I have long had a fascination with time, but recently I’ve wondered if I, as a Christian, should reconsider my perception of time when it comes to tasks & setting up a business.
I’ve always been early to events. “To be on time is to be late. To be early is to be on time” is my axiom when it comes to arriving at destinations, working, getting tasks done (*chuckle* when I want). Recently, I’ve re-examined the concept of time from a Christian perspective and wondered, “If I’m supposed to have a Kingdom mindset, shouldn’t the way I perceive time change?”
The two sides of time
Every one of us has an understanding of time. Days, weeks, hours, minutes, years,..you get the idea. Growing up, I was always taught that to be successful, you have to manage your time, which was usually a prodding from those closest to me not to waste my time or others. Indeed, I see time as a precious commodity. Money lost can be regained, but time, not so much. When I got saved and started reading the Bible, time was mentioned a lot, but in a different way.
When the world references time, the tasks are fitted within compartments comprised of seconds, minutes, hours, days, etc., but with God, it’s different. God does mention hours, days, weeks, months, seasons, and years, but they are only meant – in many cases – to reference a period in which a task or event is started and/or complete.
In other words, tasks and events are to be measured when they are complete – no compartments allowed. “Jacob’s week” would go on to mean 7 years. “Healed within the hour” could mean anything from a literal hour to many hours. To be sure, God uses time in an exact fashion, but it usually means that it took “x” amount of time for a task to be complete (captivity periods, completion of the arc, the Tribulation period – Jacob’s week).
Man’s (humanity’s) time & God’s Time are two very different things, so why do we, as Christians, try to fit within a world system?
My YouTube videos
Close to a year ago, I wanted to make a beginner’s guide to TikTok. I wanted to make the videos for the purposes of teaching others and to make money. I’ve done these types of projects before, but on this one, I wanted to do things differently. What I later found out is that I was working from the correct mindset of God’s Time and not the world system. I took my time in planning my videos, got my resources together, did research on titles, descriptions, thumbnails, tags/hashtags, and the like. I took my time and didn’t give myself a deadline. When I completed the videos, I uploaded them and forgot all about them. Several months later, I took a look at my TikTok tutorials and several of the videos have quite a few views and were making me money.
I learned a lesson that I’m now applying toward all of my future creative, money-making endeavors. I’m passing this along to you, so run with it.
What I will do is find things that fulfill the 4 qualifiers (this pertains to anything related to making money)
- Does the thing I want to pursue make money for anyone else – is there a market?
- Does the thing I want to pursue have an acceptable level of competitors – ideally low competition?
- Does the thing I want to pursue long-lasting – an “evergreen” idea?
- Does the thing I want to pursue a task-oriented project or a time-oriented project?
I’ve done other projects from these four mindsets in my past and they’ve always yielded fantastic results. It wasn’t until God illuminated in me these basic concepts in His Kingdom living that I now have access to through His Son, Jesus Christ. To Him, I give all glory.
