Gleanings: Time For All Things

In his book, Time For All Things, Charlie Shedd wrote, “God will never ask you to do more than you can do; people will.”

This simple sentence has washed across my life, like waves hitting the beach—time and time again reminding me of “where” the source of my freneticism (and subsequent fatigue) comes from.  Over the years, this quotation has touched my life from so many different angles that it’s not possible to comment on its effects in a short blog.  I will simply leave it alone, and let it come into your life however God may see fit for it to do.

Long ago, David (in Psalm 103:14) wrote, “He remembers that we are dust.”  That is so good to know.  We are the ones who forget that we are dust, and in our amnesia we begin to treat ourselves (and others) as if we were machines, capable of unceasing productivity and performance.  Whatever else Charlie Shedd’s quote might do in our lives, it anchors us in the perspective that God is not One who “drives” us, but one who “directs”us.  That’s why a discerning spirit is more to be cultivated than a time-management system—or at least that the latter should reflect the former.