Complete the following sentence…

I’m so busy, I just don’t have time to _______________________.

Exercise? Read? Learn to play the guitar? Write a book? Read your Bible? Go for a walk with your spouse? Pray more? Play with your kids?

We’ve all been there. You may be there now. If we’re not careful, it’s easy for life to feel like it’s spinning out of control and we’re missing out on the things that really matter to us.

So is it possible to gain control over your busy life?

Yes. There is help, but it will require some tough choices.

In Ephesians 5, Paul is contrasting the difference between living in darkness and living in light. Then he moves on to contrast living foolishly and living wisely. In verses 15 and 16, he says:

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

Be very careful how you live. If we live carefully, then we’re wise. If we don’t live carefully, then we’re unwise or foolish.

When Paul talks about living carefully, he isn’t talking about living cautiously or playing it safe. The Greek word for “be very careful” means: exactly, accurately or diligently.

Live accurately. Live exactly. Live diligently.

So what does that look like? It sounds a little like more work and less play.

Well, since Paul is making contrasts here, let’s just take the opposite of those three words and see what it would look like to not be careful in how we live.

If we’re not going to live accurately, then what are we choosing? To live flawed lives? Faulty, defective lives?

If we’re not going to live exactly, then we’ll live inexact, loose lives.

And if we’re not going to live diligently, then we’re choosing to be passive and lifeless.

Being too busy (or thinking we’re too busy) for the people and activities that are most important in life is a symptom of a flawed, defective, loose, passive life. It’s a clear warning sign that we’re not living carefully and not making the most of every opportunity.

Let’s try a little experiment that will help us examine our lives. I’ll list some common activities we’re all engaged in during the course of a week and provide an estimate of the amount of time each activity might take for the average person. Feel free to make adjustments for your own schedule.

• Sleep: 56 hours
• Work or school/studying: 45 hours
• Commute/run errands: 4 hours
• Cook/Eat/Clean-up: 10 hours
• Other household chores: 14 hours (everything from laundry to mowing the lawn)
• Shower/get dressed: 5 hours
• Media (movies/television/Facebook/Twitter, texting, etc.): 14 hours

All of those activities total 148 hours, so that leaves 20 more hours every week. If you sleep less or work more or spend more time online, then make whatever adjustments you need to.

Now if you have young children, you’ll really need to make adjustments. I know it’s tough when you’re at the mercy of young children, especially infants and toddlers. Just hang in there, someday life will feel “normal” again.

After you have your sub-total, you need to add in a few other activities. In the example above, you’d have 20 hours to allocate among these seven activities:

1. Time alone with God (reading the Bible, praying, etc.) and attending church: __________ hours
2. Time with spouse: __________ hours
3. Time with children: __________ hours
4. Time with friends __________ hours
5. Exercise ___________ hours
6. Personal time/recreation (Hobbies, reading, projects, goals) ____________ hours
7. Volunteering/ministering to others ____________ hours

How did you do? Did you find that 20 hours wasn’t enough to spread over the seven activities? Or once you plugged in all your hours things look out of balance?

What’s interesting to me is that we often “don’t have time” for these seven items, but these are the seven that can heavily influence our enjoyment of life, the impact we have on others and the legacy we’ll leave. We’re too busy to read the Bible or go to the gym, but we’ll spend the equivalent of almost two full work days consuming various forms of media.

Understanding how we’re currently using our time and making adjustments is all part of being very careful in how we live.

So now what? What will you do to live carefully and make the most of every opportunity?

Let me close with a few suggestions…

• Synergize whenever possible. In other words, combine two activities into the same period of time. For example, spend time with your spouse cooking. Exercise with one of your children. Listen to an audio book while you drive. Listen to the game on the radio while you work in the yard.
• Take a hard look at the amount of time you spend on media. It may be more than you think.
• If it’s hard to find personal time, consider going to bed an hour earlier, so you can get up an hour earlier. The lost hour at night is probably not as valuable as the hour you’ll gain in the morning.

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

Tomorrow, we’ll look what Paul said next and how it will effect every relationship and every activity in your life.