Time... for Repentance

I am a horrible time manager.

I mean it. If I step out of the shower with 5 minutes left before I need to be somewhere, and it takes 5 minutes to get there, I think I'm OK. I must subconsciously think I will be translated from the bathroom to the vehicle immediately. It's like I become oblivious to how long it really takes to get myself ready to go!

5 minutes to drive + 15 minutes to get ready + 4 minutes in and out of the vehicle = 5 minutes. And I was a math major in college.

I got a problem. A tardy problem. A time problem. A selfish problem.

I had a great conversation with my Dad the other night. My family was down from NY visiting for Thanksgiving, and somehow in the midst of a late night conversation, we got on the topic of time. Being punctual.

My Dad retired from the military several years back now. He was trained at the Air Force Academy and spent his career as a pilot in the Air Force. One of the things that he said he learned is punctuality. Being late is unacceptable. In the military, being late can cost lives.

We got to talking about the message we send to people when we are late - "My time is more valuable than yours." When we are late for appointments, for getting home at night to see our family, for work (which is the same as stealing as my Dad kindly told me), we are saying, "What I was doing is more important than your time." And ultimately we are saying, "I am more important than you." I value me over valuing you.

It's not right. It's selfish, and like my Dad said, down right arrogant.

As a Christian, we are to love others as we love ourselves, we are to lay our lives down for one another, and to consider the needs of others as more important than our own. If I consider someone more important than me, I will consider their time more important than mine. I will be punctual out of love.

I have tried to make changes to my time habits in the past, but to no avail. I think in many ways I was dealing with the symptom and not the root problem. Our actions are preceded by our thoughts. I am late because of inner beliefs and convictions. I must change my beliefs, my thought patterns, my convictions, in order to change my actions, in order to be punctual.

So what is it that I believe that causes me to be late? Ultimately, I believe my time and what I am doing is more important than others' time and obligations. I am more important than you.

How selfish and arrogant of me. And that's not all. Add hypocrite to that list. I've realized that I demand the very thing I don't give to others - punctuality and respect of my time. I'll get bent out of shape if others are late, while holding myself to a different standard. I can be late, because what I was doing was more important than what you need to do.

Ouch. Talk about a need for repentance, a complete shift in thinking.

Honoring someones time is honoring them. It's treating them the way you would want to be treated, which is simply being a Christian.