WESTERNERS HAVE WATCHES
An African proverb says, “Westerners have watches, Africans have time.” The meaning: Africans work with goals and targets but do not relate them to a time deadline. Therefore, there is no hurry in Africa. In America, we are just the opposite. We live by our watch because deadlines are for execution and often cause us to leave out real-life priorities.
Would you answer this way to the following questions?
Q. Did you eat breakfast today?
A. I didn’t have time.
Q. Did you do your homework last night?
A. I didn’t have time.
Q. Why are you late?
A. I didn’t have enough time.
Q. How was lunch today?
A. Skipped lunch. Too much work, not enough time.
Q. Can you find 15 minutes of silent time?
A. I really try, but I seem to not have time to be still.
Q. Do you daily read Fred Crowell’s Words of Hope?
A. I like them, but it is hard to have time to read them on a regular basis.
Q. Do you arrive home for family dinner in the evening?
A. Often I am too busy and do not have time for a family get-together.
Here is an interesting observation of how we are controlled by our clocks. A personal friend was on a business trip to Barrow, Alaska, doing engineering work. When noon came around, he asked about lunch. One of the local employees laughed and replied, “You executives eat at 8 AM, 12 Noon, and 6 PM. We workers eat when we are hungry.”
The real question: Are you a prisoner of the time machine? If yes, why? In reality, time never rests, has no holidays, and plays no favorites. Time is the ultimate human equality machine; each person is given 24 hours each day.
“Too busy” is an excuse. We have time (and plenty of it) to love people, serve a great Lord, and celebrate the right-here-right-now moment.
Where are you? The best answer I know is: RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW.
