Divine Appointments
How will you “spend” your time in 2026? I’m sure most of us are thinking about and contemplating what the new year will be like. We all probably have plans, goals, hopes, desires and wishes for the new year. In my life, what I've found to be true is I’m good at focusing on certain milestones, dates and vacations when planning. I’m not so good at focusing on daily time management. Let’s face it, time management is a universal challenge. And even though there are dozens of apps for that, it always feels like a losing battle.
The Bible tells us to “redeem the time” (Eph. 5:16) and cautions about “the little foxes that spoil the vines.” (Song of Solomon 2:15). All the little moments throughout the day really impact how we live. How do we manage the “time sucks” that so easily entrap us? The time we don’t redeem that, before we know it, gets away from us and forms unintended habits that lead us into places we never imagined.
I recently came across a Harvard Business Review article about Ryan Serhant entitled, “How to Manage Your Time for Happiness.” Ryan is one of the most successful and well-known real estate brokers in the world. He is also a successful TV and social media personality, entrepreneur and author. He credits much of his success to a strategy he developed called the “1,000-minute rule.” Ryan says everyone is given 24 hours, or 1,440 minutes, in a day. About 440 of those minutes (7.5 hours) are taken up by eating, sleeping, and family time. The remaining 1,000 minutes are the waking time each day anyone can apply to advancing their career and achieving their goals.
Ryan said, “the 1,000-minute rule helps me stay quick in my decision making.”
Being a financial guy, he breaks down the 1,000 minutes as $1000 in your bank of time you get every day. Ryan claims this really brings perspective on how you use your time. For example, you get a bad text message, email or phone call in the morning that lasted 5 minutes and you let that affect the rest of your day. Subsequently the rest of your day is terrible. When you equate that to money, would you really throw away the other $995 because of 5 bucks? Probably not.
Ryan claims this perspective really helps him evaluate his time and his time usage.
I’m not sure I agree entirely with this approach. It seems rather rigid and perhaps grueling. However, I do think it raises a fundamental question we all have to consider: how can I manage and spend my time more wisely this new year?
Here is what I want to suggest as you think in terms of managing your daily time investment. Many of us structure and plan and prepare, which is important and life-giving, yet often unintentionally, we plan God right out of our lives. “There is no room at the inn,” is what Mary and Joseph were told as they were looking for a place to give birth to the Messiah. How often is this our story? There is no room for God in our business schedules.
Jesus taught us a powerful parable in Matthew 24. He reminds us that we need to be alert — for the Spirit of God can materialize in our lives at any moment. He says, “…keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”
This passage is typically interpreted as an encouragement to be alert for Jesus’ Second Coming, which is right. But what if Jesus is also telling us to stay alert for the movement of the Spirit in our lives. If we are not awake and alert, we will miss the Lord’s coming as it comes when we least expect it. In other words, it wrecks our schedules and calendars. I call those moments, “divine appointments.” My friend calls them “God sightings.” Whatever you call it, it’s important to be disciplined with our time, but also to be aware of when God wants to interrupt us and show up in a new way.
God often comes to us when we least expect it — in the smile of a stranger, in the interruption of our schedules, in the unexpected text, in the glorious rainbow or that song on the radio. If we are not awake, we will miss God’s presence in our lives. So, my challenge is to be mindful and present in the moment, leaving room for God’s interruptions in 2026. What if your interrupted schedule is, in fact, what God intended all along?
Remember, “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalm 118:24)
God, in 2026 my prayer is that you would awaken us from our slumber and sleepwalking. Help us to have our eyes and our ears open to what you are doing in our world. Surprise us. Interrupt us. Move powerfully in and through us! Amen.
The Bible tells us to “redeem the time” (Eph. 5:16) and cautions about “the little foxes that spoil the vines.” (Song of Solomon 2:15). All the little moments throughout the day really impact how we live. How do we manage the “time sucks” that so easily entrap us? The time we don’t redeem that, before we know it, gets away from us and forms unintended habits that lead us into places we never imagined.
I recently came across a Harvard Business Review article about Ryan Serhant entitled, “How to Manage Your Time for Happiness.” Ryan is one of the most successful and well-known real estate brokers in the world. He is also a successful TV and social media personality, entrepreneur and author. He credits much of his success to a strategy he developed called the “1,000-minute rule.” Ryan says everyone is given 24 hours, or 1,440 minutes, in a day. About 440 of those minutes (7.5 hours) are taken up by eating, sleeping, and family time. The remaining 1,000 minutes are the waking time each day anyone can apply to advancing their career and achieving their goals.
Ryan said, “the 1,000-minute rule helps me stay quick in my decision making.”
Being a financial guy, he breaks down the 1,000 minutes as $1000 in your bank of time you get every day. Ryan claims this really brings perspective on how you use your time. For example, you get a bad text message, email or phone call in the morning that lasted 5 minutes and you let that affect the rest of your day. Subsequently the rest of your day is terrible. When you equate that to money, would you really throw away the other $995 because of 5 bucks? Probably not.
Ryan claims this perspective really helps him evaluate his time and his time usage.
I’m not sure I agree entirely with this approach. It seems rather rigid and perhaps grueling. However, I do think it raises a fundamental question we all have to consider: how can I manage and spend my time more wisely this new year?
Here is what I want to suggest as you think in terms of managing your daily time investment. Many of us structure and plan and prepare, which is important and life-giving, yet often unintentionally, we plan God right out of our lives. “There is no room at the inn,” is what Mary and Joseph were told as they were looking for a place to give birth to the Messiah. How often is this our story? There is no room for God in our business schedules.
Jesus taught us a powerful parable in Matthew 24. He reminds us that we need to be alert — for the Spirit of God can materialize in our lives at any moment. He says, “…keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”
This passage is typically interpreted as an encouragement to be alert for Jesus’ Second Coming, which is right. But what if Jesus is also telling us to stay alert for the movement of the Spirit in our lives. If we are not awake and alert, we will miss the Lord’s coming as it comes when we least expect it. In other words, it wrecks our schedules and calendars. I call those moments, “divine appointments.” My friend calls them “God sightings.” Whatever you call it, it’s important to be disciplined with our time, but also to be aware of when God wants to interrupt us and show up in a new way.
God often comes to us when we least expect it — in the smile of a stranger, in the interruption of our schedules, in the unexpected text, in the glorious rainbow or that song on the radio. If we are not awake, we will miss God’s presence in our lives. So, my challenge is to be mindful and present in the moment, leaving room for God’s interruptions in 2026. What if your interrupted schedule is, in fact, what God intended all along?
Remember, “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalm 118:24)
God, in 2026 my prayer is that you would awaken us from our slumber and sleepwalking. Help us to have our eyes and our ears open to what you are doing in our world. Surprise us. Interrupt us. Move powerfully in and through us! Amen.
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