40 Days 40 Gifts Day 10

The gift of time… How many of us rush around day to day making sure we fit in gym, work, cooking, cleaning, shopping and a good dose of fun (usually only on weekends thanks very much)? What for? I get that if we are lucky enough to be employed we are expected to work an 8-5 job five days a week and I get that if we don’t there are consequences. But so many of us have become consumed by the economy that we begin to believe we are indispensable. If we don’t turn up at work the project will fall apart around us. We have this sense of self importance that has been ingrained into us over many years.

This I think is very closely linked with this belief that if I don’t do it nobody will, if I don’t earn it, no-one’s going to earn it for me, if I don’t look after myself nobody will. Sadly I think that’s largely true in our society today. The problem doesn’t just lie with me, it lies with all of us. If I can’t take care of myself today or tomorrow I know that someone will care for me because I have a close family but ultimately society expects me to pick myself up and continue contributing to the economy. There is very little patience for continually giving to another. Think for instance of so many of our attitudes towards the social grants system in South Africa. We see it as a case of our tax money going to others who don’t want to work instead of seeing it as an automatic gift giving system that we celebrate.

Now I’m not suggesting that we should all just abandon working and seek to live off handouts. But I do suggest that we start having a healthy scepticism for this “work more and more” economy that drives us to spend less time with family and with God and more time earning money (for what?).

There is a lovely story about the owner of a fishing company who visits a small town in Mexico. Early one morning he meets a man who has just pulled his small fishing boat in after a relatively successful catch and he strikes up a conversation with the fisherman. He asks him what he does for the rest of the day. The fisherman replies that he apportions out the fish, eats with his family, plays with the children and has a siesta. The business man asks him if he wouldn’t like to have two or three boats. That way he says you can catch more fish and sell them off and make some money. What would I do then? Says the fisherman. You could then buy a bigger boat and fish out more fish and make more money. And what would I do then asks the fisherman? You could use the capital that you have made to buy a whole lot of boats and you could become very rich. And what would I do then asks the fisherman? Well, you could retire and spend time playing with your kids and having a siesta…

LESSON 10: Seems we forget that money can’t buy us happiness or time or memories.

Are we addicted to our jobs? The fishing analogy brings to mind Jesus calling his first disciples – themselves fisherman. He asks them to put down their nets (to give up their livelihood, their source of income) and follow Jesus. They do so willingly. I wonder how many of us would be able to give up our fishing nets to do the same? How many of us say we don’t have time to pray or read the bible or come to church or commit to a GIG (bible study)? Perhaps our answer to that gives an indication of how much our work distracts us from seeking God.


I almost forgot to tell you what the gift was: I spent time with a team planning the installation of a library at a school in Soweto – actual work to commence on 13 March. Watch this space…