“Make the best use of your time. These are sinful days.”

— Ephesians 5

In our American culture, busyness is a virtue. Many of us kill ourselves to be all the places and do all the things. The issue is that it’s superficial. We never really connect with each other.

We’re physically around each other but in a ships-passing-in-the-night kind of way, not in an open-heart, enjoying-each-other’s-company-and-sweet-fellowship way.

But what would Jesus do?

Yet when we examine Jesus and the amount of TIME He invested in people, it was enormous. That sounds so overwhelming to us Americans, doesn’t it? We have things to do and places to go (or so we tell ourselves)!

But what is more valuable in God’s sight than a human being made in His image? And what could be a better use of our time than these “time-consuming” humans…? (Lol)

Yes, we must work. No one’s denying that. But we don’t have to neglect people in the process!

We can’t expect to change a world we barely interact with.
We can’t expect our marriages to thrive unless we show up for them. (Do we know our spouse’s needs or are we consumed with our own?)
We can’t expect to impact our children’s lives without being part of them. (Do we know what’s going on in their hearts and world lately?)
We can’t expect to bless our communities and make a positive difference if we are too busy to get to know their members. (Do we even know the pain points in our community to better them?)
And we can’t expect to have deep unity with God when we never commune with Him. (Do we even know what His priorities for us are?)

This doesn’t mean we just physically show up either. Jesus stayed EMOTIONALLY ENGAGED. His heart was open, available, and present to the moment and person before Him.

How many of us can say the same?

My personal story…

The Lord has been highlighting this in the world around me for so long. Much of my life, I’ve observed people caught up in busyness and neglecting each other for what they considered more important duties.

Yet with all that activity, very little of Kingdom-importance got done.

Now that I’m a mom of a very engaged 5 year old, I struggle to “find time” to get it all done, too. My sweet, fun-loving daughter wants me to be ALL IN at all times, it seems. I don’t think this is bad. I’m doing my best to love on her and try to meet her needs for attention, while also recognizing I can’t be her everything. I’m also trying hard to show her that the world — though many adore her — cannot revolve around her desires at any moment 🙂

It is a challenge to find the balance, and I am pretty certain I have not lol! Some days I struggle to be fully present because it requires all of me and I believe the lie that says I have so much to do.

But in reality, many of my to do’s can wait. Some of them are downright laughable (I HAVE to clean out my inbox this instant! My house must be pristine before relaxing and enjoying time with my family).

But my precious daughter’s needs can’t wait. She is growing FAST, and though this is inevitable, I realize that much of the time-flying-by feeling is because I wasn’t fully engaged during certain periods of her little life like I was when she was a toddler and 100% present.

I want to shift that. I want to recenter our family and my relationship with her around engagement again — giving her my genuine presence (not presents, though maybe a bit of that, too) :).

I don’t want to be so self-important that I consider my child’s needs a nuisance. I mean, how wrong is that way of thinking? Yet as a parent, at times I’ve been guilty of this very mentality.

Lord, help me. She is so precious! She deserves a fully-present mama who attends to her needs (not demands of course) as quickly as I can. And many days I try to… but some days it feels like it takes all of me to stay present (and not because I don’t want to be). Sometimes I’ve even run from motherhood’s demands because it feels overwhelming to tend to both my child and other responsibilities (including my own needs).

I see so many others doing the same. Maybe we find it safer to dive head-first into activities and tasks. Working is a lot more efficient and requires us to be less flexible than dealing with people (amiright? Lol).

God multiplied Jesus’s investment in people!!

Yet what did Jesus prioritize: His (much more impressive than ours) to-do list, like pulling prayer all-nighters / being everyone’s hero / never sinning / saving the world / and staying humble about it…? Or did He stop for the one? Did He pause and address individuals, while doing His Father’s most important business and teaching the crowds?

Jesus did this so beautifully that we take it for granted. He displayed supernatural wisdom and strength in dealing with the pressures of loving many while meeting the few face-to-face where they were at.

Do you see this amazing picture… that somehow God our Father maximized Jesus’s investments in people that even His individual encounters with people radically changed entire communities?!

God is so like that. We give Him our few pieces of bread and fish — our daily investments in loving the people around us and being aware of their needs — and He explodes them beyond anything our “task focused” lifestyles could ever accomplish.

Without that personal piece of the puzzle, Jesus’s ministry on earth would’ve been greatly limited. The woman at the well who converted her entire community… the blind and lame and set free who testified to His life change, healing power, and Divinity… Lazarus’s resurrection testified to Jesus’s Sonship and true authority over even death…

All of these personal investments in people’s lives had incredibly powerful impacts on their communities! Jesus touched one life — to reach many more.

Wow.

As parents, workers, leaders, and members of our communities, let’s remember these lessons from our Saviour’s life. Let us not neglect the people He’s placed in our lives or think ourselves too important to pay attention to “the little people” — for they may be the very ones to turn many to Him and make a big difference for the Kingdom!

Even if they don’t, they’re still worth our time. They’re still worth our investment, the discipline, and at times sheer sacrifice of stopping our days, forgetting the clock, losing our agendas, and focusing on the person before us.

Just like Jesus did 🙂

“This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”

— John 15

“By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.”

— John 13