I’m working on unscheduling my life. Sounds appealing, I bet. We’re a scheduled society. Morning ’til night we have activities to consume our days to the point of craziness. Well I’m tired of it and decided it’s time for a change.

For those of you who know me, you won’t be surprised to learn that I’m a very structured, disciplined, regimented person. Everything in my life has a place and a time, at least to me. Work happens during set hours. I exercise every morning before work but after my Bible study. There’s not a lot of room for variation — unless you count biking riding instead of running as variation. There’s also not a lot of room for God to interrupt my plans, to put someone in my day that may need a friend or the voice of truth in their life at that time.

I’m self employed. I set my own hours. In general, I don’t answer to others as long as I meet my clients’ deadlines and expectations. So, in reality, there’s little need for the rigidity by which I live. Why do I hold myself to such structure? I may never know the answer.

Here’s what I do know. Tonight was the first night of unscheduling. I made ratatouille, listened to some soothing instrumental/spiritual music and unwound. Day one, great. Tomorrow is day two.

I know that there will be things that come up that I will have to put on my schedule. I’m realistic, after all. I believe, however, that keeping my schedule as available as possible for what moves me, for what God would have me do, is an important priority day-to-day and in every season of my life. If I schedule every day full or commit to various volunteer or ministry opportunities, I have no latitude for that which God has truly called me. I’m not available for God to use me. He hasn’t called me to answer every call; I need to be available to answer the calls specific to me. I only pray he’ll give me the discernment to know which are for me.

In His Grace,
Amy