As I ponder on junk, nonsense, and the like, these things are not just material items and stuff. While my list of material nonsense is (obviously from Part One), limitless, what about my spiritual nonsense? How much chaos does spiritual junk cause in my life? The answer is: WAY. TOO. MUCH.
What does spiritual nonsense look like? For myself, it looks like:
Too much YouTube
Subject matter: baby goats in pajamas, cats versus toddlers, horses, dogs being dogs, rescue animals (May I recommend The Dodo? Lots of heartwarming stories of people rescuing those in need.)
FOUR STREAMING SERVICES
Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus (this one needs to GO), and Hulu
Subject matter: Superheroes, docuseries, comedies
List making
Taking 10 extra minutes to leave my house for anything
Streaming the new movie: Wasted Time & Opportunities
Do I watch new shows? No, I watch the same movies over and over and over and over. In fact, during the pandemic, I read several articles discussing how anxiety affected people from toilet paper to online shopping. One of the most interesting suggestions was how most of us continued to watch familiar movies and tv shows regardless of new material being available. Now I don’t know if this idea is true for you, but I do know that Jonathon and I will search through the services for hours watching trailers and saving to our ‘Watch Later’ list. Do we ever actually watch the new stuff? Very rarely.
List Making
For those who game, you’ll understand this statement: I have leveled up and finished the game. I take list making so seriously, I will rewrite the list if there is a scribble, misspelled word, or a mistake of any kind. In fact, I’m so awesome at list making and development, nothing gets done. The list, however, is a work of art. If the list is on my computer, I use bullet points that can be checked off. On paper, I use my best penmanship. Mrs. Bural, my third grade teacher, would be proud. The list gets rewritten if my handwriting is too messy. The tragic final situation is that nothing really gets done.
600 Seconds Adds Up Fast
There’s a financial saying that goes something like this: Mind the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves. The same is true for time. From the smallest increment to the longest earthly measurement, time gone is time gone. Some of my biggest, and best, time wasting skills are:
Hitting the snooze button and then resetting my alarm
Looking for my car keys every morning
Not fully planning my day the night before (paired with getting up as late as possible is fire plus gasoline make the best failure flames)
Note below the Flames of Failure!! Not unlike the Pit of Despair or the Fire Swamp....
Antidote for Failure Flames: Priorities
With my entire rant, the most important struggle is my priorities. Obviously, if I was successful at organizing the most important to the least important, my spiritual life would be more mature by this time in my life. Instead of wasting time downloading Bible apps, Bible studies and how to read the Bible through in a week, I would be further along with scripture memory as well as truly understanding what my obedience to God looks like. Stop wasting the 600 seconds, or 10 minutes for some of you, and just do.