Have you ever felt something you did was a waste of time? Of course you have! We all have.

Have you ever asked yourself why you felt it was a waste of time? In other words, what makes some activities time-wasters and other activities a good use of time? This is a very hard question to answer. Let’s consider some possible causes that make activities time-wasters:

1. Tediousness. Slow, monotonous busywork is generally less than enjoyable. However, there are definitely tedious activities I do that, though perhaps unpleasant while doing them, I feel are very worthwhile and necessary, such as cleaning bathrooms or doing homework.
2. Discomfort. Some activities and work cause pain or physical irritation, from repetitive stress syndrome when typing on my blog and playing musical instruments to a sore back when removing the leaves on the pool cover. Again, though, I tend to view these tasks as productive, despite some of the aches and pains they might cause.
3. Awkwardness. Not fitting in at social events and feeling uncomfortable in certain environments can seem like a poor use of time. However, the only way to develop ourselves oftentimes is to venture into what initially can be awkward encounters and situations, though over time these can become comfortable and even commonplace.
4. Superfluity. Some thing are not necessary for our existence and may seem like unnecessary luxuries. This could include music, sports, games, and various forms of entertainment. However, is the essence of life just about survival? The ability to be creative and not just follow animal survival instincts is what makes us human.
5. Amusement. Not using our minds, but crowding them out with distractions such as videos, iPods, and cell phones, could definitely be construed as a less than ideal use of time. However, consider the power these tools possess to share knowledge and build relationships.
6. Nothingness. Meditation, sleep, and other forms of inactivity can seem like ultimate time wasters and something to be limited as much as possible. However, if not for the intrinsic benefits they can bring, such as inner peace and a connection to the universe, they definitely indirectly affect the quality of our time and productivity of other activities.
7. Triviality. Babysitting kids, cleaning the house, and mowing the lawn are all mundane activities. However, unless you plan on employing several personal slaves, you will have your fair share of necessary inglorious tasks.

None of these categories seem to work in describing what we deem ‘wasting time.’ So let me suggest something different. Instead of trying to objectively categorize activities as being productive or being a waste of time, I propose we view this subjectively. For me, anything that aligns with my paradigm of Living in Appointed Times by Faith is profitable, and anything that does not align, however objectively viewed to be good, is in reality a waste of time.

Thus, when I am actively following my preset paradigm of what to do, say, and think during scientific appointed times, I am using my time to the fullest. During the philosophical appointed times, it is impossible to waste time, since I am not living for anything. If you embrace this concept, you can leave the fear of wasting time behind and move into a more conscious existence.

Faith is defined in various ways. The workable definition I use most often is that of applying yourself 100% to the task at hand even when you don’t “feel” it.

Now, don’t psyche yourself out and try to give more than 100%. This is technically impossible. However, even if you could “do” this, it would really only mean you were deceived or are currently deceiving yourself as to your true ability. Live consciously.

Live in the present and never in the future. Find out what task you should be or want to be engaged in now and give your whole attention to that. This may at times be planning for the future, but even this action is done consciously IN THE PRESENT.

Faith is usually displayed most prominently during the scientific times. This is when you have to believe in yourself and the rationality that went into making a paradigm for you to follow. However, faith is also employed during philosophical appointed times. It can be tempting during slow portions of these to switch back to an accomplishment mindset instead of really living in the moment.

Don’t operate on feelings. View them as the natural outworking of your thoughts, habits, and purposes. A tree does not strain to produce fruit; it “strains” to find sources of water and take in sunlight and the fruit comes automatically. The quality of the fruit it produces is determined by how much nutrients it gets from water, soil, and sunlight. The same is true with our feelings.

So, focus on living based upon your will and not your emotions. This will give you conscious fulfillment even if full emotional fulfillment lags behind. When in time your feelings tag along for the ride, this is just icing on the cake.

Remember that this is not just following a plan; it is giving yourself 100% to that plan. For example, suppose you want to do three things today: clean a room, research a topic, and write a paper. You don’t really feel like doing any of these, but know that you should, so you go ahead and do them anyway. However, the whole time you are engaged in these activities, you are thinking about how pleasurable it will be when you are done, how good dinner will taste, or just random thoughts. This is not faith. You are not believing these tasks can really bring you fulfillment in any sense, now or later.

Instead, admit to yourself that you don’t feel like doing these things. Tell your feelings to sit in the back seat. Put your consciousness at the steering wheel. Smile. Engage your mind on the activity at hand. As Colossians 3:23 states, “Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.” Exercise faith!

I must have stumbled into some poison ivy while wearing my invisible shoes. All I know is that my feet have turned into two big itch zones. This is incredibly annoying, but is great practice for living consciously and not following every urge to itch.

I have not been doing very well on controlling impulse itching, so this blog will be my reminder and motivation. I am planning on not itching them any more for the rest of this scientific appointed time (see Living in Appointed Times by Faith).

Here are some lessons I’ve learned along the way:

1. Giving in to an itch feels so good the split-second that you start doing it, but then the itch just gets worse, pulling you to itch again, and the gruesome cycle continues.
2. The sensation to itch will pass if you just ignore it and think upon something else.
3. The feeling of accomplishment after you deny the sensation to itch and the urge goes away is empowering and worth the temporary struggle.

This principle of denying the itch parallels so many other areas in my life, such as the urge to check email, the urge to eat quickly, and the urge to be amused. If finding the power to deny itches in your life is important to you, consider reading this article by one of my blogger heroes, Leo Babauta.

Oftentimes, when I mess up or do something stupid, the hardest person to get forgiveness from is myself. If I have offended someone else, I usually can confess to them and receive release. If I offend the Almighty, I can trust in the promise of I John 1:7 that if I simply focus on living correctly in the present moment, the past is forgiven. However, in both of these circumstances and in those where the only person I let down is myself, there are times where I struggle and struggle to get over my failure. I tend to replay it over and over in my mind and allow my psyche to tell me that I am insignificant, stupid, or clumsy. I have learned to do three things in these situations:

1. Realize that my sense of worth and value comes from living according to my paradigm in this present moment, not one day ago, one hour ago, one minute ago, or even one second ago.
2. Realize that by succumbing to discouragement I am not helping my failure, but only enlarging and worsening it.
3. Choose to forget the past by actively thinking positive thoughts and doing immediately what I should be doing in this present moment (which is not moaning over failure).

As you move into action and leave the paralyzation of failure behind, remember to breathe, have faith in yourself, and enjoy life!

As promised in the last post, I will give some of the background for developing the concept of living in appointed times by faith. For starters, when I was younger, although I did have my fair share of deep thoughts, I never really developed any of them, and so most went to waste. I wasn’t really living for anything, per se. I enjoyed games and reading novels, but of course this was not what I was living for (even if I was passionate about them frequently). I mostly just wanted to be normal, safe, and get as much entertainment as I could while being respectable.

In the Summer of 2008 I attended a Journey to the Heart, which is basically a Christian retreat sponsored by the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP). The focus of this journey was on discovering your true self – your heart. While there, I discovered the extreme shallowness of what I called my heart beliefs and convictions; I confessed to a lot of failures in my own life and asked forgiveness of many people I had offended. I returned from this experience a changed person, incredibly more focused on what I wanted to achieve and maintain in my life. I had a new sense of freedom and drive and did not want to lose that to the daily grind of life again. I maintained this new level of consciousness I had achieved fairly consistently over the next few years. However, though I did develop greater awareness, I was still limited by the world in which I had grown up, and the presuppositions that I had never challenged.

Over Thanksgiving break of 2010, I started having symptoms of tendonitis and carpal tunnel. The following summer I underwent massive physical therapy to try and correct the postural compromises I had allowed over the years that had led to the condition in which I found myself. During this time, I was forced to lay off practicing violin and piano almost entirely, something I usually did 6-8 hours every day during summers. This gave me an enormous amount of time to think. I questioned whether I would ever be able to play music again, whether I would have to change my whole career focus, which had been pretty stable up to that point. I had goals of getting a Ph.D. in Violin Performance and teaching violin at the university level. I questioned my purpose in life and started making existential inquiries. I even doubted my assurance of what I viewed as my salvation in the Christ of the Bible. This is something I had done constantly when I was younger, but had not even thought about the last couple of years since attending the Journey to the Heart.

I came out of this experience with a new desire, not just for genuineness but for truth. Old ideas, beliefs, and traditions did not impress me any more. My philosophical roller-coaster ride only increased when I decided in January not to finish my degree that semester, as my condition, though improved in the fall, had gotten worse over the holidays. This decision was made just days prior to when I would have started classes. In April of that year (2012) I underwent carpal tunnel surgery after having a battery of tests. The entire first quarter of that year I again had massive time to think and rehash some of the questions that had plagued me the past summer. I decided to really find and commit myself to a definite purpose so I had something to live for, since the things I had given my heart and time to in the past (my music especially) seemed to be taken away from me. I started to intensely study Scripture, because though I had “believed” in my mind since I was a child that the Bible had all the answers for the problems humans face in life, I had never truly entertained this belief in my heart; it had only been an intellectual exercise.

This desire for meaning and value led me to literally apply every Scriptural commandment, instruction, and even proverb that I could. I had been exposed to the possibility that YHVH’s torah (the commandments found in the first five books of the Bible) was valid for today and dove into keeping that passionately. I stopped eating unclean meat, and then meat in general, started fervently observing weekly and annual sabbath days, starting wearing tzitzit (tassels), bought a shofar, and devoted more and more of my time to studying this portion of Scripture especially. In December of 2012 I graduated with my Bachelor’s of Music in Orchestral Instrument Performance. I employed myself in submitting an application for graduate school, but my heart was not in that at all. I had become infatuated with the Biblical thought that my body was the temple of the Holy Spirit. This lead me on a path to what I believed was total health. I almost overnight went from a semi-regular diet to eating all raw foods, fasting a couple days per week, making fruit and vegetable juices, and eschewing any “unnatural” hair or body products.

In February of 2013, I started what I believed to be the ultimate in physical cleansing – a 40-day water-only fast. One of my brothers and a friend of mine had recently completed such a fast just a month before. I hooked up with someone I knew only through my brother and traveled out to New Mexico for this exciting experiment in body purification. I kept a detailed blog during the entire nearly-six-week period. Some day I hope to summarize and post some of the amazing experiences and discoveries I had during this memorable time, but I will save that for a future post. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) for me, I developed a bowel obstruction shortly after breaking the fast, and underwent emergency intestinal surgery to correct the problem. I stayed in the hospital for about a week and then was home for about 2 months recovering from my surgery and utilizing feeding tubes for all my nutrition since I was still unable to pass food through my stomach to my intestines. This was the worst time in my life, and probably will remain so for a long time. I am thankful to be alive and healthy now, except for the scars.

The world I had imagined and built up for myself completely crumbled to the ground during this humiliating time. I tried to find something to hold on to but everything seemed like an illusion. I went through a period of deep depression for several months, but finally emerged with a new, powerful, albeit simple paradigm for my existence. This was developed through 3 key passages of Scripture as well as tidbits of self-help blogs I had begun to read. The first Bible passage was Ecclesiastes 3:1 in The Scriptures which states, “For every matter there is an appointed time, even a time for every pursuit under the heavens.” The next two passages are from the Restored Name King James Version. Exodus 20:8-11 states, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.  (9)  Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:  (10)  But the seventh day is the sabbath of YHVH thy Elohim: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:  (11)  For in six days YHVH made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore YHVH blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Galatians 6:9 states, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” These passages, some insight from the blog zenhabits.net, and much thought later, I developed my paradigm of ‘Living in Appointed Times by Faith.’

Ever since I began using this paradigm toward the end of Summer 2013, I cannot imagine living without it! It has changed my world significantly for the better and is inherently sustainable.

In the previous two posts, I went over what it means to live in appointed times. I will briefly review. There are two primary aspects of existence in which human beings function: the scientific and the philosophical. The scientific is planned and purposeful. The philosophical is unplanned and purposeless. The way to experience the most conscious growth is to keep these two modes of existence separated but in a symbiotic relationship with each-other such that, though they never intersect, they are constantly providing revelation and direction to the other. In this post, I want to talk about what faith is and how it plays a role in all of this. However, before I do that, let me clear up one detail. What should be the ratio of scientific time to philosophical time? There is no right answer and I encourage the reader to experiment on their own to see what works best for them. I believe keeping it in the context of a 7-day week works well. I also believe there should be more scientific time than philosophical time, since in order to test the philosophical conclusions, there has to be adequate time to experience them in the scientific appointed times. This leaves three options for the ratio of scientific time to philosophical time in days per week: 6-1, 5-2, and 4-3. Of these, I choose 6-1, meaning six days of the week are put into the scientific appointed time and one day of the week is put into the philosophical appointed time.

Moving on, I want to comment on the last aspect of this paradigm: faith. Faith is defined and expressed in a variety of ways. Some view faith as a blind leap in the dark. Some look at faith as a firm conviction that something is true based on logic and evidence. For my purposes, I will define faith as ‘belief that one’s conscious paradigm will in time produce personal fulfillment, even if at the present moment they are not experiencing it.’ During the scientific modes of time especially, there will be a tendency to get disheartened or weary with activities that seem hard and unrewarding. One must believe that these activities which were decided upon beforehand will bring the highest level of fulfillment if followed and accomplished. This includes things such as healthy eating, exercising, avoiding movies and novels, and studying. Thus, faith is used to guard against two pitfalls. The first pitfall is emotionalism: wanting pleasure and wanting it now. Faith helps as get to the point where we can have conscious pleasure in following our paradigm, even if we don’t have emotional fulfillment yet. The second pitfall is doing things by rote, without even thinking it possible to attain emotional fulfillment. This pitfall is just as bad, because it robs us of experiencing a real measure of joy in the present via faith, and it also is usually detrimental to really 100% applying oneself to something, thus lessening the chances of future satisfaction.

You may need to reread the last few posts a couple times to really start understanding the whole concept of this empowering paradigm about living in appointed times by faith. For me, this has probably been the most important concept that I have ever discovered. One reason of this is because it is solely my paradigm; I did not copy it from anyone else, though certainly various ideas and people played a large role in my formulation of it. In the next post, I will give credence to some of the sources that influenced the construction of this paradigm and also give some background on the circumstances that led me to thinking about this concept.