In Good Time

October 17, 2022
“Time belongs not to us but to God,” contends Englewood Review of Books podcaster Michel (A Habit Called Faith) in this pensive meditation. Lambasting time management strategies that prioritize productivity, Michel argues that readers must instead accept that “there is always enough time to do what God has planned.” The “eight habits” she recommends might more accurately be called general principles to follow, and they include exercising patience as God’s plan unfurls and offering one’s time and attention to God. She frames her advice with personal anecdotes about how the Covid-19 pandemic affected her conception of time, recounting how she took weeks to savor Saint Benedict’s The Rule of Saint Benedict and imparting its lesson that learning to worship God is “like a handcraft” and takes time. She closes with an elegiac and elliptical exhortation to “remember that you die,” waxing poetic on living with one’s mortality: “Wear your yeses to a nub. Let your brimming cup of joy, even in the long, dark valleys of no and wish I could, bear witness to the God who enjoys you.” What following this advice looks like in practice remains unclear, but Michel succeeds in putting earthly concerns in cosmic perspective. These insightful musings are worth a look.