Photo by Andreanna Moya Photography

By Wendy Choy-Chan

These few weeks have been quite hectic.  The start of a new school year means new schedules for everyone.  Who to pick up whom at what time from where to where is the question I ask everyday, many times a day.  The priority has been to get all the tasks done, on time, taking care of life as defined by my calendar.

The temptation is then to also put God into a slot on the calendar.  Devotion, prayer, worship…  get the task done, and life goes on.  Life is good.  But is it really?  Or, how about putting God in between the slots or multi-tasking — turning on the Christian radio while making dinner, or praying while driving?  Make use of every minute, and life is purposeful.  But is it really?

Maybe yes, maybe no.  But placing God linearly on a timeline doesn’t work for me, for He simply then becomes a task that I need to check off.  What helps me is to realize that I live both a life within finite time, and also a life which is in touch with eternal time.  While I attend to the many items on my calendar in my 24-hour day, I can also attend to my inner life by connecting with God who is in eternal time.

Not easily achieved, but if done, it is beautiful.  Like looking through an opening in the clouds and seeing heaven beyond.  Perhaps, the challenge is exactly that, to train my eyes to see not only the clouds, but also the opening.

As I look at my calendar for this coming week, I need to remind myself that I don’t need to defer God to later just because there is already something going on at a particular time.  God can be on my finite time calendar and my eternal time calendar.  An opening in the clouds.

Then again… I also need to figure out how to fit dinner in for certain nights this week.  Unfortunately, for this task,  I cannot move it from my calendar of finite time to my eternal time calendar…

Wendy Choy-Chan came to North America from Hong Kong when she was 15.  She is now a full-time mom and part-time student at Fuller Northwest studying for her MA in Theology.  She lives with her husband and two daughters in Seattle, WA.