to the distractions of worldly influences which seek to shape us into anything "but" the image of God.
Don't allow yourself to become a spiritual chameleon. Focus, people!
"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will" (Romans 12:2, NIV).
"Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you" (Proverbs 4:25, ESV).