Good things take time

 

The title today is a little advertising slogan on a box of crackers - not those you pull but the type for cheese. Rather fine crackers by Peter’s Yard. I read the slogan in the morning and pondered it all day. I watched out for good things that don’t take much time - the minor miracle of my goldendoodle placing her bottom on the floor at the first command of ‘Sit’. But then I realised that this good thing had taken some practice to reach this point - time spent teaching her and her time to learn and then to obey.

Good books, good games, good writing sessions, good relationships all take time - but doesn’t everything? Good or bad? We are time-bound creatures whether we rush around or ‘take time out’ to relax and refresh our minds, bodies and souls. In John 3 we see that Jesus took time to be with his disciples: 

‘Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them’

It is so special that we can take time to be with Him through prayer.

A lot of my day-to-day time lately has been taken with giving my husband eye drops that he can’t manage himself. Three or four different types of drops four times a day has us scrabbling to remember and order our days to fit these and the appropriate gaps between each application. Good things taking large amounts of time have been difficult to fit in.  Although it could be argued that the application of eye drops is an exceptionally good thing as it will lead to better vision as the eyes begin to heal. It is time well-spent.  

I confess that my chaotic mind does not use time well. I flit from one task to another sometimes trying to do too many things at once and I have to slow myself down to think and become more organised. On other occasions I feel overwhelmed and grind to a halt.

What I long for is big blocks of time to write - and write something really good - that Christian relaxation book I want to finish, and the dystopian novel I’m now editing with chunks of rewriting as I go along. Little bits of editing time don’t work - I have to keep skipping back to check facts. Or I change something somewhere and find I haven’t carried it through. I lose sight of the whole piece of work. 

At this stage of writing a novel I used to take myself away for a few days - I would read and pray the whole novel through to see if the story hung together then I would get going on continuity, language, settings, timelines, suspense, facts plus anything else pertinent to whatever I was writing. If your circumstances permit it, I would thoroughly recommend those days set aside - they have been invaluable in honing my writing. 

It’s a very good thing to do, but it does take time!

Why not take Galatians 6:9 as our rather more wordy slogan?

‘Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.’

Annie Try’s work is published by Roundfire Books, Instant Apostle, Kevin Mayhew and, as Angela Hobday, by BPS Books and ACER Press as well as internationally. She enjoys speaking at events about faith, writing and psychology.