By Mesha Oh
For quite some time now, he felt as if time lay heavy on him. The conditions outside and his own changing interests and priorities kept him largely indoors these days. For someone who was once hyper-active and addicted to travelling, being largely confined to the house now was a very different experience. He didn’t complain about the sedentary lifestyle, though. In fact, he rather liked it overall. All the same, sometimes he didn’t quite know what to do with his time and himself. Basic household chores would get over in a short while, and after that, what? There was a limit to how much time he could spend reading books and browsing the Internet and occasionally chatting on the phone with friends.
So, what else was he to do, in order to spend his time meaningfully? Sometimes, this really seemed a big dilemma. He hoped he wasn’t wasting his life.
One day, as he sat in his chair pondering on how his life had meandered over the years and wondering about how he could best use the time that he might still have, he thought to himself, “Why should I worry about what to do with my time and myself? It’s God Who sent me here, into this world. And God must have done so with a purpose. Maybe He sent me here to do certain things, some tasks that I haven’t as yet done. If that is indeed so, I should ask God to guide me to do the things that He wants me to. There’s no need for me to fret about how I should spend my time —let God do with me and through me as He wishes—because it is He Who brought me here in the first place.”
With these thoughts in his mind, he said to God, “God, as You know, it’s often the case that I don’t know what to do with my time and with myself. God, You made me, and You made me for a purpose. You know best what I should do. So, God, You lead me to spend my time being and doing what would please You the most.”
Saying that, he decided that he must cease fretting about what to do with his time and hand the matter to God entirely to handle.
Thenceforth, every morning, during his morning chat-session with God, he would tell God, “God, You have brought me into this new day. Please bless me with adequate opportunities to serve You today and to avail of these opportunities in the manner that pleases You the most. Please lead me to spend each moment of what may remain of today for which You may keep me alive in this world being and doing just as You want. If I do things on my own accord, using my own reasoning, I might make mistakes. God, You decide for me what I should do.”
Gradually, as the days went by, he began to feel that time no longer seemed to weigh like an enormous burden on him. He began to discover that ways to spend each moment of his day meaningfully would arrive on their own, and just at the right time, without his consciously seeking them out. There would be times when opportunities to be of service to others (not just human beings but animals, birds and plants too) would come his way, and he would try to respond as well as he could. Sometimes, someone would approach him with a manuscript to edit or an article to write. Reading good books and watching inspiring talks on Youtube now began to take up a good part of his day. Every other day, he would spend an hour in the neighbourhood park, where he would admire the beauty of God’s creation around him—something that his early hectic lifestyle had not permitted him to do. Every afternoon, he would sit in the balcony of his house, drinking in the sunshine, enjoying watching the birds busy at work and the squirrels playing. And then, he would spend time chatting with God and singing to Him a couple of times a day.
In these and other ways, he began to find that his days were now filled with stretches that were filled with meaningful activities as well as stretches of quiet, both of which he greatly enjoyed.
Seeking God’s guidance every day for leading him to spend the day in a meaningful way, he now appreciated each day as a big blessing!