Just so you know, I am setting you up for disappointment. I will present questions here which I will not answer, and indeed cannot answer. But I always thought an unanswered question left to hang there in the uncomfortable silence does more to erode presuppositions than any packaged answer can anyhow. So there is my disclaimer.
Thomas Sowell defines economics as “The allocation of scarce resource that have alternative uses.” If there is a limited supply of copper and there is a demand for electrical wire at company A and a demand for copper kettles at company B, whichever demand is greater is where the scarce resource will be allocated towards. There is only so much of the commodity to go around so where the highest demand is, there the copper will be supplied.
This can be applied to individual lives as well.
The most scarce resource we all have in common is time. We all get 24 hours in a day and need to allocate that scarce resource which has alternative uses. I am writing at this moment; time is being spent sitting in a chair typing thoughts. This same time has other uses: feeding chickens, reading for my master’s class, writing a story, cleaning the house, watching Youtube, praying, reading a book, etc. There are near unlimited alternative uses of this scarce resource of my time, much more than there are uses for copper. I have determined, by some metric hidden to me, that this is the best allocation of my time.
How do I determine which demand is the best use of the scarce resource of my time?
We all prioritize our lives based on some metric. I’m sure there are a million and a half motivational speakers and efficiency specialists who have capitalized on this concept. It is not new. Of course it is not new. Men have been reflecting for eons on what to do with this one little life. But it is different when the concept is taken out of the realm of corporate structure of value added and applied to my life. It makes me question by what metric I am determining the best allocation of this scarce resource which has alternative uses.
As I have been reading the book of Ecclesiastes, I have realized the entire book is about this concept. What to do with the time we are given? Solomon was one of the most blessed humans who ever walked the face of this rock. With nearly unlimited resources at his disposal, he sets his mind to see what is worth doing with his time “under the sun”. He tries money, women, wisdom, decadence, power – he kept from himself no pleasure. The entire book is shot through with striving after meaning and purpose, with time presiding over all the decisions like an austere judge.
So how do you determine how to allocate the scarce resource of your time? If it’s not monetary gain, (and I think we can both agree that it ought not be) what is it?
In economics the valuation for how to allocate scarce resources is determined by the supplier. In the above example, that would be the copper miner. He (or she!) choses to allocated the scarce resource of copper to whomever is willing to pay the highest premium for it. His metric is money.
If we are to continue the analogy, who is the supplier of time? It’s not me. As Jesus said I cannot add one minute to my life. My creation and expiration dates are already determined. It seems as though God, the supplier of time, is the one who determines how it ought to be allocated. We are the middle man corporation who use the scarce resource and allocate it to where the greatest demand is based on the metric given by the Supplier. So what value does God use to determine how we allocate the resource he supplies?
The Westminster catechism answers this question: The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. John Piper tweeks this sentence, for the better in my opinion, and clarifies it by saying the chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying him forever. God’s metric is joy.
Joy is the metric by which we determine how to allocate the scarce resource of our time. What will bring me the most joy? Understood correctly, when the Holy Spirit dwells inside us this question will be in line with what glorifies God. As CS Lewis said, “Joy is the serious business of heaven.” We ought to allocate our time by the metric of what will bring us the most God honoring joy.
This can sound like a cop out. It gives no specific direction of if you should watch a movie or play with your kids or have a beer with your buddies. The temptation is to think we came right around to where we started with not knowing how to allocate our time. But I think this would be wrong.
What it does is change the source of the scarce resource from ourselves to God, and clarify the metric God uses for how we ought to allocate.
Will we enjoy God with our time and honor Him, or squander it on lesser joys?
Thought Butter 