"The Library of Congress in Washington DC has over 130 million items contained in 530 miles of bookshelves. That’s an overwhelming amount of information. But another information repository that is often overwhelming is the email inbox.
Approximately how many emails are in your inbox right now? If you are like most people the answer is “Way too many!” That’s because managing the inbox has become one of the great time management challenges of our day.
One time management consultant tells how she met with a client who had 3,983 emails in her inbox. Needless to say, she was overwhelmed and frustrated. The consultant challenged her to delete all 3,983 and start over. She reluctantly followed the advice, then, sent her colleagues an email telling them that her inbox had been deleted and if anyone needed anything to let her know. She received 25 responses.
Spending less time with email, means spending more time with meaningful objectives, like God and family, which will redeem the time.
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"The first modern submarine was the H. L. Hunley which was powered by a hand crank and had a crew of 13. It went down during the American Civil War in 1863. So subs have been around a long time.
There’s another type of sub that’s also been around a while which many of us still haven’t taken advantage of. It’s the subfolder in your email program.
An overflowing and disorganized email inbox is not only frustrating but it’s the source of much wasted time both personally and professionally. One tool for managing emails is to create subfolders, which categorize emails you need to keep for future reference. Subfolders break big lists into smaller, more manageable ones. Even the simplest email programs have them and even the simplest minds can create them and use them.
God’s plan for your life involves order, not chaos. By creating more order, even with our email, we become more useful for the Lord and we redeem the time.
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"Tonto asked the Lone Ranger, “Kemo sabe, what you think when you look up at night and see moon and stars?” The Lone Ranger replied, “I think of the greatness of the universe and the wonders of God’s creation. Tonto, what do you think when you look up and see the stars?” Tonto replied, “Someone stole our tent.”
Sometimes we’re like the Lone Ranger. Someone has stolen from us and we don’t even realize it. It happens most commonly with our time. One example might be so called “Rocking Chair” activities; things that keep you busy moving around, but never really get you anywhere. Things like running errands for items you really don’t need, or visiting websites which only marginally contribute anything to your day, can steal the precious time God gave you to use on things that would really matter.
The Lone Ranger always caught the bad guys. Let’s make sure we catch our own time thieves as well, so we’ll redeem the time.
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"J. Oswald Sanders said, “Only the disciplined person will rise to his highest power. He is able to lead because he has conquered himself.” K.P. Yohannan put it this way, “No matter how able, educated or gifted a person is, he will never fulfill the call of God on his life without self-discipline…Without self-discipline, no army can win a war, no athlete can win the prize and no servant of God can move into the things God has for him.”
Their thoughts harmonize well with the Apostle Paul’s words to the church at Corinth when he wrote that he must discipline his body and make it his slave, lest having preached to others, he himself might become disqualified.
Each of these men of God realized the importance of determining how they would spend time each day not by whims, curiosity, moods or appetite, but rather by doing what they knew was the right thing.
God’s way is a narrow way that requires disciplined living, but it’s the only way to redeem the time.
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