Love-inspired time management

IT is quite clear, especially these days with so many

developments to cope, that managing our time, which is a very precious

resource, has become a basic necessity. In fact, time management has

become some kind of a rocket science that is constantly studied,

researched on, updated and offered as a course, especially in business

and engineering schools.

            Many people are now taught the skills of consciously

controlling the time spent on specific activities if only to increase

effectiveness, efficiency and productivity. These skills can include

prioritizing, delegation, decision-making, goal-setting, multitasking,

problem solving, strategic thinking, scheduling, record keeping, etc.

            These are all wonderful things to learn, and we should

encourage everyone to acquire these skills. But there’s just one thing

we have to be clear about. It’s a very fundamental thing, disregarding

which would just put to nothing whatever scientific skills we can

learn in this field.

            We should see to it that all this concern for time

management be properly motivated by love. And I mean the real love,

not just any kind of love, that is not properly grounded and oriented

toward the ultimate goal of human life.

            We have to be clear that our time here on earth is a time

of transit toward eternity, from where we came and to where we are

heading. That’s because we are creatures of God who is in eternity. We

came from him, and since we have been created in his image and

likeness, we are meant to be with him in all eternity also.

            We therefore need to be eternity-ready in our time here on

earth. And we can approximate that state of life and prepare ourselves

for it by trying to be with God always, following his will and ways as

we go through the drama of our earthly life. This is what true love is

all about, which is the essence and purpose of our life here on earth.

            Another way of saying this point is that our time here on

earth is supposed to head to its fullness and perfection when it fully

reconnects with the eternity of God. At the moment, our time is still

in some tentative condition insofar as its relation to the eternity of

God is concerned. It is our responsibility, with God’s grace, of

course, to connect our time to God’s eternity.

            Linking time with eternity is first of all a matter of the

belief that there is God and that he is our creator who gives us our

existence, and that he continually, without any gap or break, is

intervening in our life out of sheer love for us. We have to

correspond to that love of God for us with love also. Thus, the use of

time can only be considered as good and proper when motivated by that

love.

            We have to be more aware of this truth, and more

importantly, know how to deal with it. We often take it for granted,

or worse, we can think that our life can just be on our own,

completely dependent on what and how we make it to be. We have to

overcome this mentality.

            Or we can think that we can be with God at some time and

can be on our own at other times. We also need to outgrow this

mentality, because it simply does not correspond to the reality shown

to us by our Christian faith. True, it’s not easy. There’s a deep and

vast awkwardness especially in the beginning. But it’s not a problem

that cannot be solved.

            To achieve a constant awareness of God’s presence and

intervention in our life, we need to exert the effort to pray and to

reach what is called a contemplative lifestyle even in the hustle and

bustle of the world.

            This is when we can truly say that we are having a

love-inspired time management!