The Currency of Time.

I don't know about you, but I always seem to spread myself too thin. I go through a cycle that starts with me wanting to do too much, then I eventually get to a point where I have to rethink my priorities and simplify my life all over again. I always buy into the illusion that "your life is best spent being constantly busy with things". And the crazy thing is that I almost feel powerless to go against it! There's always a tug of war going on inside of me between doing everything under the sun that I can and slowing down to focus on just a few things. As frustrating as this struggle is, it has taught me 3 very important things that I will share with you.
The first thing it has taught me is that time is infinitely more valuable than money. Even
if you don't have much money, there's always some way that you can get more of it. You can find a new job, sell some possessions, or even ask someone for it. But, with time, you're only given a certain amount and there's no way to get more of it. There are only 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, and 365 days in a year. And even though we don't know the exact amount, we only have a certain amount of years in our lifetime. Once your time on this earth runs out, there's nothing you can do about it. And how you spend your time and your life reveals what your real priorities are.
I've also learned through this struggle that life is best spent pursuing those things that make you feel truly alive. And with this, I've learned to always ask myself what my passions are. If doing something does not line up with what I'm passionate about, there's really no point in me doing it. And I believe that God wires each of us differently with certain passions for a reason. To ignore those things is to ignore what makes us feel alive. For me personally, the one thing that totally gets me going and makes me feel alive is music. And if I was to ignore that and spend my life doing something that has no connection to that, I would be absolutely miserable. Even if I got a job that made me millions and got me a nice house and a lot of possessions, I would be wasting my life away. For me, life isn't defined by how much you can accumulate or how much money you can make, but rather it is defined by pursuing those things that give you a reason to wake up, to breathe, and to feel like you are truly alive.
The final thing that I've learned is that the most important word you can say is "No". I've found that people tend to take advantage of those who can only say "yes" to everything that is asked of them. And I don't believe it is virtuous to allow yourself to be taken advantage of. When you read about Jesus in the Gospels, you learn two main things about him: He had a heart and a love for people that the world had never seen, and you learn that He also had a spine. He knew when to say "Yes" to something AND He knew when to say "No!". He wasn't exactly "nice" to everyone he encountered, BUT He was "Good". The one thing about the church these days that absolutely pisses me off is that it talks about Jesus as someone who was always nice, who always minded his manners, who never made a scene, and who said "yes" to everything. And it calls us to follow in His footsteps. I'm sorry, but a "nice" person never calls a group of people a "brood of vipers fit for Hell" or "white-washed tombs", and a "nice" person never cracks a whip and destroys tables and makes a huge scene. He definitely wasn't nice, at least by our standards or definitions, but no one can say that He wasn't good. He had a mission to fulfill and a passion to drive that mission, and He had no problem saying "No" to something or someone when what was asked of Him went against those things. And we should have no problem saying "No" either. So, in closing, I have two questions to ask. "What is your passion in life?" and "Are you using your time and your life to pursue it?". Thanks for reading!