How To Have More Time

The process of creating requires many things, with time being near the top of the list. Because if we have no time to create, nothing will be created.

But when our days are overfull and it seems like there is no time, what are we to do?

The simple answer: we must get better at saying “no”. Not to our time with God, our family, or our job. But for most other requests and invitations and committees and hobbies, we should learn to say “no” more frequently.

I’m glad the acclaimed author Charles Dickens practiced this concept. If he hadn’t, we might not have such classics as A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities, and Great Expectations. I recently came across a note he wrote declining a friend’s invitation so he could keep writing: 

“‘It is only half an hour’–’It is only an afternoon’–’It is only an evening,’ people say to me over and over again; but they don’t know that it is impossible to command one’s self sometimes to any stipulated and set disposal of five minutes–or that the mere consciousness of an engagement will sometime worry a whole day… Whoever is devoted to an art must be content to deliver himself wholly up to it, and to find his recompense in it. I am grieved if you suspect me of not wanting to see you, but I can’t help it; I must go in my way whether or no.”

I love his honesty about why he was declining. Rather than pretending he was sick, he owned his creative devotion with a response that was kind yet firm. His willingness to say “no” opened up more time to say “yes” to his creativity. The same can be true for us—if we are devoted to our art.

This reading was crafted to encourage your pursuit of story and creativity with God. Your donation makes this crowd-funded initiative possible. You can support it via PAYPAL (or by check to Allen Arnold at PO Box 62841, Colorado Springs, CO 80962).

Want More?
Order your copy of The Story of With today