Does TIME "TIE" "ME"?

Here I sit amongst 500 other Canadian Youth Leaders as we are being addressed by a Keynote Speaker. Behind him on the power point is a slide that simply reads, “TIME”. I find myself thinking deeper on that, as it’s been a theme of our leader’s discussions over the last week. How we have become a slave to time clocks.

So as this man is talking I find myself lost in another teaching of the Spirit.

Time clicking devices are constantly in our face, dictating our schedules, luring us into an often self inflicted slavery. But really how can we not adhere to it? It’s not time itself that is the issue but being mastered by it is. The essence of time ceases to exist when we move more in the Spirit. What does that mean? Well… for those of you that know me I try to avoid the clock as much as possible. How often can you be having the best time in a meeting or conversation and all of a sudden the clock strikes the 12 and you are up and out of there, abruptly changing the flow of freedom and fun that was moving? Not to say it isn’t understandable, but rather leaves us disappointed.

When I am keynote speaking, I chose not to be mastered by the clock, but rather move in what I’m called to teach or talk on in that time. Often it flows right through the warranted time. Perhaps it’s a bit longer or shorter than so accounted for, but it always seems as if adjustments can be made when people are engaged. I can’t even remember looking at a watch or a clock. I even refuse to have a watch sitting on the pulpit with me.

I’ve also adjusted my body to not using an alarm clock. Literally. You can ask my husband. My body wakes up in a natural routine that flows to awake early every morning. I have found more peace when I awake now, rather than to a buzzer interrupting. This takes time for your body to adjust to, but I wouldn’t have it any other way now.

So as the word “TIME” stares me in the face, I then hear His voice say “What do you see in that word Carrie?”
I look for a moment and then I see, “Ti” “Me”. Wow…..
Tie, me. Is a slave not TIED UP? Tie me up by the clock and I shall become enslaved to it.
How true! I see so many dictated by it; not leaving any margin for flexibility let alone a sudden change of agenda in their schedules. Is it a control issue? Is it because our society is governed deeply by it? Is it because we seem to have less time despite our many modern conveniences? How valuable time has become! Really.

As I’m having this thought, the speaker non shallantly looks at his watch to see how much time he has left during a lull in his speech.

Then I realize that the “Tie Me” is literal too! In the sense of our watches! Here we TIE this idol around our wrists as if to have that face constantly in our face! How often we feel so lost if we forget to wear our watch for a day.

The only thing that the Lord told us that was worth tying around our foreheads and hands, in order not to forget, was His Commands. (Deut 6:8)

Now granted we can’t just pull ourselves from our time driven society, but we CAN simply not let it master us. Start to blend some hard stops to just finish deep connection times, including our quiet times with Him. Imagine if every time I was with my husband after thirty minutes an alarm would go off signaling my next appointment. Would he feel loved? What is more important, the clock or him?
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Acts 1:7Jesus said: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.

Even Jesus has reminded us that ultimately the Father owns THE schedule. May TIME be a gage, not a dictatorship, no strings attached.