Do you have a lot of “down time?” Do you find yourself sitting idle a significant amount of time? Does it create problems for you? Have you made leisure time a higher priority than taking care of what needs to be done? Has leisure time become an idol for you?
Having some leisure time is good for us. We need time to rest and recover from our busy lives. Yet too much leisure time can become problematic. We can become lazy. We can procrastinate, putting off what needs to be done so we do what is fun. We can find ourselves in trouble.
There is a saying, “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” When we have nothing to do, we will find something to do. We can replace the word hands with minds. The meaning is the same. It is especially true in today’s culture. All we have to do is observe people and their cell phones. They will often be doing something on their cell phones while they work, watch television, or sitting in a restaurant.
We may think this is new phenomena, but it is not. Though they didn’t have cell phones, the Israelites had the same problem. While wandering through the wilderness, they would find themselves with not much to do when they stayed in one placed for several days. Some of them were tending sheep or cattle, but they were not farming or doing much artisan work. That left them with sleeping, eating, and free time.
The Apostle Paul warns us not to become idolaters and gives the example of the Israelites in the wilderness. Due to their extensive free time, some of them pursued sexual immorality, which became their idol. God struck down twenty-three thousand of them in a single day (1 Corinthians 10:8). We may not follow in their footsteps in the exact same manner, but we will find something to do when we have a lot of time on our hands. We must carefully consider how to spend that time.
I pray we all evaluate how we spend our free time. I pray we are aware that idle time can become problematic. I pray each one of us use our free time to focus on God. Take time to rest. Evaluate your free time. Do not create idols. Set down your cell phones. Use your idle time to focus on God.
1 Corinthians 10:7 Do not become idolaters as some of them did, as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.”
Marty Pressey 