Time is too precious to waste...

Time is a precious commodity. There’s never enough of it. We get 24 hours in a day – nothing more, nothing less. So, why do we spend so much of it doing things that we aren’t really called or equipped to do? What would life be like if we were able to really pursue the things that we were designed and created to do? What’s keeping us from living out the dream that’s trying to come alive inside of us? We’ve been thinking a lot about this topic in our family recently. In fact, my husband has devoted the whole weekend to exploring that topic at the “Quitter Conference” hosted by Jon Acuff.

Here’s an example from my own life - Based on the spiritual gifts assessments that I’ve taken in the past, one of my gifts is teaching. I love to teach. I take great pleasure in systematically explaining concepts to students and then seeing their eyes light up with understanding. Even though this is a spiritual gifting, it carries over into the natural as well. I’ve seen it in action this semester as I’ve taken on a second job of sorts teaching statistics to MBA students one night a week. It takes a lot of time to plan lessons and prepare lectures for a 3 hour class each week – not to mention grading homework! But, I can honestly say that it energizes me in a way that I don’t really understand. I may be tired after working a 15 hour day on Wednesdays, but I’m not exhausted. My mind is engaged and I have a sense of fulfillment on the long drive home after class. And, I really feel like it’s helped me to be more focused, effective, and engaged in my “day-job” as well.

In contrast to that scenario, I took a fun little online personality assessment this week after seeing a friend post it on facebook. I realize that these things aren’t scientific, and I also realize that personality traits and spiritual gifts are two entirely different things (although I do believe that they often work in tandem). All that aside, here’s the interesting point. The test was measuring Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Compliance (DISC). My strongest traits were compliance and steadiness, but my weakest trait (by far) was influence. It was pretty clear from that test that I am not an influencer (and I’m ok with that!). But, here’s the funny part. I’m currently working as a director of product management for a software company, and we always tell people that the key to success in this field is being able to exert “influence without authority.” Hmmmmm… I wonder why I sometimes come home frustrated after a long day at the office. The good news is that I’ve learned how to compensate for my weaknesses and have managed to be pretty successful. However, sometimes I wonder what it would be like if I could spend my days doing something where I could leverage and sharpen my strengths rather than exerting so much effort to compensate for my weaknesses.

Sometimes we just need to step back and assess where we are in life and take a long look at our strengths and weaknesses and how those are working for (or against) us as we pursue the dreams that God has placed in our hearts. It’s never too late to start taking baby steps towards those dreams. Time is too precious to waste, and once it’s gone, we’ll never get it back…

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens…” – Ecclesiastes 3:1