Godly Men Show Up On Time And Use Their Time Effectively

I recently discussed how everything in our society works to produce boys, rather than mature Godly men as God describes them.

I’ve been inspired by Micah 6:8 and the call to “act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly” and felt convicted that acting justly can apply it to one area that each man probably struggles with: Using our time effectively in the place of work, or for students like myself, the classroom.

I don’t mean acting like you enjoy being around your co-workers or working well with others. That comes with loving others.

What I’m talking about is integrity; not swindling or deceiving your employers. (Ecclesiastes 9:10)

Let’s Talk About Integrity And Our Time

Ever showed up late to work, knowing that your boss extends grace and he/she won’t get upset with you for it? Yeah, me too. We do it all the time but don’t think it’s a big deal. Make no mistake, it is a bigger deal than our society thinks it is.

Your boss is paying you to be there from one specific time to another. By showing up late or cutting out early, you are not being the ambassador for Christ that we are called to be. In essence, you aren’t being the man God calls you to be.

What about you college students who show up late to class? I’ll be the first one to tell you that I’ve been late to my fair share of classes, or even knowing I was going to be late I made the decision not to show up. Come on, you can’t tell me I’m the only one that has made that decision…right??

Let’s say though that we do show up to work/class on time and stay until our required time is up. How hard do we actually work? How effectively do we use our time? In the office, are we on Facebook? Texting our friends? Wasting time. How about how good of a job we actually do on a project? Cutting corners and not doing our best.

I’m just as guilty as the next guy. I would much rather slack a little bit and still get by rather than put all of my time and effort into something that I don’t care that much about. Or in classes, how often do we space-out, check Facebook, text, day-dream or, go one step further, fall asleep during a lecture rather than taking notes?

I’ve found myself doing one of those, if not all, within one class period!

Next time you’re in class listening to a lecture and you know the teacher isn’t that interesting and they don’t enforce their cell phone policy, try looking around and counting how many people are on their phones and not paying attention. You would be surprised, we live in a technology driven world…but maybe that’s a topic for some other time.

Looking through the first part of Ecclesiastes 9:10 we are told whatever we do, we should do it with all of our might.

If we truly believe that God deserves our best in everything, maybe we should stop wasting time on half-done work and stop taking advantage of what we’ve been given.

Basically: show up on-time and use your time efficiently!

In my next post, we’ll examine how a Godly man does not gossip or slander.

Q: Do you agree this speaks of your integrity? How could this play into other areas of your life, and if you’ve struggled with this before, what would be some advice be for battling this?