Filling Diaries

Having moved to a new area then it is just incredible to look through your week and realise that you have free evenings. Free evenings are something which as time goes on seem to become few and far between but when you've just moved you start with a blank canvas and you have a short window to start thinking about how you fill it.

This proves to be surprisingly difficult to do and perhaps the chief battle is that to get the balance between the right between careful planning of your time and making time for the unexpected. The danger is that without careful planning of your time you end up not doing some of those things which you view as important. Meeting with people, playing sport, enjoying corporate times of studying the Bible and worshipping God together requires planning. Basically everything which involves other people is going to involve some organisation and the use of some calendars.

However, the danger with this is you so carefully plan everything and you manage your time so closely that you don't actually leave time for people. You actually find it impossible to make time for a friend who's going through a difficult time. You can't make the time to get the rest, or the time alone, or the relaxed time with close friends you need or the extra investment your children or family or friends find themselves in need of. You see the problem with life is how do you plan for the unexpected?

I have no real answers for this. I guess I will constantly be battling this and be getting it wrong however, I write this to force myself and maybe to encourage a few other people to at least think about these issues.

God has given you a certain number of hours. No more and no less and often these are wasted and not enjoyed to their full simply because we haven't thought about how we are going to use the life God has given us. Perhaps thinking about these issues is a helpful starting point when it comes to thinking about these things. However, all too often we fail to make it even to the starting point.