Rose Ann and I grew up in farming country. As a boy, I observed the amount of time farmers and their families spent working. The average farmer would put in 65 or 70 hours a week in what was sometimes “back breaking” labor. During these years, our church schedule looked something like this: we had Sunday School and Worship on Sunday morning, Baptist Training Union and Worship on Sunday Evenings, Children’s Mission organizations and Prayer meeting on Wednesday evening, and Choir rehearsal on another night of the week. This happened 52 weeks a year. In addition, we had Revival services in the spring and fall which were at least one week and sometimes two weeks long. It seems to me that “family time” occurred more often and lasted longer than now.
Now, our church schedule has changed. We have one worship and one Sunday School [Disciple Life] a week, children and youth Awana on Wednesday evenings with a Bible Study for adults, and Choir rehearsal all on the same evening. We take the summer, May through August off, and our LIFE groups meet every other week, and sometimes this is challenging.
During these years, I have seen the development of many time saving features for the home. Now, most of our people work 40 hour a week jobs. We have great roads which were non-existent when I was a boy. Rapid transportation, micro waves, fast food, and all kinds of time saving features are in the home.
Why is it that it takes a snow storm to confine us to our homes, stop worship and Disciple LIFE, and stop many from getting to work to allow us to have time with our families?
It seems to me that our world has been greatly impacted by a multiplicity of options. We have the same time, 24 hours a day, as when I was a boy.
I realize that the time issue is multi-faceted and cannot be fully addressed in these short reflections, nevertheless, I pose some questions for your consideration with your family, LIFE group, etc.
· What has changed?
· Who is creating all of these options, and are they God fearing, Christ honoring people?
· Are they supportive of the work of Christ, or are they in competition?
· If they are in competition with kingdom and Christian Sabbath, then what god are they worshipping?
· If it is accurate to say that families cannot be involved in every option, how can we demonstrate to our children that Jesus is first and manage time for relationships which get past saying “how are you?”
I believe it is time for followers of Christ to reflect deeply on the Words of our Lord when he said “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness”
Matthew 6:31-34 So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. NIV
