Giving God the Scraps

So, my title might be a little deceiving. This is not a post about how we shouldn’t give God just our scraps meaning we shouldn’t just give God what we have left in our day or of our time. While that would be a good post, that’s not what I’m writing about right now.

I’m talking to those of us who only have scraps of time to begin with. My tendency is to be an all or nothing sort of person. If I can’t do something all the way, why start? Sometimes that’s a great principle but in the area of spending time in the presence of God it’s a very poor one. I would love to be able to plan my day to the point where I could spend hours reading, praying, meditating, etc. but I’m not in that stage of life right now. All I have are scraps of time. You know what I’m talking about- those 5 minutes you have when you wake up before your kids sense you are awake and wake too. Or, those 30 seconds that your kids are playing harmoniously together before the fighting ensues again. Or, when you are spending all of their short precious nap time in the afternoon folding laundry. Those are the scraps of time I’m talking about. We all have them but what do we do with them?

Unfortunately, many days, I spend those precious minutes surfing the internet or daydreaming or watching television. Why? Because I think, “I don’t have time to have a real quiet time or my kids are just going to interrupt me so why even start reading or praying?”

And then I read a great quote the other day that was written by an unnamed English monk from the 14th century- “You only need a tiny scrap of time to move towards God.” Those words struck me, hard. I haven’t been taking the time to move close to God by reading and praying because I haven’t felt like I could give Him adequate time so I haven’t done it at all. But, God wants all of what I can bring and what I can bring right now are scraps of time. And He would be delighted if I spent those brief moments with Him, giving Him all that I have. He knows where I am and what I can give right now. And He knows that about you, too.

“Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” James 4:8 (ESV)