TST: Just Say No

The Bible tells us to redeem the time (Ephesians 5:15-17), so I'm going to be posting tips every Tuesday on things you can do to save time. Unlike most resources, we all get the same amount of time, but we have to decide how we're going to spend it. If you have anything that you do to save time that you'd like to share, just let me know and I'll add them to the list.


Today's tip is pretty simple: learn to say "No".

How many times have you felt overwhelmed? So much to do, so little time. We all have a finite amount of time. There are exactly 24 hours in a day, no matter who we are or what day it is. We, as Christians, tend to MAKE ourselves too busy. We miss out on blessings because we have no time for them.


I am speaking from experience. At one time in our lives, Clarinda and I were WAY too busy, even though the things we were too busy doing were good things to do. We taught the High School Sunday School class, Varsity Awana on Wednesdays, and we both worked in Awana on Thursdays as well (Clarinda was the Cubbies director at the time, and I was the club-wide Game Director). I was attending ASU full time, and Clarinda was working part-time for the Arizona Republic. We were on the Awana Ministry Board for the state of Arizona, and we attending almost every single state-wide event, from Bible Quizzing to Olympics (now AwanaGames) to Basic Training to Conference, and everything in between. We also ran the youth at church, so we had at least one youth activity a month that we had to plan and advertise. We had a family function at least one Saturday a month (lots of birthdays on Clarinda's side of the family). I was a trustee at church, as well as the Church Secretary and Contributions Secretary (I kept track of the giving for tax purposes). On top of all that, we had two kids. We were doing lots of good things, but we were too busy.


What happened? I drifted away from God. I was so busy teaching that I didn't spend any time learning. I was too busy working to have a prayer life. I didn't have time to read the Bible because I had too much reading to do for school. And because of that, I let sin into my life, and it didn't really bother me (at the time). My busy-ness had given Satan a foothold in my life. At first I didn't even notice, but my ignorance eventually led to indiscretions. I just plain didn't care that I wasn't living for God. People all around me thought I was living a great life, but I had fallen away.


We have to learn to say "No". Just because a need exists doesn't mean you have to be the one to fill it. The caveat however is that you have to take an honest look at your life and decide. People tend to use this principle as an excuse to do nothing for God. That's not what I'm saying you should do. God wants us all to serve Him. What we need to avoid is doing too much, which cuts down on the effectiveness of it all. It's better to do a couple things really well than a lot of things poorly. So whenever a need arises, take an honest look at your life, and if you can fill that need, do it! However, if you can't, it's much better to say "no" and leave the opportunity for someone else than to overwhelm yourself and do the job poorly. Trust me, I know.