Week 119: Giving Time
Or how I came to be the one in charge of an inflatable bungee cord race…
Each Sunday, my wife and I cook and eat a meal together — intentionally. Every Friday, I’ll be sharing our experience here in this space. I want to see the growth that will come in our marriage because of this. I hope you enjoy our story. You can find last week’s post here.
Time is so precious. We’ve talked before about how it’s a limited commodity in our lives. You can look at that one of two ways. You can focus on the scarcity or, instead, you can focus on the incredible value that scarcity creates. Your time is precious. The question then becomes…
…how will you choose to spend it?
If this is your first time reading Cooking With Sarah, you may have seen the blurb in italics above and wondered why this post is coming on a Sunday when I say that we will share “every Friday.” That’s a good question. The answer?
Time.
This is the latest I’ve ever posted a Cooking With Sarah story. Nearly every post comes on Friday, though there have been times when I haven’t been able to post until Saturday. So what monumental force of nature caused such a rupture in the Cooking With Sarah routine?
Well, Sarah and I closed on a house recently, so there’s that.
I am in the process of learning what it means to be a homeowner. So far, I realize that time is even more precious than before. There are more projects to do, more problems to solve. This past Friday involved work and figuring out a problem with our scheduled floor installation (I now have the music that plays when you’re on hold stuck in my head for infinity.) Saturday was painting the house with my father, my father-in-law and my brother-in-law. Talk about special shared time! It was a full day.
And now I sit here, at 12:08am on a Sunday. Sarah is four hours away at a bridal shower. Not just any bridal shower, mind you, but the bridal shower for the friend who stood by Sarah as her maid of honor at our wedding. So Sarah’s sharing some special time as well!
Today, I’m not sure what I’ll make for lunch and dinner. We’re going to be stretching the “With” in Cooking With Sarah a couple hundred miles. But that doesn’t change the fact that we’re together even when we’re apart. But that’s for later. Right now, I’m giving time to you. It’s a little different than sharing time, but it’s just as powerful. So let me tell you about a couple Sundays ago…
Weddings and Inflatables
We spent Saturday at a wedding of two friends of ours. It was out in the country on a beautiful nature preserve in my beloved Indiana. The rain held off, and the day was beautiful for the bride and groom.
Weddings always get me thinking about time.
There’s the time during the actual wedding day — those precious moments you try to savor for all they’re worth. The vows, the first kiss, the presentation of the new couple, the dances and the send-off. Then there are the behind-the-scenes moments that will forever be suspended in time for the happy couple. I remember Sarah and I snuck out of the reception to eat together. That meal we shared was so special. It was one of the few quiet moments we had that day, and it was beautiful.
Then there’s the time ahead of you. The time that stands before you on this important day. It’s daunting to consider this time. Not in the sense that you are apprehensive or worried about the decision, but that you realize this is something that will impact the rest of your life. Those moments don’t come often.
Now that I’m married, I always love the opportunity weddings provide for reflection — looking back in time. I consider our wedding day, yes, but also the many days that have come since.
We left the wedding with smiles on our faces from the joy we saw in the faces of the bride and groom.
From there, we went over to my brother-in-law’s to spend the night with their family. The next day was Kid’s Day at their church, and Sarah and I had volunteered to help. Sarah would be doing facepainting, and I’d be watching one of the inflatables.
See here’s where that distinction comes between sharing time and giving time. When you’re sharing time, you’re experiencing something with someone else. It may be something you both love, or it may not. But you’re in it together nonetheless.
With giving time, you are consciously saying, “I’m going to use my time doing something I would not otherwise be doing because I know it’s important to you.” But it goes even deeper than that. You could easily give your time and just slog through it feeling like you don’t want to be there. But giving time is most powerful when — even though you wouldn’t have necessarily chosen to do this — your attitude is the same as if you were doing something you love.
I don’t think I would have chosen to man an inflatable bungee cord race on my own. But what I did choose to do was volunteer my time for Matt’s church to be helpful in any way I could. Bungee cord inflatable it is. And you know what? I had so much fun! It rained all day, but that didn’t matter. We all had incredible fun regardless.
So can I encourage you today? Find ways to give your time. We think we know exactly what we want at any given moment. But often, I’ve found that volunteering myself to serve others — even if it isn’t something I’d have chosen to do — brings about new notions and experiences. It enriches my life. I’d encourage you to give it a try.
With that, I’m signing off. It’s been a bit of a day. I thank you for your patience with me, and I’ll see you on Friday. Until then, my friends!
