Benjamin Franklin, Money and Me

Benjamin Franklin said that time is money; I'm not sure I agree, but that might be because I don't like money. I do, however, like time. A lot. And I need it. A lot.

I learned a big thing about time last week: it is a gift and it is governed by God. We can use it selfishly or purposelessly and it will feel like we never have enough, or we can use it sparingly, hold is loosely, be willing to give it up and we will have enough time to do all that we need to.

Last week I had a Japanese placement test, two midterms, a research methods project and a group presentation, all scheduled during the same four days. The week before that was Reading Week, but I have no idea where that went. All I know is that I didn't work on really anything that I needed to. (I think all I did was decide my history term paper would be about the Berlin Wall instead of Cuba.) So I had all these projects, and not nearly enough time. That said, I was slightly stressed.

The weekend between Reading Week and the week from hell was a retreat in Canmore with my bible study. I didn't want to go because of all that I needed to do; I needed another week to prepare for school, but I found myself giving up the weekend to idleness and rest instead. Somewhere inside of me I felt that I needed to focus on God and find rest in my soul before I could even attempt to attack life in any sort of productive way. That part of me was right.

I gave time away and time opened up. God's got a weird economy like that. I kept getting random brackets of time I never have which I used to get all my studying and preparing done. I was allowed off work three hours early before one exam so I could study, a class the next day was cancelled, so I had that bit of time to prepare too, I prioritized between going to class Thursday morning or studying for a midterm worth 30%, and the presentation got moved from Wednesday to Friday, Time opened up. And the weird part was I wasn't stressed at all. I think I actually enjoyed fitting everything in like a puzzle.

I gave just a weekend of focused time to God and he made my life fall together. I was talking to another girl from bible study and the exact same thing happened to her. But it's a hard thing to do, to give up time. We hold time so tightly, feel like we have to govern it, control it. But we can't. God holds time; he can make the moon and the stars stand still, he can make the sun travel backwards, and he can open pockets of time we don't expect in order for us to accomplish what He knows we have to. It's hard to believe, but there is joy in life when you base it on surrender.

Maybe old Benjamin Franklin - printshop apprentice, diplomat, patriot, editor, General Postmaster of America, creator of libraries and fire departments, political activist, advocate for unity, writer, scientist, inventor, philosopher and benchmark of American history really was right, Maybe time really is money; it's a currency that we trade for growth in whatever direction we choose. Ben traded his time to many different themes, and see what he has become.

And ironically enough, isn't his face on every single $100 bill in the United States?