Nobody Plans to Drift
Drifting is not something people choose. Nobody sits down and decides that they are going to spend the next ten years being vaguely busy without much sense of genuine direction. It just happens. Gradually. One reasonable compromise at a time.
You take the easier option because the harder one requires more than you have today. You defer the decision that matters because right now is not the right time and there will be a better moment later. You let the urgent keep crowding out the important until the important has been waiting so long that it starts to feel unrealistic.
And one day, not dramatically but clearly, you look up from the busyness and notice that you are not quite where you intended to be.
This is one of the more honest conversations the Bible has with its readers. Time is not neutral. How we use it says something true about what we actually value, as distinct from what we say we value.
“Be very careful, then, how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.”
~ Ephesians 5:15-16
What Making the Most of Time Actually Means
The word Paul uses in Ephesians 5:16, translated as making the most of every opportunity, carries the idea of buying back time. Redeeming it. Reclaiming it from uses that do not serve the things that actually matter.
That is not primarily about productivity. It is not a command to fill every hour with maximum output. Paul is talking about wisdom in how you allocate the life you have been given. Recognizing that time spent on things of genuine value is qualitatively different from time spent on whatever happens to demand your attention next.
Wise living, in Ephesians 5, is deliberate living. It requires knowing what matters most and then making choices that reflect that knowledge, repeatedly and consistently, even when the less important thing is louder and more immediately pressing.
The Three Questions Worth Asking Regularly
The first is: what do I actually want my life to look like in five years? Not a vague aspiration. A specific picture of the person you want to be, the relationships you want to have invested in, the things you want to have done with genuine faithfulness.
The second is: does how I am spending my time right now move me in that direction? Not perfectly. Life has seasons and obligations that do not bend easily. But in general, over the course of an average week, is the investment of your time reflecting your actual priorities?
The third is: what is one thing I keep meaning to do but keep deferring that I know actually matters? That specific thing is usually a reliable indicator of where intentional living needs to begin.
Try This Before the Week Is Out
Spend fifteen minutes this weekend doing something most people never do. Write down what you want the next twelve months of your life to actually look like. Not just professionally. In your relationship with God. In your family. In the use of your gifts. In your health.
Then look at your calendar for next week and ask honestly whether it reflects any of those things. If it does not, identify one specific change you can make to next week that begins to close the gap between the life you are describing and the one you are currently living.
One week. One change. That is enough to start.
One Last Thing Before You Go
The best time to start living intentionally was years ago. The second best time is this Monday. You have not missed the window. The drift can be interrupted at any point by a simple, honest decision to live the next season differently than the last one. That decision is available to you right now, at the end of this week, before the next one begins.
A Prayer for Today
“Lord, I want to look back on this season of my life and see something I was genuinely faithful with. Not perfect. Not impressive to everyone who watched. Just faithful to what You actually called me to. Help me to stop drifting and start choosing. Show me the one most important thing I need to be intentional about right now. Give me the courage to act on it before this week is over. Amen.”
Thank you for spending part of your week with these Daily Devotions. If you want to keep going, Morning Whispers by Dr. Paul Lindblad holds close to 1,100 short, honest reflections on purpose, faith and living a life that actually matters. Get your copy and subscribe to the Daily Devotions newsletter so next week’s devotions arrive straight in your inbox.