All we have is time.
I, you and we belong to a world where more is less. We want more of everything, from food to clothes to cars, to education and other luxuries and we want more time to do what we want to do. When we get what we wanted, we dream and want the next level. We want it for ourselves as well as for our children, which is natural. And our children want the same for their children. And the story goes on till it can no longer, because we die. And we spend the last few years of our lives deciding who to give what, of what is left of what we have collected.
So we spend 20 years dreaming, 40 years acquiring and then the last phase where we are giving or rather planning to give or praying hard to get more time for all of this.
Covid broke that vicious circle for me.
I and my family were stuck in a foreign country for more than 2 years. We had planned travel for 1 month but spent 2 years and more. Everything we had was in our home which was locked up and deserted. We had to learn to manage on less. Less money day by day, less clothing, less fashion, less friends, less access to things we took for granted in our country like education, etc etc. Everything was less except food since our hosts, Pastor Rajiv and his family saw to all our provisions. Business Tailed, and then finally petered out as did our income.
But we survived. Professionally, I gave the option to our small team to go out and find a job. Most did. One stayed, for reasons beyond my understanding.
Personally, it was a challenge as well.... I have a closet of numerous coats, an overcoat and numerous Woollen pants, since I live in extreme cold weather (by my standards). And here I was stuck in winter with none. I prided myself on clothes and dressing. That pride went down the drain. But we survived.
We survived without a car (we had two at home, a chauffer cum attendant, 3 maids), without travel, without shopping, without our luxuries which we thought were necessities. We who never boarded a bus, travelled in busses and trains and walked. We now had nothing and we loved it!
Yet, through these two years all we had was time.
Time to think, to review our lives and figure out how to make it better. And we did. Not in terms of money. Not in terms of riches. Only in terms of experiencing God's love. and His hand on us and, trying to pass it on.
Yes, God's hand was on our family. Our elder daughter who got left behind earlier was able to travel at the height of Covid, and join us against all odds. An answer to our prayers, because we were having sleepless nights and making our own plans of getting out somehow and being with her in her place of posting far away.
Our hibernation in fact protected us. I know that with my business travel in India, I would have been sure to get Covid. (in retrospect, this turned out to be a fact. We came back to India for a couple of months and i did get it because of numerous business travel. Yet I survived.) Not only this, numerous encounters with Gods hand at work showed us He was with us always.
Since we had time we started deepening our devotions. Started understanding more, reading more following more. And the more we imbibed from His word, the more satisfied we were, and the happier. Our desire for the material turned into a desire for His knowledge and truth. For His wisdom and His peace. And all of this, was prompted by Rev Rajiv.
In the meanwhile, the pandemic changed my life with one single change - I lost the desire for more things and gained the desire for more of His word.
Today I am back in my natural habitat. But the first thing I did on my return was to empty out my closets, give away shoes, clothes, artefacts and miscellaneous stuff which I had held onto for years and years. That stuff filled a full room.
With desires being gone, that empty space got filled with Gods word, and a strange thirst to know more.
And hence today I quote
"Two things I request of You
(Deprive me not before I die):
Remove falsehood and lies far from me;
Give me neither poverty nor riches—
Feed me with the food allotted to me;
Lest I be full and deny You,
And say, “Who is the Lord?”
Or lest I be poor and steal,
And profane the name of my God"
The key line is "Give me neither poverty nor riches.... "Feed me with the food allotted to me" which translates to a prayer we all know, "give us this day our daily bread".
I anyone wants to know the value of time please visit -
For a first hand account of the value of time.
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