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Balancing Our Act
Fred Tudor
Balancing Our Act
Romans 13:14 (NLT)-But let the Lord Jesus Christ take control of you, and don’t think of ways to indulge your evil desires.
There are two old sayings that come to mind when the topic of a balanced life is discussed. One saying goes “there is a time to work and a time to play and it is time you learned the difference”. They other is “all work and no play will make Jack a dull boy”. In the sports or academic realm the issue is always balancing work (practice), school and partying / play time. Is it spiritually acceptable to be a “party animal”? Will you be dull and boring if you choose to work overtime on a skill or some academic subject? Is it really that hard to learn time management? There are several parents, teachers and coaches who would love for their student/athletes to be well versed in this skill, but the reality is a great number of our young people don’t have a clue how to balance their life. I apologize, the correct statement should read that there are many, many people young and old who are clueless when it comes to time management. A development of this skill is essential to balancing time, energy and commitments.
What students, coaches and parents all have in common is this belief. They will argue that there is a lack of time needed to complete all their required responsibilities. Student/athletes constantly say that their homework takes too much time after a long practice session. Coaches never have enough time to prepare for the next opponent. Parents need more time after work to spend with their spouse and/or children. What they are really saying is that I don’t have enough time for me. Students/athletes, coaches and parents feel that they deserve more time for their personal relaxation, partying and playtime (the three “P’s”). The reality is that each individual must practice prioritizing and time management. Time is a simple math problem. There are twenty-four hours in each day. Time is actually the only constant and equalizer. Everybody has the same amount of hours each day to divide and manage. Nobody really runs out of time they just mismanage it. Where does each person budget their personal relaxation, party or playtime? Does the commitment to these things fall into the category that our scripture terms evil desires? If I let Jesus Christ control my decisions about time will the three P’s also be controlled by Him?
Let’s break down the day of a student/athlete and try to find the lost minutes/hours that lead to the stress related to not enough hours in the day. We will allow for about seven hours of sleep which is probably generous for most teens and young adults. In a perfect situation young people need eight-ten hours of sleep but probably get closer to six. If you split the difference you get seven. That leaves us with seventeen hours to budget. We will make our sample student/athlete a high school student because college class and practice schedules may vary. The school day is approximately seven hours. Figuring in an hour travel time to and from school, we are down to eight hours left to divide. You can see how time management and balancing your life frequently comes down to a simple math equation. Practice time is about two hours a day. Everyday essentials like eating and pre-school preparation have to be budgeted. We will deduct an hour for each regardless if it takes place in the morning before school or before you go to bed. The remaining time is four hours. Homework and study time must be figured first. That does not mean that your personal relaxation or playtime has to come after your homework. If you are able to “party” for two hours and then get your two hours of work in, it is perfectly fine to play then work. Some nights you may need three hours of homework/study time to be properly prepared for the next day. What can not happen is that you still take two hours of “me” time and cut short what should be work time. Next is the scenario that breaks the back of all balancing acts. Proper preparation requires you to spend all of the remaining time in your schedule on work. OH NO!!!! This particular day you get not even a whiff of any of the three P’s. This is where you need to ask for God’s help in controlling your decisions. The devil would have you to believe that you deserve at least a small amount of three P’s time. The wasted time may appear to be innocent, but it is really an evil desire. On the more obvious side of evil desire is when you are influenced to extend your three P’s time playing video games, on the phone or just hanging out. Those are the easy examples of how student/athletes in particular and people in general “run out of time”. God commands that you rest. That’s what the Sabbath day is set aside for. He encourages personal, party and playtime. He only asks that you balance these P’s with a God controlled work ethic. Let him expose those evil desires that waste precious time and destroys balance.
Fred Tudor
Fred Tudor is a eighteen year employee of the Cincinnati Public Schools as a Health and Physical Education teacher. He has been coaching at the high school level in Greater Cincinnati since graduating from Wittenberg University in 1979. His coaching stints includes stops at his alma mater Walnut Hills High School, Hughes Center High School, and from 1990 until present coaches at Wyoming High School. His church home is Cincinnati Bibleway Church in Madisonville, Apostles James and Grace Blue Pastors.
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