Balancing life, medicine, and faith
Spare time is precious to me.
The time commitment of studying medicine has taught me to value any spare time I get to myself.
As I look to the future- I can only see things becoming busier with increasing demands, responsibilities and commitments as a medical doctor. I am sure I am not alone. Its not just medical doctors- all of us have our hands full in this fast-paced world.
Every day there is the tension of wrestling back time out of the day to spend time with God-in prayer, in song, in studying His word.
Without distractions.
Just you and Jesus.
And because of this, I have often wondered- “God, I have a desire to worship you extravagantly. I want to love you well, as you deserve. But youve put me in medicine. You know how time poor that has made me. Wouldnt it have been better if you’d given me something less time-intensive, so that I would have more time for you?”
I could never make sense or how I could be giving God the love He deserves if I was spending far more hours at hospital than I was in distraction-less, intentional quiet time with Him. Sometimes, this would make me feel disappointed in myself that I wasnt loving in the manner He deserves. I sometimes felt I was failing in my desire to love him well.
A NEW PARADIGM OF TIME
While reading through the book of Mark about the poor widow who donated what little money she had to God.
Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.
Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.
We can see Jesus was moved by someone giving money out of their monetary poverty. Quantitatively the poor widow had given far less than the others but Jesus recognised her offering as the most extravagant act of worship of all- He saw the heart motivations behind someone giving out their poverty. And that mattered more to him than all the quantity of money in the world.
As I read, suddenly, a thought struck me.
If Jesus felt this way about the offering up of money- doesnt he not feel the same way about the offering up of our time?
If He is moved by us giving to him out of monetary poverty, will He not be moved by us giivng Him our time out of our time poverty?
Will He not be moved by the person who gives their all in the workplace as if working for the Lord (Col 3:23), comes home late, lovingly attends to their family and has an early start the next day.. and yet still sets aside time from their very limited supply to spend with God?
Just as he wasn’t concern with the quantity of money, Jesus isn’t looking for a specific quantitative amount from us. He didn’t say “everyone must spend x amount of mins with me each day”
I used to be blinded by this lie but no, Jesus’ real concern is the heart. A heart that gives out of what little is available reveals a heart fully in love with Him. A heart that donates a million dollars may not necessarily reveal the same.
The bible says people look at the outward appearance of actions but God looks at the heart (1 Sam. 16:7).
The bottom line is this: God is deeply moved by our desire to give out of our time poverty. So let us let this truth be a powerful motivator to set aside time for Him because we all have the opportunity to touch the heart of God each day.
hellodewww 