18 months since changing the world as we knew it, packing up our Sandton apartment and lifestyle, and moving to live on a farm 30km's south of Joburg, I find myself wondering... What's really new, and is life all that different? I mean, after all, we didn't emigrate (although as one of my friends from the north used to say, anything beyond the Joburg ringroad requires a passport!).
We still eat 3 square meals a day, put petrol in the car, go on holidays (sort of), need to consider the education of our children, pay the bills, and go to church. Nothing new here. So what is new? Well, if i'm honest, a couple things do come to mind, but for the purposes of this blog, there's one thing in particular that warrants a mention.
I would have to say, that of all the things that have changed, this one has probably had the single biggest overall impact on my life. Simply put, my understanding and experience of time, has forever changed, and forever changed me...
Have you ever wondered what the common and defining denominator of every created thing is? In other words what is the single thing that applies to everything? I'll tell you... Time. Here's an example... The sun. Yes, it's big, hot and yellow, but so is a bonfire. What makes the sun unique, is that it's 8.5 light minutes away from earth, and releases the equivalent of 1 million atomic bombs worth of energy every second. Without time, there is no way to measure distance, and no way to measure output!
Essentially the same is true for me and you. Without time, it is difficult to really tell us apart. Sure, we might look, sound and act differently, but isn't it time that truly makes us unique? For example; Time = life = experience. Time = choice = consequences. Time = space = place. Time you see, and specifically what we do with it, is the real defining factor of our lives.
Allow me to share how powerful this truth has been in my life. When we moved to the farm, I promised myself that I would not go back to working a 50 hour week. I promised myself that those things that I verbally subscribed to carrying weight in my life, would actually start to carry weight in my life. My hypocritical days needed to end, and the only thing that stood between me and making this happen, was good old father time.
And so, with a very deep breath, and the inaudible voice of God (I think Moses really had it easy sometimes), I decided to work a 4 day week, and use the fifth day, a Friday, as a day of rest... A Sabbath. Anyway, that was 18 months ago, and fast fwd today, I can honestly say, without a shadow of doubt, that it has been the single greatest influencing factor in my 'new' life. So much so, that I actually joke about my 'previous' life lived in Sandton!
Now, just before I get shot for heresy by my Christian mates, for mistakenly subscribing my salvation to Father time, as opposed to Father God, allow me to elaborate using my previous equations;
- Time = life = experience...
- I have experienced a freedom on Friday's that I never knew existed. A freedom to allow my only responsibility to be to God. This sounds mad, but I assure you, it is life. To make space to hear from and spend time with my creator, has provided me with a perspective I never had before...
- We've all seen the Truman Show or at least the Matrix right... You know the plot... Where what you see is actually not reality, and that what you think is life, is instead simply a make believe existence. Or put another way, how our identity and security is so closely linked to working, instead of being able to find our identity and security in the one who made us, and has promised to provide for us...
- Now don't hear what i'm not saying. I'm not advocating a #workmustfall campaign, because work is beautiful in the sense that we invent, and serve, and cure, and teach, and provide, but it's just a piece of the puzzle. In our post-modern, matrix world, I think we believe (because that's what we give all our time to) that work is the cure and the puzzle!
- Time = choice = consequence...
- The immediate consequence of living a 4 day work week (within a no work = no pay context) is a 20% cut in household income. Sound impossible? Not really, but it does require a redefinition of priorities, and a measure of faith.
- In our case, we took the plunge, and moved outside of the suburbs, where for one, life is cheaper, and you can do more yourself. Included here below, are a couple of budget eating line items we addressed, mostly because of our new environment...
- No dstv (but that's cheating because we don't have a tv!) (but yes, we do have youtube!)
- No private schooling (we home school, and you need space for that)
- No big bond (actually no bond at all) - we’ve elected to rent for availability and flexibility purposes
- No RA / pension and I (not the family) have no medical insurance (I do however have life insurance (while the kids are in school) and 3 kids saving / education policies).
- We grow some vegetables and eat pap
- We still have a nanny, but that's more about job creation & upliftment than domestic help, although Thembi is a great help, but also part of the family!
- All of the above is rounded off with a very efficient budget, run by my wife (incorporating life threatening sms's if i go over budget on my entertainment, blessing (not blesser!), petrol, etc.)
- And in the end, we still manage to give away 15% of our monthly income to advancing God’s Kingdom
- Time = space = place...
- So what does making space for a 3 day weekend (as some of my mates refer to it) offer? Well one thing's for sure, I find myself in some very different places, doing some very different things (to my previous life). Things that I actually love to do, and truly feed my soul / spirit.
- What things are these you might ask? Well, as much as watching a rugby game with my mates on a Saturday is a joy, or playing cops and robbers with the boys is a laugh, or thinking up new business ideas is inspiring, you get the picture. As much as these are wonderful things, and God given gifts, they simply don't feed my soul / spirit.
- So then, what does? Well, here is a list of the 5 things that take up the majority of my Friday's, mostly...
- Having time to walk and pray in the farmlands where I stay
- Having time to drink coffee and talk life with friends and strangers and least once a week
- Having time to think about and plan how to love people better - and then actually doing it!
- Having time to read and watch things that inspire me, teach me, and change me...
- Having time to scrap the daily diary, and let God fill my diary instead (if ever I write a book by the way, i think I'll call it 'God wants to be your PA' (now I really am going to be excommunicated!)
My parting thought on this issue of time / rest, finds its roots in the downtime I spend with the boys on the couch each evening after dinner. It's here that we fill our minds with books written about people and places that really understand and know the value of time... Where life is always lived with a purpose and vision beyond the here and now, and the decisions made are filtered outside of the matrix. Sound like lah lah land?
Well, in these books the places are called Narnia (by CS lewis) and Arenthrea (by Chuck Black), and they're only really accessible by the minds of children, because the main characters are talking lions and wicked witches, knights of the Prince, and shadow warriors. And in their worlds, good and evil are easy to see and understand, and the consequences of allegiances made immediately felt and measured.
Interestingly enough, what you will never find in these worlds, and their associated story lines, are uneventful, boring and safe existences. The stakes are always high, but so are the rewards, and life is one adventure after the next. Of course the boys love it, and believe it all. I love it, but struggle to believe it, even though somewhere inside of me (and you), we know it's true! I know that so much of what I see with the eyes in my head, and process with my well conditioned mind, is inconsequential and temporal. And so much of what I am supposed to see with the eyes of my heart, and process with the mind of a child, is worthy and eternal.
"Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” '
- Luke 18v15-17
Take the red pill!
Long live Aslan!
Long live the Prince!
