[ you ain't no friend of mine ]

Oh, that song - you know, Time, by Hootie and the Blowfish. I love that song and their 1994 album "Cracked Rear View." Lots of radio play in the mid-90's and that folk-rock sound of theirs.

Anyway, in the past few weeks -- even more than usual -- I've been living by this agenda of mine, consumed by an hour-by-hour schedule of work, school and so on. In the middle of class I make lists -- lists with dozens of minor bullet points that have gotten put on the back burner: call the laundry company -- residents haven't been able to use the washing machine all semester in our lounge. Fill out this or that form. Pay the library fine from freshman year. Get internship papers in.

Much of what we have to do is merited and needs to be accomplished efficiently and so on, but constantly I find my mind journeying at lightning-speed to these to-do's -- life things, for sure, but not life-giving things.

Why is it that I am content to be consumed by these ends -- these ends that too quickly become end-alls in my hours and days and weeks?

When I believe -- even for a moment -- that accomplishing tasks somehow will bring me a sense of satisfaction, I am not embracing truth and need to repent and turn to God for new strength and renewed desire to seek Him harder. As believers, we have to be choosing to fight for joy in Jesus Christ, in a Western culture where we barter with one another to be penciled into each other's lives, where time is big money, where we long for authentic, unhindered hours together but spend time behind LCD screens instead, where we overbook and wear ourselves so thin that the only option seems to be evenings of closed doors and crashing on the couch.

Oh, but this is me -- and I need to be changed.

As believers in America, we really have to cry out to God to change what comes so naturally for us -- measuring value by passing minutes, contentment with running so hard that we make ourselves sick.

For me, I could choose to not check my cell phone for the time twenty-five times during Linguistics or leave just enough time to grab-and-go for lunch before hitting the Quad for the day. I could wake up earlier so that evenings could free up for time with friends or I could turn off my laptop so that I'm not writing dozens of e-mails minutes before I hit the sack.

All of those goals seem reachable, but you know what? I need real heart-change that can only be initiated by our Lord. In humility, I must plead for real rest in Him. In honesty, I must invite other believers alongside me to be intentional about fighting for joy.

There's this great resource through a Campus Crusade for Christ website that explores why aligning ourselves with God's purposes on a daily basis is so vital. Here's a quote from Jean Fleming's Food for the Soul:

A Time to Refocus

Quiet time (a.k.a. prayer, reading the Bible, trusting the Spirit, hearing from God) can keep you from frittering your life away on the extraneous, the peripheral. In a culture that exalts and feeds busyness, quiet time can refocus your attention daily on what really matters. God will remind you that your relationship with Him is supreme; every thing else must be subordinate to that relationship. When you pause in God’s presence, the fog clears and values sharpen. You realign yourself with the commitments you’ve made to God and others. The important things emerge, and the secondary things recede one again. The busier you are, the more desperately you need the pause that refreshes.

I can see the reality of this in my own life. If I am not depending on Jesus and interceding in prayer, my efforts -- in classwork, friendships, ministry and so on -- can end up being tasks instead of big-time joys. In order to fully understand His plan and even what really is important, I have to be WITH Him! Isn't it funny that what makes the most sense is the hardest discipline to develop?

Really, it should be simple.

Jesus says, "Come to Me," so I should go.

It's that time when words here must be reality.