Couch Potato

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Ephesians 5:15-16

As a child, I was something of a couch potato. Left to my own devices, I would have just watched TV or played video games all day. As I grew older, I found sports, which kept me active, but still, being lazy has been one of those unhealthy appetites to which I’ve always been prone. In my addiction then, when any resistance against my self-destructive side was at its lowest, I returned to my couch potato ways. Looking back at that summer of my last relapse, I remember realizing that I’d found a lot of excuses to just sit inside and do nothing for weeks at a time.

In my drug addiction, I lost a tremendous amount of time. There was the time I spent obtaining, hiding, and using drugs, but there was also the time that I squandered doing nothing because I had no motivation. Now, in sobriety, I’m energized by my recovery, and I find that I have a lot of stuff to do. Yes, I do still have down time in which I sit on the couch and watch TV, but I now go to recovery meetings, I reach out, and I try to help others who’ve struggled as I have. I regret wasting so much time in my addiction and so now, I want to live purposefully, pursuing the life for which I was made.

This was Paul’s command in today’s passage. In it, he said that we must live on purpose, daily choosing to use our time wisely. If we don’t consciously make good choices, it’s natural to make unhealthy choices. If we don’t purposefully do the good that God asks of us, we, by definition, waste the time that we have. Even if we don’t spend a lot of time sitting around watching TV or looking at our phones, life has a way of consuming our schedule. When we look back at our week, how much have we done that truly matters? Are we purposefully living the life we want, or are we just moving through mundane routines?

A meaningful life doesn’t happen accidentally. Left to our own devices, most of us will not pursue grand purpose. If we want to look back and see that we lived for something meaningful, then daily, we must consciously choose to do those things that we believe to be important, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.