“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Psalm 90:12, NIV

The world is full of distractions. Distractions that keep us from living a healthy life (spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically, and socially). Distractions that take time away from our families and meaningful relationships. Distractions that keep us running at full speed, nonstop, and still not getting where we need to go.

If we aren’t careful, we’ll look back one day and realize how quickly our lives have passed us by. That will not be the time to evaluate our life purpose and why God has placed us on this earth. That time is now.

The Audit

“Your time is your life. Period. How you spend it ends up being what your life is.”
~Dr. Henry Cloud, The One‐Life Solution 1

We are all placed on this earth for a purpose. God has a mission for us and He has placed a longing in our hearts (Ps. 37:4) to fulfill that specific mission. Until we are working towards His goals, we won’t find true, meaningful fulfillment in this life.

It takes awareness to attain your life purpose. This awareness involves knowing that our days on earth are short (compared to eternity), so they must be used wisely. You must also know what God’s calling on your life is and be aware of how you are spending your time in order to track your progress towards satisfying that calling.

Dr. Henry Cloud, in his book The One‐Life Solution1, suggests doing a “time and purpose audit” to reveal how you are using your time (especially regarding the attainment of your life purpose and goals). This will help ensure that you are getting the results you desire (and God desires!) in connection with the effort you are putting forth. He says “results are a function of how [we] spend [our] time” and the only way to get good results is to live carefully and intentionally. He goes on to say “…people do not take enough time to look at themselves and their use of time to find out what their patterns and issues are that are causing them to not use their time wisely. And that is the purpose of what I call the ‘audit’.”

This audit includes three parts:

1. An awareness of where you spend your time.
– Keep a log for a few weeks and track your time in 30 minute intervals. (Include your “work life” and your “personal life” in the same audit.)
– Evaluate the patterns you see.

2. An awareness of your values, life mission/purpose, spiritual giftedness, and the connections and disconnections between how you spend your time and accomplishing these goals.
– Write out your life goals. These should be measurable and be given a specific time line.
– Analyze your time log for “the why and the how” of any time that is not on target with your life goals.

3. An awareness of personal habits that are contributing to you not attaining your life goals.
– Discuss with an accountability partner the behaviors you see and come up with some rules for yourself on how to change bad behaviors.
– Don’t let the discrepancies between your life purpose and distractions that eat up your time continue.
– Keep working on changing any bad habits you find until you don’t need to anymore. Dr. Cloud compares learning discipline to riding a bike with training wheels. When you reach the point of knowing how to balance without the training wheels, you don’t need them anymore.

Doing an audit will help you discover areas of your life that lack structure, accountability, and are off target from your purpose in life. Too many times people who live in a fast‐paced culture are overtaken by subtle distractions and before long, they realize they are off track from reaching their life goals. As Dr. Cloud says, “There is usually going to be a direct relationship between how well something is going and the amount of focused time and energy it is getting.”

Our Response

“But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing,
drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.”
Luke 21:34, NKJV

Discipline. Diligence. Perseverance. Faithfulness. Making the most of each opportunity. These are the character traits and structure that God desires for His children to live by. These traits require an awareness of how we are spending our time. Once you’ve done an audit of your life, and you get on track for living for His purposes, you will find great fulfillment in life. It’s not easy to stay the course but the reward is worth it (Prov 21:5)!

Take a look at these verses that support the concept of auditing how you are spending your life. Which of these concepts do you need to work on in your life?

  • Make the most of your time on earth – Ephesians 5:15‐17
  • Know that your time on earth is fleeting and “but a breath” – Psalm 39:4‐5, NIV
  • You are just a vapor and you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow – James 4:13‐17
  • Dedicate your life to God’s service – Romans 12:1‐2
  • Don’t neglect your spiritual gift – I Timothy 4:14‐16
  • Be diligent and don’t be slow to make progress (being sluggish) – Hebrews 6:11‐12
  • Make the most of opportunities to witness to nonbelievers – Colossians 4:5‐6
  • Be ready for the second coming of our Lord – Luke 21:34; Matthew 24:42

There are many things in this world that are good, when evaluated on their own. However, when compared to other activities they may not be the best investments of your time. As the saying goes, “Good. Better. Best. Never let it rest, until the good is better and the better is the best.”

1The One‐Life Solution written by Dr. Henry Cloud and published by Harper Collins Publishers in 2008.

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