Wastelands

Most weeks I meet up with a guy from my Church.

One of the highlights of these meetings is we sit and put the world to rights. I love doing that! It's one of my favourite things!

After putting the world to rights we often share dreams, decipher the past, and plot the future.

I love it!

Last night we got onto discussing the film the bucket list, where two cancer sufferers, draw up a list of things they want to do before they die and then go about achieving the list.

The conversation quickly switched to the subject of what we waste time on in our lives? How many hours we waste watching television, doing stuff that is pretty meaningless really?

It was an amazing conversation because earlier in the day as I walked through the urban dessert that surrounds where I live, I was struck by the amount of urban wasteland that lies in the landscape. As I walked I was struck by the different types of wasteland. Some of it covered in old tyres, discarded strips of rusty barbed wire, litter of all descriptions including evidence of weary misdemeanours in the form of used condoms, the occasional discarded needle, curse tape that lay in tatters, and smashed bottles and broken bricks in their hundreds. Other types of wasteland held the remnants of recent demolition where once rows of tightly packed housing would have embraced energetic life. There were other bits of wasteland that had been cleared ready for something new to be built there. On some pieces of wasteland there were old buildings long since discarded that had no purpose anymore.

Just wasteland.

As I walked my mind clicked into vivid action and my thoughts centred on translating these real time pictures of wastelands into the wastelands that are hanging around inside my own life.

I began to see that there was wasteland.

In other words things that I just waste time on.

Things that needed to change.

Wasteland that needed to become productive land.

My mind sent me to a story.

It is contained in the pages of the amazing old book, "The cross and the switchblade," by David Wilkerson.

He relates in the book how he used to for some reason get up between 12 and 2 am every night and watch television. He says he felt that somehow this was a waste of valuable time and often thought he needed to do something more productive with that time. And he said to himself what would happen if I used that time to pray? So he decided to put his television up for sale in his local paper. On the day it was published, he said to God, "If this television hasn't sold by a certain time (say five o'clock) then I will keep it. If it is sold then I will use the time every night just to pray. At about thirty seconds to five the phone rang, and someone bought the tele. From that night on he used that two hours to pray. It was during one of those prayer times that the whole story of the work with the New York gangs began which has seen, and continues to see, many lives turned around and transformed.

For me? This was a lesson in turning the wasteland of life into something productive and worthwhile.

My mind switched quickly back to the wastelands in my own life and I took a bit of a deeper look.

I have to say I didn't like what I saw.

There were things there that I have to say are wastelands.

Wasteful time, fruitless activities.

For instance the times I walk round shopping centres even though I can't really afford anything. The endless Taggart's and Silent witnesses on television. The times I waste worrying about stupid stuff at church that really has no bearing on God's work.

Wastelands.

The positive thing about it though?

There is plenty of room for new building.

What could I do that is more productive?

What could I do to turn that wasteland into something altogether more satisfying?

I got excited at the prospect of building new things on this wasteland.

Today why not take stock of the things in your life that could be just wastelands.

Are there wastelands in your life littered with rubbish that needs clearing? Is there ground in your life where demolition has taken place but you haven't got round to building anything new yet? Is there ground that has been prepared for the new to happen, and you really need to get on and build something? Are there empty spaces that could be better used rather than laying dormant?

What are you doing with your time? What are you wasting time on. What could you build on the wastelands?

Here's the thing!

The possibilities are endless. The prospects are exciting!

Have a reality check today. Find out where the wastelands are in your life.

What could you build there?