Slave to the Schedule

Today was a busy day for me, but not as busy as some. I only had to do some homework this morning, go to class for the afternoon, go to the post office, run some errands with Craig, go to Church, then come home to do some more homework. As my days go, this one was fairly easy, but lately I've felt I'm becoming more and more a slave to my schedule. And unfortunately, time has become my enemy. Everywhere I go and everything I do, I look at the clock, figuring up how much time I have left, down to the minute, to finish what I'm doing so that I can move on to something else. It shouldn't be like this, but it is. Somehow, somewhere, I learned that it was OK to overcommmit myself, to fill up my days with lots and lots of stuff.

Once you're in this cycle, it's hard to get out. It's hard to decide what's most important. There seems to be so many responsibilities and people and "good causes" crying out for attention. How do I choose? How do I decide what is most IMPORTANT rather than what is most urgent? It's easy to decide on what is urgent. If I feel the urgent need to eat, I will eat and satisfy that need. If I feel the urgent need to go to the bathroom (which often happens to those with small bladders), then I'll go. That's not hard. The hard part is deciding what are the most important things to give my time to, because time is so precious. And it's limited; we can't "get" more of it.

I have responsibilities such as grad school (which comes with lots of homework) and getting ready to teach this Fall as well as summer reading to add into the mix. Then I have a small group that I'm committed to along with a college Bible study. Next week is VBS (which I did decide not to help with) then the week after that is the Hellam Center Bible club in downtown Greenville. I've not been able to go to Safe Harbor for the last two months, but I'd like to go soon if I can ... and the list goes on and on.

I feel that I'm not very consistent with my friendships, and this need for more time affects my ability to be consistent. I have so many friends which I consider "good" friends, and I don't have the time to love them, to fellowship with them, to care for them as well as I should. I feel that I'm not able to keep up with them very consistently at all.

I would appreciate your thoughts on the subject of deciding what's most important as well as your prayers for me. I want to know how to choose well, how to "live well," as Piper puts it. I want to enjoy my journey instead of looking always to the next thing to be done. I want to enjoy what I'm doing right now and to focus on it fully. I pray that the Lord would teach me--teach us--to serve Him well with all of our hearts!