Travis Kolder

When I was in college, it was normal to stay up late. People stayed up late partying, studying, playing practical jokes, and all sorts of other things. So it was natural for me as I was following Jesus and reaching out to college kids for my nights to be late. Ministry happened at weird hours.

Then I moved to Kansas City. Remember that I moved to Kansas City to go to a Bible college that was part of a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week house of prayer that has been going non-stop since 1999. That means you could (and still can) walk in at 3 A.M. Christmas morning and there would be people there singing their hearts out or praying over the city.

The culture of a place like that changes you. You loose a little of your American preoccupation with holidays as you watch people you know faithfully interceeding for the end of abortion on Labor Day. When you commit to one thing being important above all else, even your American break in the calendar, you begin to see how much time you’ve truly built in for yourself in your calendar.

While we were in Kansas City we joined a house church network where the leader continually emphasized that the Kingdom of God is 24/7/365. And we tried our best to live that out. We led early morning prayer meetings for the house churches that forced us to get out of bed, trek to the agreed upon spot, and then pray for an hour or better. We connected relationaly all the time and any time. We agreed that if there were sacred times and spaces it was because every time was a sacred time and everywhere was sacred space. The type of community we were aiming for didn’t allow for closed off spaces in our calendar.

The same has been true for our house church network in Iowa. We certainly have borrowed from certain elements of these communities. Our house church has a prayer meeting that starts way before sane human beings should be up. I just finished with a meeting of some folks from each of the house churches and it ended at 11:30 P.M.

But I don’t say this to brag. I tell you all of this to say God’s Kingdom touches every area of our lives. Sometimes we like to think when God becomes King of our lives, He leaves alone certain areas of our lives like the schedule or the budget. But when God comes as King He wants everything. And because we are incredibly busy Americans, many times that will mean we need to make adjustments to our calendars so we can do the things He’s calling us to do.

There are verses that talk about using your time wisely. But instead of quoting those, I’ll leave you with this:

If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.

-Matthew 16:25

How we use our time is a reflection of whether our life is surrendered to the Lord or not. How we spend our minutes, hours, and days determines how we spend our years. We can use them for ourselves—”me time,” excessive entertainment, etc.—or we can lose our life by giving of our time for the things that are truly most important. This will include time for prayer and reading the word, but also meeting with others, discipling them, and serving them.

How are you using your time for the Lord?

“…making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.”

-Ephesians 5:16