Marking Time

Marking time... to do something which is not very interesting while you are waiting to start doing something more important.

If you can't tell, I like definitions, quotes and idioms. This one bothers me. Mainly because I see myself do it a lot. Unfortunately, when you have a warped view of what's important, you will unknowingly "mark time" with things and people that should be important to you. Sometimes I find myself doing that before I leave for work in the evenings. Not really doing much, watching tv, sitting outside, etc., waiting for the timer on my alarm to say get up and go to work. How much time did I just waste that I could have been talking to my wife, checking on the kids or at least playing with that new puppy that drives me insane begging for attention all the time? Instead, I sometimes just mark time until it's time to start "doing something important."

You've seen it. Kids mark time at school till it's time to go home and "do something really important" like play video games or email their friends. It affects all of us. Preparing dinner, laundry or whatever until we can have time to do something "really important." These everyday things are not the important things. It's the special events that keep us happy and until then we're just marking time doing the basic stuff.

But I wonder how many counseling sessions are made up of people saying, "my parents never took me to Disneyland or Six Flags over Texas"? Isn't the line usually, my dad never sad he loved me, my mom never showed me affection, etc. Special events are important and they make moments... but it's the everyday things that make a life worth living.

Then I wonder how much of that has rolled into my Christian walk. Is Heaven so important that we're just living life here, marking time until the Rapture or death or something important comes along? I think of this song by Michael Card...

"Could You tell me why
Was it for this You came and died
A once a week observance

When we coldly mouth Your words

Are we really saving our energy for heaven or has church become a place where we mark time and check off our spiritual "things to do list?" Do we live for the conferences or the next "mighty move of God" while forgetting to love our neighbor, visit the sick, share our daily bread, love our family, etc.? Maybe we're just marking time, living for the bell.

Dear God, forgive me for marking time with this life you have given me. Family and friends, please forgive me for marking time with you. I won't say, "if I have ever" because I know I have. And I repent of that sin.

So look around and see. Have you been marking time like me?