Impact as a Single - "Know Your Assets and How to Use Them"

Came across this article, and as always, very timely. :D Thank God so much! Cos was feeling quite low today, as Robert could see when I met him for lunch. Thank God for his sharing, never fail to feel uplifted and refreshed by this dear friend and brother in Christ. :D

'Cos been feeling low 'cos I keep wondering whether what I'm doing - meeting people up - is useful or does it help at all?

I guess the key word is impact. Well, this article talks about it. But yeah, I need to sit back and reflect on what I'm doing - is it impactful? Useful to God? As always, like Dehua pointed out, it's important to not just have a good heart, but also to be wiser so that I can be more effective for God.

Hope this article blesses you! :) I love this part especially: "I am a slacker by temperament, but I've learned to schedule my time so that my slacker tendencies don't eat my life whole. My objective in time management is not to get as much done as possible, but to try to make sure that I end up doing what is best for me to do." Haha... so relevant to people with slacker-temperaments like me!

I believe the most overlooked asset of singleness is flexibility. The average single adult has available to him or her a wonderful mix of time, energy, and resources with which to build a lifestyle overflowing with ministry impact and spiritual growth. Yet so often the choices made by singles rob them of this valuable gift of flexibility. How do we maximize our flexibility?

One key aspect of flexibility is time. A single woman once characterized her singleness as "drowning in time." Have you felt this way? The single life can seem heavy on time, and ways to randomly fill that time are expanding daily. How can our free time become "impact time"? Leland Ryken advises us well: "Time is the arena within which all human quests run their course. It is within time that the issues of life are contested and sometimes resolved. Without making one's peace with time, a person will not solve the question of how to find the good life."

How do we "make our peace with time?" Do you steward your time, including your free time, or do you let outside influences determine how you use it? I am a slacker by temperament, but I've learned to schedule my time so that my slacker tendencies don't eat my life whole. My objective in time management is not to get as much done as possible, but to try to make sure that I end up doing what is best for me to do.

For example, I tend to over-commit my evenings. So, I schedule every one, even if it is simply a "reading night" or an "off night." Then if something comes up, I have some options on how to handle it-it doesn't just infect my schedule like the flu, throwing off everything else in my life until I can regroup. I've also come to recognize how I can blow time (like in front of the tube), so I make a special effort to discipline myself in those areas. (For me, it would be the Net, especially Wikipedia)

I encourage the single folks I know to take regular overnight personal retreats-to break from the routine, be before the Lord, and just assess life. Let me encourage you to do the same. Use those times to set goals for progress, not perfection. Study the scriptural principle of the Sabbath, then apply what you learn. If you do things like this, will every moment become an impact moment? No. But impact will likely emerge "all by itself" from the ordered use of the time you do have.

Your flexibility will also be affected by your approach to work. As a single adult you are highly prized in the employment world for the sheer number of hours that can be sucked out of your life for the sake of the bottom line. Money, perks, travel, "opportunity," and promotions are all used as lures to get single folks to carry the time load no one else seems to want. Don't bite. This is the hook of the world lurking under the bait of career. Whether you work for yourself or for someone else, don't let career or job define you. Work hard, but work as unto the Lord. God is your boss, and in the end his advancement plan is the only one that counts. (That reminds me so much of the NCS job that many people warned me about. Thank God for His warnings and counsel!!!)

Another potential snare is possessions. I knew a Christian single woman who always seemed to be moving from one place to another. Was she an irritable person, unpleasant, hard to live with? No, she just had too much stuff. She always needed a large area in which to store her accumulated possessions, most of which weren't in use and could have easily been replaced if needed. But she had a false sense of security in her possessions. Her stuff had become her treasure, and in a sense she worshiped it. She passed up some great living opportunities because she thought it more important to protect her stuff than to be available for the adventure of God's purpose. As Jesus said, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:21).

The less stuff (car, house, music collections, etc.) we have to manage, the less chance our heart will attach to it, and the greater will be our flexibility for God's purpose. I'm not saying "stuff" is inherently bad, but we must recognize that our sinful nature will always tempt us to worship it.