It's Not About Finding Time

So originally, the title of this blog post was going to be somewhere along the lines of "Finding Time In Busy Seasons" or "How To Find Time To Write" or something like that.

But then I realized... everyone is busy during the holidays, whether it's with kids or getting presents or cleaning your house or writing or doing a book launch we're all busy. We all have things and activities that we have chosen to commit to, people that we love that we care about getting gifts for, services that we choose to do.

So when you're busy and don't have time to write, or don't have time to read your devotional in the morning, we have to realize that it's not about finding time in the Holiday season.

Because if it was about finding time, where would we even begin looking? I think a lot of us would not say Jesus. And yet He is the only person we can find anything in.

I don't think anyone can ever find time anyway - and what would you be finding that time for? You would be finding it... just to refill it again.

So no, it's not about finding time. It's not even about making time because no one can make time!

It's about choosing time.

You Need To Stop Viewing Your Writing As Most Important

Let's just get this straight - writing takes time. Which is why so many writers and authors ask questions like "how do we find time to write in busy seasons?" or "how do we make time to write during the Holidays?" or "how can I focus on writing when I'm so busy" or other similar questions.

Finding time to write, especially when you're in college or highschool or working is so so hard.

And while I want to encourage you that you can do this and you've got this... you really don't. And you need to stop thinking that and start relying on Jesus. Because every word you write is for Him. Every character you create and theme you incorporate is for your Savior. It's all for His glory.

Stop trying to find time to write and start choosing to spend time with Jesus, who lived the most beautiful and perfect story of all time.

Stop trying to make time for your writing goals and just sit and marvel at the glory of the King of the universe coming down for us.

You need to realize that your writing is not the most important thing.

I'm going to say that again because sometimes that's really hard to hear. But, it's important, and it's true. Your writing is not the most important thing.

Jesus is.

Don't ask yourself how do I make time for writing during the holidays. Ask yourself how can I best glorify and serve my King who loves me and walks with me every single day and who lived the greatest story so that I could spend eternity with Him.

A Hierarchy

I've realized these last few weeks and months as I've started school and started a business and gotten into the holidays that there never really is enough time for everything you want to do.

Mostly because there is an un-ending amount of things you can do! And for every activity or assignment or project you decide to do, you are saying no to something else.

This is where priorities come in, like prioritizing family over friends, the Bible over fiction reading, shopping for your siblings over shopping for yourself - everything in your life, whether you want it to or not, falls into a hierarchy of important-ness.

And if we honestly ask ourselves who or what is at the very top of that hierarchy, I think we would find that we need to do a little bit of shifting and maneuvering.

A couple of days ago I really had to face this head-on as my amazing mom reminded me that the fictional characters I'm creating, the business I'm starting, and the work I'm doing for Author, are nowhere near as important as the real-life people God has specially placed in my life.

No book is more important than the living stories of my family around me. No writing assignment is more important than playing a game with siblings and cousins that God has given to me. No business marketing or planning is more important than choosing to really truly live and serve the children, made in God's image, around me.

I had to take a step back and realize that my hierarchy did not have God at the top, it did not have His plan at the top or His children at the top, or His ways at the top. It had me, myself, and I all the way up there.

And I had to shift and rearrange and make God my number one again - and I'm still working on living that out every day. I'm not perfect by any means, and I still have to wrestle with putting God first every day.

But when you do start to make that shift, everything is a little bit more clear.

Choosing Time

This all circles back to choosing time.

Not finding it or making it... but choosing time. Choosing to put God at the top of your to-do list and leave everything else in His far-more-capable-than-ours hands. Choosing to give Him the first and very best of your time, and then allowing Him to figure out the rest.

When we really and radically start living like this in the holidays, and all year round, I think we will start to find that when compared to God's plan and timing and ways, ours are small and fragile. When compared to His perfect scope and sequence for the entire universe, our exact timing and perfectionistic planning fall short.

And it's not that He doesn't care about our little problems and doesn't care that you have a lot to do around Christmas time - no He totally cares! Which is why you need to stop trying to figure everything out by yourself, take a minute to pray, and then. Trust. In. Your. Saviour.

Trust in Him as you choose to put down your computer and that oh-so-important business assignment to play with your little brothers. Trust Him as you choose to not clean your house and instead help your kids make gingerbread cookies. Trust Him as you choose to go to a choir concert at Church instead of doing those five loads of laundry.

He's got you, He's got your plans, and He will take care of everything in the perfect, amazingly good way He always does. And He will be with you every. Single. Step. Of. The. Way.

How can we not trust a God who sent His very Son down to die for us? How can we not trust a God who cares for us far more than He cared that His Son was born in a barn, and welcomed by Shepherds?

He has a plan for every single one of you this holiday season. So start choosing Him and His timing. Start basking in His glorious light instead of worrying about the dishes in the sink.

Christmas is a time for us to enjoy and celebrate a King Who loves us and His Father's plan more than He loved His perfect life in Heaven. I think with Him walking beside us, we can too.

Let's start choosing time with our King, and stop trying to find time, or make time, or force time for our plans.

His are better.