Trust Time
Okay, I'm all fired up over here.
Think about the hours we have in a day where we are not blissfully sleeping (said no menopausal woman ever).
Let's say we have about 16 hours a day of awake time.
That's 5,840 hours a year.
(This calculation took me longer than I care to admit).
Just for fun, let's consider how much time of those 5,840 hours a year we spend thinking, worrying, or complaining about our troubles during those eyes-opened hours.
Let me get out my handy calculator.
Between my internal rumination and overthinking, complaining calls, lamenting texts, grumbling prayers, and worse-case-scenario-ing, I'm gonna guess I'm at about...10 hours - at a minimum.
I won't even get into the other hours I waste on my phone reel-watching or sitting and eating too many carbs; that's for another day.
So if I dedicate 10 hours a day to "trouble time," that's 3,650 hours a year, literally spent thinking or talking about my troubles.
If I've been doing that for, let's say, 30 years, that's 109,500 hours.
Ewe.
I'm no productivity expert, but that doesn't seem like a good use of time.
Today, I am officially inventing a new productivity model called "Trust Time." I'm working on the patent, hashtags, trademark, and copyright, so stay tuned for a Ted Talk and online course.
It is time I stop telling God and everyone else about my troubles and start telling my troubles and everyone else about God.
When I start thinking or talking about all the problems, I will stop, breathe, and say, "TRUST TIME."
It may sound weird, but I'm gonna give it a go.
I will shift my thinking and talking about trouble to thoughts and words filled with hope and trust, recalling how God has guided me and others safely through troubled waters.
I will remember how God untied the knots and brought us through so much, time and time again.
I will think about how God strengthens my faith in Him during uncertainty and shows up for me and so many others when we need Him the most.
I will recount all the ways God is good and loving. I will remember how much God loves me and how He rescued me and brought me back to Him.
I will remember that nothing is impossible when I am with him. No matter what troubles arise, I will focus on the solutions and I will become stronger, wiser, and secure in God's love.
It will take a lot of work to change my trouble-focused habit.
This kind of hope-filled, outcome-trusting optimism is counter-cultural.
It's too easy to find "proof" that the world is icky and that we live in "troubled times."
The media and entertainment business thrives on fear, and if we aren't careful, we don't just talk and think about trouble; we absorb it as well.
When I find myself on a terror trail (Ohh, I like that), I will turn off the external noise and fill my heart and mind with scriptures and stories of God's love, forgiveness, and rescue.
I will listen to inspirational music and watch movies or shows filled with joy, laughter, and hope.
The "Trust Time" model, after all, focuses on internal and external repair.
I am still working on a fast-forward button that comes free with every purchase so we can skip over the troubles part and quickly get to the "Look what God did" part.
But that's not how life works, unfortunately.
We have to go through it.
Sometimes, walking through thick, muddy muck.
But we go through it nonetheless—one step at a time.
The good news is we don't have to walk through with teeth clenched and eyes closed, filling our time focusing on the troubles as we grow weary with fear and worry.
We can walk through, trusting that God is with us and he knows the way through.
We gotta fight for our time, my friend.
It's fleeting.
And when it's gone, it's gone.
Get fired up with me!
Who's ready to block off their calendar for some “Trust Time?”
God has found you, and He is never, EVER going to let you go.
Philippians 4:13
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Psalm 46: 1-3
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.
Peter 4:12-13
Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.
James 1: 12
Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.