Last year Jon Acuff, wrote an article for Relevant Magazine, entitled, “7 Questions to Ask Before You Throw Down Online”.  Each of these are worth exploring in the context of purposed worKING and how we handle ourselves in the workplace and online.

 “A time to tear down and a time to build up.”

Off goes that email, text or Facebook message that “sets the story straight”.  And then there isn’t any response.  None at all.  Dead silence.  And now what?  Well, if you are like me, I start wasting time worrying about the response and I might even go back and reread what I wrote a whole bunch of times to be sure that what I wrote couldn’t have been misinterpreted or thought of poorly.  Before I know it, the time I have spent after sending the message is many, many multiples of the time it took me to write and send the message in the first place.  This is why many times I will write what I want to write, then pick up the phone and try to talk it out, or at least get a voicemail left. When we don’t have the time to talk about it and think that we can shortcut it by sending something online, we are into risky business.

We only have so much time left.  Yes, I’m not trying to be morbid, but we are all on the clock and how we use our time to further the glory of God is important. If we aren’t doing so and we find that our time is being wasted, then we need to be sure that we are spending our time in the right way and start asking, “Is this worth my time?”.  If not, then leave it alone.  If it’s still not really worth it, but can’t walk away, then be sure that we are dealing with this in a spirit that God would have us and others grow closer to Him.  It might be that this extra time ends up being something special in His will, so the real question needs to be, “Is this worth the time that God has given to me for Him?”

Reference:  Ecclesiastes 3:3 (New Living Translation)