It occurred to me today that we must all sound like a bunch of bumbling idiots.

I was working in one of the buildings in my school district the other day, fixing a problem that needed to be fixed, when I heard a person complaining about the financial situation in our school district and how bad they believe it to be. Now, mind you, this person also happens to be one of the most gravely irresponsible printers in our entire school district. This person is responsible, single-handedly, for killing entire trees worth of paper THIS YEAR ALONE.

Which got me to thinking.

How often is it the case that we wish we had something that we used to have? How often is it the case that we wish we had something that we might still have, even now, were it not for the fact that we suck at managing our resources? How often is it the case that a group of people –lacking in resources– is lacking in such a way because of the wasteful behavior of others in that same organization?

How often does our complaining just sound like hypocritical whining to the people who know us the best?

So, let’s get started.

* * *

Sometimes, I feel like –at my house– it’s feast or famine. When the ship comes in, and everything is coming up roses, I can’t help but have a smile on my face. But, when we’re struggling to get from day to day, and it seems like it’s one hit after another after another, it’s just so hard to get up off the mat one more time.

Why is it that I got my family’s tax return back a couple of days ago and I feel like it’s burning a whole in my pocket? At how many points, between now and next year –around this time– when I get my next tax return back, will I feel like, “Man, I wish I still had some of that tax return money laying around?”

Now, don’t get me wrong, my family and I are doing just fine. We are blessed beyond measure, and I have never had any real reason to complain, for all of the joys that have been placed in my life. I’ve got three beautiful children and an amazing wife. My parents love me and support me. I live in a wonderful town, and I have an amazing job that I enjoy. But this post isn’t about all that.

Rather, what puts in the position, down the road, where we end up in situations, wishing that we had what we used to have? They say that you don’t know what you have until it’s gone, but I just can’t believe that we’re all so stupid, that we can’t plan for a future when we are going to need to be able to use what we have in our possession in this moment, down the road.

It’s like when I throw out the pile of parts at work, the pile of parts that I’ve been holding onto for years, convinced that someone is going to want/need those one day. Then someone comes by –two days later– and asks for the parts that I threw out. All that time and no one wanted them, so I got rid of them, and now there’s an inkling of interest.

SMH!

Or, are we just so blind that we can’t see the pattern repeating itself, over and over again.

* * *

Time is the worst one, isn’t it? Don’t you wish you had some of that time back? Where did it go?

Of all of the things that we wish that we had, things that we don’t have anymore, time is probably more commonly lamented than money, don’t you think?

I catch myself doing this in my own life and it irks me that I could be so annoyingly fickle. I catch my own children doing it, too, and I know that they do it because they watched me doing it and now the poison spreads.

WE NEED TO STOP WASTING TIME.

This issue of wasting time, while I’ve made some comparisons between it and the myriad different ways that we waste money in our world, might seem to be similar, but it occurs to me that at least one significant difference exists. There aren’t nearly as many effective ways for banking time as there are for banking money.

What are you doing with your time? Good things? Productive things? Are you getting some relaxation in there? Time with your loved ones? Do you imagine that you are using your time well?

Do you ever finding yourself wishing that you had more time?

Ladies and gentlemen, you can’t fill a tire with a hole in it. Can’t be done. If your attempts at doing this look something like: I’ll waste less time playing video games so I’ll have more time to spend with my kids, but then your Facebook time doubles in size, then you’re trying to fill a tire with a hole in it, or rather, your tire has multiple holes in it, and patching one of those holes isn’t going to do a darn thing about the other holes.

* * *

A coworker of mine shared with me a quote from Elisabeth Elliot today. If you’ve never heard of Elisabeth Elliot, she’s a published author (wish I could say that) who also happens to have quite the story to tell, pertinent to this topic of discussion. Mrs. Elliot’s husband was a missionary to Ecuador. During his attempts to reach a certain tribe of people, they murdered him.

So, what did Mrs. Elliot do?

She continued her husband’s work, spending time reaching out to the very individuals responsible for her husband’s death.

The quote that this coworker gave to me to read discussed the daily choices that we make to count blessings or count burdens, and how that daily practice becomes a pattern in our lives. I certainly think that, often times, people complain when they just don’t have the force of will to think of something better to say.

But, what impresses me even further about Elisabeth Elliot was that she certainly didn’t seem to be the kind of person to waste something in the hear-and-now, only to end up wanting it somewhere down the road. I can’t imagine that I would have been strong enough to be able to do what she did in the face of her husband’s sudden death.

And, while I can’t live her life, I can live mine.

And you should live yours.

So, see if you can’t stop wasting what it is that you’ve been given. Try doing something better with it.