Time Was Wasting Me

Have you ever looked at your life and felt like you’ve wasted time or effort on things that don’t really matter? I know I have. You might wake up one day and realize that you have been going down the wrong path for years, or decades.

Maybe you got caught up in the rat-race of “success”, or you’ve put off doing what you previously thought was important to pursue something more comfortable. Or maybe you’ve just been trying to do everything right, but it never feels like enough.

I’m writing this because I personally have experienced these things, and I know how it can easily let helplessness creep in. It can bring about feelings of panic, like you haven’t grown as you thought you would; you haven’t been as generous as you thought you’d be, and feel like ultimately, you’re wasting your life. I know a lot of Christians who are facing this type of thing right now.

So, I’d like to share something that helped me:

Some time ago, I saw a video being shared by some friends on Facebook. The video was of famous New Atheist and neuroscientist Sam Harris, talking about how so many people basically waste their lives because they act like they’ll live forever. He says many people “care about the wrong things” when life is good, only to get to the end of life and realize it’s too late. After Sam listed a few more things that he considers to be wasteful of time (like bickering with your spouse or watching a bad movie for the fourth time), he added:

“These things only make sense in light of eternity.”

Now, I won’t comment on the irony of a militant atheist saying such a thing, but I will talk about how his wrong-thinking helped me. I realized that I had forgotten something so fundamental to the faith I claim guides my life.

It wasn’t that I shouldn’t be wasting my time, or that I should start policing my every activity in case it’s wasteful (or feeling guilty for “doing nothing”). I realized the total opposite: how I’d started to believe that I could waste my life. To the point that time itself – or my thoughts about it – had started wasting me.

I realized that the possibility that I could waste time is only true because I exist in the light of eternity.

Sam was actually making a case that eternity does exist, and that it matters. If he truly believed that when you die you cease to exist, then isn’t everything pointless and meaningless? He can pretend like subjective meaning matters, but ultimately even that is pointless. In doing this, Sam maybe doesn’t realize, the fact he believes one can (and even should) live a meaningful life speaks to the eternal source of meaning. If he didn’t believe this, he would just say that everything is folly and blowing after the wind (as King Solomon wrote). In reality, he’d probably say nothing about it. If meaning is fiction, then doing meaningful things is fiction. If that’s true, then why care what you (or others) do with their time?

The only thing that makes sense in light of the finite is not caring at all. It would all be folly. Only we would be incapable of judging it as folly because meaning wouldn’t exist.   

In relation to the Christian, there’s another lesson from Sam. If I believe that it’s possible to waste time, then obviously I believe in meaning. But I also believe in a personal Lord and Savior, who has come to show me how not to waste time. But in addition, I also believe in God’s providence. This means, God uses *everything*, even what I think of as wasteful for His purposes.

Therefore, I should not get too wrapped up in “doing enough” good or feeling guilt about things I think are wasteful. Firstly, isn’t that kind of works? Like if I make all the right decisions – and am morally good (because time-wasting is bad) – then I can earn my way to God’s favor? Secondly, the point is to trust God with our lives.

I’m reminded of when Jesus rebukes Martha in Luke 10:38-42 for focusing on the wrong things:

“38 Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” (ESV)

It also brings to mind how God will often lead believers (and even unbelievers) into a “wilderness experience”. During these times, it can feel as if nothing is going well. It may even look like you’re wasting time “caring about the wrong things”.

But God is the Great Potter:

“The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear[a] my words.” 3 So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.” Jeremiah 18:1-4 (ESV)

Regardless of whether I totally misunderstood Sam’s point, something still clicked with me. The root of my frustration and helplessness most days had been based on never feeling like I’m fulfilling my day’s purpose, let alone my life’s!

Now, when I shift to thinking in terms of eternity, and specifically to Jesus, I can see all the things I’m freed from. All the things I ought not worry about. I can appreciate all the things I’ve learned, and I see purpose in them. Instead of failures, I see freedom from having to get it all right… because of Whose I am.

Sure, I may suffer doubt about what I’m doing with my life, but those moments need not be weighed down with guilt but given over to God. My life is in His hands and my purpose is to stay close to Truth because I’m being shaped for eternity, so neither time nor worry will have power over it.

If you live in relationship with God, through His son Jesus, you are truly living in light of eternity.

As such, nothing ultimately goes to waste.

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?[a] 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” Matthew 6:25-34 (ESV)

Study Questions | 1 Samuel 30

These questions are designed to help you read and study the Bible passage preached next week. Our prayer is that these questions will assist you in growing deeper in God’s Word as you examine the Scriptures daily to see if these things are so (Acts 17:11).

Read 1 Samuel 30:1–8.

1. David may have thought he was at rock bottom when he fled to the land of the Philistines for refuge (see chapter 28). However, what did David and his men discover as they returned home to Ziklag in verses 1-2?

2. Have you ever experienced a day where you thought things were bad, only to discover they could get worse?

3.  In an event eerily similar to Israel’s experience on October 7 (2024), a group of brutal raiders kidnapped women and children to take them to the south as captives. How do David and his men respond in verses 4-6? How would you respond?

4. Looking back at 1 Samuel 28, how did Saul respond when he hit rock bottom?

5. Looking at 1 Samuel 30:6, how does David respond to rock bottom?

6. What does it look like to strengthen yourself in the Lord your God?

Read 1 Samuel 30:9–15.

1. What happens to part of David’s army as they pursue the Amalekites to the south?

2. How do they discover the location of the Amalekite band?

3. What lessons can we learn from David’s compassion towards this Egyptian slave?

Read 1 Samuel 30:16–31.

1. How does David see the mercy of God as he defeats the Amalekites?

2. As David and his men return to the troops they left behind, what do the “wicked and worthless fellows among the men” want to do (see verse 22)?

3. How does David respond and what principle does he establish for Israel going forward? How is this principle applicable to the church today (see 1 Corinthians 12:12–31)?

4. As David shares the fruits of his victory with “his friends, the elders of Judah,” he is prefiguring the work of Christ. How do we share in the spoil of Christ’s victory over sin, death, and the devil (compare Ephesians 4:7–8 and Psalm 68:18)?

The Rousseauian Worldview in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" may seem like a Christian morality tale, but as I thought about it more and more, the story actually takes its positive view of human nature from a more Rousseauvian worldview, a perspective that envisions children as beginning life in a state of inner purity that is oftentimes corrupted by society.

Charlie is such an endearing character. However, the source of his goodness is not that he was saved from his sins. It’s actually the opposite: he was protected by the love of his family from ever wanting to sin. He was sheltered in purity of heart merely because he never had the unfortunate access the other children had to various childhood vices. By this view, author Roald Dahl seems to be a direct inheritor of Rousseau's ideas of the purity of man’s nature at birth. Dahl has absorbed the Rousseauian view that society is what corrupts the heart. The only reason that Charlie was so pure was that he was sheltered from society itself through the love of his family and his lack of access to society’s vices.

Charlie follows in the wake of a long list of literary characters before him, going all the way back to Wordsworth’s pure-minded protagonists that he thought grew naturally in the beauty and seclusion of the remote Lake District. Even C.S. Lewis, although he paints Edmund as in need of salvation, somehow forgets to portray any real failings in Lucy, Susan, or Peter (possibly the reason I never resonated with these characters).

I actually wonder if, because of the belief in the sheltering effect of family within Christian culture, many underestimated the power of sin by teaching that an early start in a family with Christmas traditions and the bonding power of vacations could shelter a child enough to protect it from the corruptions of society.

I don’t argue that Christians should discount the importance of raising children in loving homes. But we do need to understand our sins too, not just the sins of society, of our non-Christian neighbor, with his obvious in-your-face sins (or even a very annoying child!). Let’s stop comparing ourselves to the Charlies or Lucys of literature, and let’s stop trying to attain a state of perfection on our own. Ultimately, we must realize that, no matter how pure we think we are, we have as much of the corrupting power of sin as Mike Teevee or Violet Beauregarde!

Charlie and dear Grandpa Joe, were they written in alignment with the truth of Scripture, when they looked into their own hearts, would find, not purity, but the human and broken motives that everyone through time struggles with. In order to face that brokenness, they’d recognize their deep need for the only salvation: Jesus Christ. This shows how far Dahl’s vision of essential moral goodness is from the sin and brokenness of the Christian view of human nature. But if we listen to the darkness of our own hearts, we’ll know who’s right: and we’ll know to whom to turn to be saved. As Paul explains in Romans 7:22-25:

"For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh, I serve the law of sin."

The part of us that resonates and desires to follow the Law of God is a bit like an inner Charlie, but we have to recognize the way sin not only complicates but actually even counteracts all of our good intentions, no matter how much we shelter ourselves from the world. Our only hope is the glorious truth of Romans 8:1-4!

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."

This neatly sums up the way that the Augustus Gloops and the Grandpa Joes of the world, all of us, need the saving work of God. This work came about when Christ lived out the only pure life that’s ever been lived, uncorrupted, but not Rousseau’s vision of a life sheltered or distant from society. He entered society, faced its every ill and vice without himself becoming immoral or sullied. On the cross, he took on every sin of his people, becoming sin in the view of God, but yet without sinning! He took every sin, small and large, and when he died, He broke sin’s power.

Thanks be to God that, although Rousseau and Dahl’s promise for human goodness does not hold, in entering into salvation through belief in Christ, we can access that freedom from the burden of sin, the burden of our shame.

Study Questions | 1 Samuel 29

These questions are designed to help you read and study the Bible passage preached next week. Our prayer is that these questions will assist you in growing deeper in God’s Word as you examine the Scriptures daily to see if these things are so (Acts 17:11).

Context:

1.      Look back at 1 Samuel 27:1–28:3. Why is David going out with the Philistine army to fight against Israel?

2.      What terrible outcomes could have happened if he had refused to fight with Achish?

3.      As David agrees to fight with Achish, which of the following do you think he is planning?

a.      To fight against Israel alongside the Philistines.

b.      To betray Achish’s trust during the battle.

c.      To stay at the back of the line, hoping he won’t have to fight.

4.      Are any of David’s options morally good or glorifying to God?

Read 1 Samuel 29:1–11.

5.      If you look at a biblical map, you'll see chapter 29 happens chronologically before chapter 28 (see Shunem in 28:4 and Aphek in 29:1). Why do you think the narrator fast-forwards to Saul and his predicament before rewinding again to David and his situation? What does this teach us about these two men?

6.      In verses 2–3, what are the commanders of the Philistines upset about? Are their concerns reasonable (refer to 27:8–12)?

7.      Is there anything ironic about Achish’s defense of David in verses 6–7? Is his praise justified?

8.      Why does David argue with Achish in verse 8 (hint: consider your answer to question 3)?

Application:

9.      Read 2 Corinthians 6:14–15.

a.      Is David unequally yoked in our text?  

b.      What are the consequences of being unequally yoked?

c.      How do believers sometimes find themselves unequally yoked with unbelievers? What is often the outcome?

10.  How do you see God working silently in the background of this text?

a.      How does God deliver David (cf. 1 Samuel 23:28)?

b.      What does this deliverance teach us about God’s providence?

c.      Have you ever perceived God working silently in the background of your life, delivering from your own foolish decisions?