Building Your Calendar

Wow, it's that time of year again to go purchase a new calendar for 2016.  Some of you may still work off of a paper calendar and you need to go month by month and transfer all of those important dates.  The question remains, will you remove the lesser important items and make room for the significant things that really need to be in the calendar?  I'm talking about creating more room in your calendar for you to focus on you.  Would you be bold enough to remove some of the expectations that others have placed upon you so you can do what you feel is most important.  Would you consider creating a little matrix to determine if some of those things should even be on the calendar; like, do they help me accomplish my life goals, do they have eternal value, do they contribute towards building others up (in Christ), or do they make me a better Christ-follower?

Many of us build our calendars around our work, families, church, hobbies, and even house chores.  But do we take the time to truly invest in our own lives that we might be refreshed spiritually and physically.  Do we build our calendars based on our calling in this life?  Is God factored into our calendars?  This is convicting because many times Christians are so busy doing ministry and investing in others that they forget to replenish themselves.  Most men that I know who have fallen from ministry admit to the fact that they have been running dry spiritually and failed to spend time alone in prayer and in God's Word.  Many people are so dry spiritually that anything that looks wet they believe will satisfy their thirst.  The reality is that only drawing water from the well of living water that Christ supplies will quench our thirst.

Jesus Christ said, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,  but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14)  Christ was challenging the woman at the well not to think temporary but to think eternal.  As Christians, we should be living with another day in view and this should affect our calendar and the things that we place in it.  Paul said to, "make the best use of the time, because the days are evil." (Ephesians 5:16).  

Let's take this challenge to heart and build a calendar that reflects a year that is dedicated to Jesus Christ and builds us up at the same time.