The Tyranny and Gift of Time...

It is hard to not get swept up by the tyranny of the urgent and not just the urgent, but the myriad of distractions that we face everyday.  Sometimes we just have too many choices.  When I have an afternoon with less work than usual, I find I come up with so many possibilities that oftentimes I am paralyzed by the overwhelming options...

How do we spend our time?  Hmmmm...I could read a book or....I could write a poem or work on my writing course or watch a television program or go for a walk or see what's going on in the FaceBook world, call a friend, play my guitar, play the piano or take a nap....the choices are endless!

Do you ever have times when it is just so hard to decide what you want to do that you end up doing nothing of real significance?  It is the tyranny of too many choices sometimes sandwiched by the urgent needs or perceived urgent needs that press upon my mind all the time.  Does anyone have this figured out?  I feel pulled in so many different directions that sometimes I am overwhelmed by all the possibilities.  I used to train caregivers at a homecare agency here in town.  I remember I used to talk about how clients with dementia need choices, simple choices such as, "Would you like to wear this pink shirt or this blue one?" or, "Would you like macaroni and cheese tonight or soup?"  as opposed to, "What would you like to wear?" (Out of a closet full of possibilities) or "What would  you like to eat tonight?" and again, out of a thousand-and-one choices.

On the subject of choices; have you ever been stressed out by just how many choices we have in deodorants?  Would you like fresh scent or flower scent?  Would you like liquid roll-on or a dry application?  Would you like it to be cheap or do you care?  Sooooo, maaaannny choices that it can make you crazy, just wanting to run out of the store screaming sometimes (at least I do).  Can you believe you are reading a blog about deodorants?

So, how do we narrow the field in our lives (not just at the store) so that we are effective, we are doing God's will instead of the will of everyone around us and their pet projects and what they think we are called to help them with?

There are no easy answers...I think it boils down to what is God calling us to do?  Where do our interests lie?  What are we good at?  What do others comment on regarding our talents and giftings? What do we enjoy?  Maybe we (I) make it more complicated then it needs to be, trying to spread ourselves (myself) so thin that I am not effective anywhere.