In the first installment of this series, I described the slippery slope of having too much and too little to do. But when you’ve found this balance, what do you do with the free time that you have? This is just as perplexing a matter as finding the time to rest. I hope that I can give some insight into making wise decisions.

I think part of our problem of not knowing what to do with our free time lies with our attitude towards that time. We call it “free time,” and that is a very telling name. We view it as time with no commitments, time we can use as we please. Having this attitude of independence, we heed no instruction concerning how we use this time. We defend this “free time” vigorously, doing almost anything to preserve it.

I think that my father was on to something when he decided to stop calling it free time and use the term “discretionary time” instead. Removing (or at least deemphasizing) the entitlement aspect of free time, this term nurtures a more biblical understanding of time management. For the sake of ease I will continue to call discretionary time “free time” in this article, but please remember what I mean.

What Free Time is Not for

Before we can decide how we should use our free time, we must understand what we are not to use it for. It is not our special property, and we must obey God’s precepts concerning it just like we do with everything else. There is nothing about it being unstructured that makes it except from being used in godly ways.

As a result, we are not to use it for wallowing in sin. Although this may sound obvious, I have found it disturbingly hard to remember. When wrapped up with my own arrogant sense of entitlement (and self-pity if my ownership is being threatened), I gravitate towards sin as though I were a small paperclip and sin was a large, powerful magnet. So, with God working in and through us, we must fight the urge to fling ourselves into pits of sin.

The other main way in which we should not use our free time is squandering it on pointless tasks. I mentioned this concept in the first installment, but I hope to flesh it out a bit here. These inane occupations can be as obvious as spending hours upon hours in front of the computer mindlessly (or almost mindlessly) playing Solitaire or FreeCell. These are clearly futile tasks and should be avoided.

However, there are more insidious traps laid out for us by the Enemy. These things are meaningless pastimes which are carefully cloaked so as to appear to be meaningful and helpful. A very personal example for me is the online game RuneScape (I purposely omit a link, lest anyone is enslaved by an addiction to this game). I spent 4 very destructive years of my life playing this game, and I naïvely thought that it was doing me good. I bought into the lies spread by the company that produced the game. They said that the game was educational, teaching players about economics and business among other things, and players engaged in helpful and beneficial social interactions.

But these benefits were the cloak for a monumental waste of time. While I did learn basic things about economics (nothing I couldn’t have gotten elsewhere), this was insignificant educational value, and the social interaction provided by the game was extremely shallow. There was to godly point to the game, and there were multiple negative effects. The game encouraged players (whether intentionally or not) to be greedy and selfish, having no consideration for others. During my time playing, I also developed some very ugly sin patterns that God has only recently freed me of.

So it turned out that RuneScape, although it appeared attractive and good, was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, sucking up hours of my life and damaging relationships. But RuneScape is not the only trap like this out there. There are many which Satan has set up to ensnare us, and by God’s grace we will fight and defeat them all.

What Free Time is for

So, if this is what God doesn’t want us to do with our free time, what does He want us to do with it? The obvious answer is that He wants us to glorify Him with it (tricky, eh ;-)). But what does that look like in this context? Really, it varies from person to person, because God has called each one to a different life. However, I will try to give some examples of worthy uses for our free time that will glorify Him when done in His power.

One of the options is to do hard things. Of course, this opens up a whole new question as to what your “hard thing” is that God has called you to, but that isn’t pertinent to our discussion here. An example, again from my life, is the translation project that I am a part of. I view it as my “big hard thing,” and it takes up the majority of my free time. This doesn’t mean that you can’t have fun in your free time; on the contrary, I have lots of fun translating. But you must remember that it is not really your time at all, but God’s.

In addition, spending time in fellowship with others is a worthy way to spend your free time. God commands us not to forsake meeting with other believers. The author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 10:25, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” This fellowship with other believers is meant to be a relationship of mutual encouragement, something that is well worth using our free time to build.

Perhaps the best use of free time is building our relationship with God. To spend more time alone with our Creator, Savior, Father, and Judge is always a worthy pastime. Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” That verse gives us insight as to what we are to be doing during our free time. We are to be acknowledging God sovereign rule over all Creation.

These are just a few examples of good and worthy things on which to spend our free time. I suggest that you ask God to give you further insight into how He wants you to spend yours.