Plans, Timing, & Scheduling

2020 has been a big year for me. Personally, I have done the best that I ever have in many aspects of life: climbing, diet, fitness… But the biggest growth for me personally this year has been my use of a schedule and planner.

I wasn’t always this way.

I used to be notorious for “winging it”. I used to not write down names, dates, or appointments. How I made it professionally into my 30’s is beyond me. (To be fair, graduate school held very few appointments beyond showing up to classes.)

But, this year, I have made marked growth and transformation in this area.

I bought a paper planner. I write things down. I also keep a digital calendar. Between Google, my Mac calendar, and a pile of Field Notebooks on my dining room table, I have more information written down right now than I likely ever have in my life.

Additionally, I took up a second job (one day a week) working retail, and have been juggling an onslaught of texts from a realtor hoping to sell where Julia and I are currently renting.

Between my work schedule, my second job, my volunteer work, my wife’s schedule, and hobbies and recreation, it’s been satisfying to see my days fill up with blocks of time carved out for various things throughout my week.

However, in all of that careful scheduling, I had missed something. I wasn’t growing spiritually. I had decided (likely by accident) to rest on my laurels and settle for church, prayer, scripture, and God being blocked out on Sunday morning, Wednesday night, and in the 90-second beginning of meetings with Pr. Anna that we remembered to open with prayer.

*Pause.*

Do you see yourself in this story? Is every minute of your day planned out to the second in color coordinated boxes on a digital screen?

In the midst of all of my planning, COVID happened.

Lifestyles changed. Plans were moved online, or canceled altogether.

Big chunks of my carefully scheduled day became vacant. And “doing” church became more than just showing up. We got to shift the system of delivery to meet people in their own homes, digitally, and in new and creative ways.

I realized that I had the freedom, and the free time to re-introduce God back into my daily life. Hidden in all of this chaos and unknown was the opportunity to ground myself in the very thing I had been too busy to see.

I decided to use the time while working from home to add a full hour of my day to spiritual growth, prayer, and mediation. Every day. Six days a week.

One full hour of my day, every day, dedicated to God.

It is on my calendar in digital orange, ensuring that it happens.

This simple switch to writing down and carving out time for my own spiritual care has already vastly improved my understanding of God.

Simply dedicating time to read, pray, listen, and be has reminded me of the dynamic ways that God is working in our community and in our world. I just was crowding out that with my own sense of busy-ness.

And now, as we get ready to announce the schedule for the coming Faith Formation year, I invite you to join me in making time for God, not just on Sunday mornings. To dedicate a bit more time to showing up, however that looks for you.

God is constantly showing up, every single day. How are you making time to listen, look, or experience God?

In Christ,

Dan Miglets-Nelson