Whose Driving Your Car?

The unexamined life is not worth living.
-Socrates

An unplanned life is not worth examining.
-Aristotle, a follower of Socrates

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.
-Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 9:24-26

What do you value? What do you want out of life? When you look at most people's lives, what they are actually doing? Does it looks like they only value survival and the approval of others?

The good, important, valuable things in life are not accidental. If you want that trip to Europe, a car, or to help build an irrigation system in a developing country, you need to save for it. The same is true for your time. Friendships, education, and answering the call of Jesus in your life require time. If that time is spent on things that don't really matter, then it won't be there when you need it. Most of us wouldn't drop our hard-earned money on the street as we walked along, but we sometimes do as much with the way we spend our time.

Is the goal of life to have a full schedule sheet so we can prove our lives are worthwhile? No. That is merely a projection of insecurity and poor self-worth. The reason we plan our lives is to gain freedom. There is no such thing as an unplanned life. Either we plan it or someone or something plans it for us. To be blown around by the winds of circumstance is not freedom. Too many people mistake panic for spontaneity.

You don't plan to just fill up your schedule. You determine what you value and then create a schedule that will help you achieve it. Work is... well, work. Of course we will avoid it by puttering away our time. But that puttered time is gone forever. You schedule so you can get what you have to do done. If you do it wisely, you have guilt-free open time that you can use to spend on friends, God, entertainment... on life really.

A healthy schedule lets you shoulder the world out of the drivers seat so you can take the wheel again. Then you can steer your life down the road Jesus shows you.