time, work, and oranges

Last week I was driving east on Wedgewood towards the neighborhood - I think I was between 12th and 8th, probably coming back from Dose. The local sports radio station was on, but I was tuned out. I was thinking about what I could do in this time to be "productive." To get more work done, since I was obviously wasting time just sitting there in the truck. And this was me thinking about what that actually meant. And then I started thinking about oranges.

Do you like oranges? I do. But I really like orange juice - I don't eat very healthy, so I get Simply Orange to offset the cheez-its. While sitting in traffic between 12th and 8th I was thinking about making orange juice. How do you make orange juice? Well, you squeeze the life out of some oranges. You squeeze and squeeze and squeeze until there's nothing left, and then you enjoy your beverage.

Isn't this what we do to our time? We try to squeeze every last drop of productivity out of our days. We work, and we toil, and we flex, and then it's time for bed. And then we get up and do it again.

Imagine for a second that you are walking through an orange grove. How many glasses of orange juice will you see growing off the trees? God made those oranges just the way they are, and that is how we should first enjoy them. Only after we enjoy them for what they are can we enjoy them for all the rest of the things they can become. And some people may argue that you'll never have a juice, julius, salad, or chicken that tastes as good as that orange.

Now think about how God made your time, my time. Did He give it to us filled with things? I don't think so. I think that we fill that time with things. And just like that orange, might our time be better if first enjoyed the way that God gave it to us? This isn't to say that we shouldn't do anything (though sometimes that would be nice). This is to say that maybe, just maybe, we should enjoy our time peacefully. Enjoy the day and how it is presented to us. If it's nice outside, enjoy that gift. If it's rainy, close our eyes and breathe in that smell of fresh precipitation.

I'm not very good at this. Like I wrote above, I am always thinking about ways to be more productive, get more done, be better at my job. But I do think that if I enjoy time in it's "natural habitat" I might just be more productive in the long haul.

Thanks for reading,
Luke
luketlancaster@gmail.com