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Your time matters. Each second counts. Make sure that you are making the most of every opportunity.

We’ve heard it before. We know.

Our time is college is a beautiful thing. 

We should be engaging with all that is around us – people, ideas, places, opportunities.
 
Here’s the thing, though.

One of the most important things for us to do is to waste: to waste time.
Waste time in a way that your life is made more than it was before. Waste time regardless of how people want you to spend it.
Waste time to do this:
  • To do things that make you laugh a little more loudly.
  • To have conversations that have implications longer than the minutes you spend talking.
  • To chase the dreams that otherwise would fade to distant thoughts.
Because who defines what wasting time is, really?

We like to say that any time not spent “being productive” is such a waste. 

What exactly qualifies as “productive,” though?

Assignments? Projects?

Well, yes, we do have a responsibility to be productive with our time in those areas. Isn’t life more than just this, however?

What if we made our focus on being productive in (simply) life?
  • I want to make the most of my conversations.
  • I want to make the most of my goals and try something a little outside of my comfort zone.
  • I want to make the most of my future and take risks.
  • I want to spend time seeing the world more clearly and (as a result) seeing myself more clearly.
  • I want to spend time finding out what it means to live.
And, if this means some people might say I’m “wasting my time,” then I say okay.

I choose life.
© 2016 Deborah Hope Shining
_________________________
This post was originally seen on Common Community 



What place should God’s will have in our lives?
 
That’s a question I know I’ve asked and (let’s be real, here) am continually asking.

We wonder all sorts of things about God’s will.
  • Am I understanding His will correctly?
  • Can I step outside of God’s will?
  • How do I best know what God’s will actually is for my life and what is just my will?
We have a lot of questions.
Honestly, I don’t know how to perfectly answer any of those.
One thing I have noticed though: talk.

Sometimes, we’re too lazy to simply talk about God’s will.  Other times, though, we talk about it.  A lot. 
Ask someone how they’re gonna get involved on campus and hear that they’re “still seeking God’s will about it.”  Ask them about how they are going to pursue their interests and hear how they are not pursuing anything “until they have a more clear picture of God’s will for their life.”
Don’t get me wrong.  Seeking God’s heart and wanting to honor Him with our lives is more than important: it’s vital.

But theorizing and delaying and hesitating and second-guessing and doubting and questioning and continually analyzing and constantly searching aren’t a healthy approach to God’s will.

Waiting on God’s will is not an excuse for selfish living.

You see, some things are perfectly clear:
  • What’s most important? Loving God and loving people (Mark 12:30-31).
  • What’s solidly in God’s will, regardless of the circumstances? Rejoice. Pray. Give thanks. “…for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).
Let us stop this hyper-analysis.  Rejoice that God is good. Pray that we will act according to His heart.  Thank Him for the opportunities in our lives.
Commit ourselves to Him and go.  Go in faith that He will redirect but realizing that He cannot redirect something that never moves in the first place.
© 2016 Deborah Hope Shining
_________________________
This post was originally seen on Common Community 


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About Me

Deborah Spooner is an analytical creative enamored by ideas and addicted to dripping words in candor. Serving as a Marketing Strategist for LifeWay’s Adults Ministry, she loves all things big-dreaming, difference-making, and Jesus-pointing. A pastor’s daughter with a background in communications and theology, you can find her at her local church with her students (and probably way too excited about the color yellow) as she seeks to know Christ more and make Him known.

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