What Time Is It? by Jan Powell

What Time Is It?

by Jan Powell

“To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven”

(Ecclesiastes 3:1, KJV).

Daily schedules can limit writing time. And yet, Ephesians 5:16 commands us to make “the most of every opportunity” and time is an opportunity. We’d make better choices as if time was a fistful of hundred-dollar bills we received each morning to spend and account for each evening. Time is more valuable than money.

So, how do we spend our time?

Some commitments claim many hours—work, family, community activities. Within the body of Christ, we serve as eyes that see, hands that write, and mouths that speak God’s truth—a delightful and solemn calling. We plan for contests and conferences while sneaking in creative moments. Our inspirational opportunities may arrive in disguise, so we need divine eyeglasses and holy hearing aids to make time for them.

Ecclesiastes points to the breadth of life experiences stretched over the framework of our schedules. We can consider our lives from birth to “graduation,” including the skills learned, knowledge gained, and character development. Reflect on education and career. We’ve all wasted time and used it well, including some steps forward and others sideways or backward.

Our writing journeys involve seasons of growth and releasing decayed content. Writing, editing, and rewriting offer a cycle of continued polishing.

Ecclesiastes 3 reflects components of good prose. First, we find overarching topics—every season and activity, from birth to death. Second, like reshaping our words, sometimes we kill and tear down; other times we heal and build, or tear and mend. Third, emotions have their part. We include weeping and laughing and mourning and dancing which all people experience and relate to. During those times we embrace or refrain from embracing. Fourth, work shapes much of life from gathering to scattering stones. Fifth, relationships lead to seasons of searching and giving up, keeping and discarding, and silence or speaking. Last, our words encompass the nuances and explosions of love and hate, and war and peace.

Scripture inspires us to serve God’s purposes faithfully in all seasons. The Lord invites us to redeem our time and its opportunities, using the ideas he provides to fulfill our calling each day.

Father of all opportunities to write the truth, open our eyes to all that is around us. Amen.

Jan Powell, a graduate of the University of South Florida, helps writers through Writing with You, offering editing, rewriting, and coaching for fiction and non-fiction. Published in The Wordsmith Journal and Splickety, she has written for Inkspirations since the beginning. Her in-depth editing includes poetry, devotionals, memoirs, fantasy, murder mysteries, thrillers, romantic suspense, and flash fiction. She has hosted Tampa Word Weavers for almost two decades and has served in its leadership.