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In Good Time: 8 Habits for Reimagining Productivity, Resisting Hurry, and Practicing Peace - Library Edition
Whether we're trying to find time, save it, manage it, or make the most of it, one word defines our relationship with the anxiety . Yet is productivity really the only grid for the good life? Have you ever imagined a life without hurry, relentless work, multitasking, or scarcity? A life that is characterized instead by presence, attention, rest, rootedness, fruitfulness, and generosity?
This is the kind of life we are meant for, says Jen Pollock Michel. But if we want to experience freedom from time anxiety, we have to reimagine our relationship with time itself.
With In Good Time , she invites you to disentangle your priorities from our modern assumptions and instead ground them in God's time. Then she shows you how to establish eight life-giving habits that will release you from the false religion of productivity so you can develop a grounded, healthy, life-giving relationship with the clock.
This is the kind of life we are meant for, says Jen Pollock Michel. But if we want to experience freedom from time anxiety, we have to reimagine our relationship with time itself.
With In Good Time , she invites you to disentangle your priorities from our modern assumptions and instead ground them in God's time. Then she shows you how to establish eight life-giving habits that will release you from the false religion of productivity so you can develop a grounded, healthy, life-giving relationship with the clock.
Audio CD
First published December 1, 2022
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About the author
Jen Pollock Michel
13 books133 followersJen Pollock Michel is the award-winning author of Teach Us to Want, Keeping Place, and Surprised by Paradox. Her fourth book, A Habit Called Faith, releases in February 2021.
Jen holds a B.A. in French from Wheaton College and an M.A. in Literature from Northwestern University. She's currently enrolled in the MFA program at Seattle Pacific University.
An American living in Toronto, Jen is a wife and mother of five. She is the lead editor for Imprint magazine, published by The Grace Centre for the Arts, and host of the Englewood Review of Books podcast. You can follow Jen on Twitter @jenpmichel and also subscribe to her monthly letter, Post Script, at www.jenpollockmichel.com.
Jen holds a B.A. in French from Wheaton College and an M.A. in Literature from Northwestern University. She's currently enrolled in the MFA program at Seattle Pacific University.
An American living in Toronto, Jen is a wife and mother of five. She is the lead editor for Imprint magazine, published by The Grace Centre for the Arts, and host of the Englewood Review of Books podcast. You can follow Jen on Twitter @jenpmichel and also subscribe to her monthly letter, Post Script, at www.jenpollockmichel.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews
July 21, 2023
There’s something in the water! The more mainstream Christian books I read, the more I’m seeing a love of and fascination with all things liturgical and sacramental. I keep hearing St. Benedict’s Rule of Life, lectio divina, spiritual direction, confession, Eucharist, liturgical calendar, fasting, feasting, sabbath, St. Augustine… As a cradle Catholic, I’ve been a fish living in the ocean of liturgy and the sacramental life. It’s easy to take it for granted. It takes reading a book like this to realize just how deeply the liturgical calendar, the communion of saints, Church Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and the sacraments inform my daily life. It’s easy to assume from my Catholic bubble that these Truths are a given from which others live. I love hearing my Christian brothers and sisters exploring the roots of our shared Faith and embracing the Truth they find there.
I pray that we can continue to find more unity in the beauty of our shared Faith! May Jesus’ prayer for us come to pass. “I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” John 17:20-21
I pray that we can continue to find more unity in the beauty of our shared Faith! May Jesus’ prayer for us come to pass. “I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” John 17:20-21
February 1, 2024
Anyone out there struggle with the Christian non-fiction genre (🙋🏻♀️)? I struggle to find books within the genre that are written well and have ideas that are tangible and challenging.
This book was what I’ve been hungering for. It was something different and refreshing. It’s challenged me to think about history, research, scripture, and the ordinary happenings of life all in the context of time and how we utilize it. It challenged my faith in all the right ways.
As a sub note, but one I find important, it was just written beautifully - showing-casing Jen’s gift of writing developed through both her study of literature and an MFA.
I couldn’t more highly recommend it.
*I paired this book with a workshop Jen hosts on a Rule of Life. I also would recommend that workshop in conjunction with this book.
This book was what I’ve been hungering for. It was something different and refreshing. It’s challenged me to think about history, research, scripture, and the ordinary happenings of life all in the context of time and how we utilize it. It challenged my faith in all the right ways.
As a sub note, but one I find important, it was just written beautifully - showing-casing Jen’s gift of writing developed through both her study of literature and an MFA.
I couldn’t more highly recommend it.
*I paired this book with a workshop Jen hosts on a Rule of Life. I also would recommend that workshop in conjunction with this book.
January 11, 2023
A refreshing look at time. One that, I would say, is even more refreshing if you are burnt out on thinking and reading about time. I've looked up to Jen's wisdom for a while now, and this book is another reason why. A perfect blend of theology, sociology, memoir, and wisdom from ancient Christian practices.
(Absolutely love listening to her audiobooks with her own voice reading them. I also pre-ordered a paperback copy which I'll be using to review the questions at the end of the chapters.)
(Absolutely love listening to her audiobooks with her own voice reading them. I also pre-ordered a paperback copy which I'll be using to review the questions at the end of the chapters.)
March 12, 2023
I found the experience of reading this to be a fruitful time pondering time, a current hobbyhorse of mine.
Read
November 2, 2023Full of wisdom and clarity, this book restored a hopeful, life-giving perspective of time that I seem to have lost this year, reminding me of how little I can control time, and that, even if I could, it is far better left in the hands of the time-keeper Himself. I found the reading experience a very grounding one, and Michel's honesty about her own time management and practices helped shed light on habits and patterns I've formed without intention. I listened to the audiobook which I loved because she reads it, but I'll buy the physical copy so I can reference the reflection questions throughout and no doubt re-read it in the future.
April 14, 2024
I think I learned about this book from a best books of the year list. When I began reading I felt a little lost because I had been expecting a sort of time management for the Christian life. Instead I found a thoughtful treatment of time itself from a deeply Christian perspective. The chapters are rich and provide much to ponder about time and its challenges and blessings. The author’s work is well researched and she has introduced me to new writers whose work I am eager to read.
August 17, 2025
What if I get all the things on the list crossed off, but neglect the important things, the things that can’t be measured and quantified and concisely scribed on a list?
As a Type A recovering perfectionist, this is my kind of productivity book. Recommended!
As a Type A recovering perfectionist, this is my kind of productivity book. Recommended!
October 22, 2023
I unfortunately had to return this to the library before I could finish...so far, so good, though, and looking forward to completing it someday.
March 4, 2023
This is unlike any book about time I’ve come across. Its not about efficiency or management or margin - but about the why or time, the why of my restlessness and urgency and need to hustle - and what the creator of Time says to me and invites me into - in it. I read this slowly over several weeks… which I recommend… because it takes time for deep watering and this is the kind of book you want to take root.
June 21, 2023
Time. We are all in it, and often, like fish in their waters, we swim along, oblivious to its reality. On occassion we are jarred, like when we look in the mirror and see that time has been working on us all the while, indifferent to our detachment.
Time management is the other side of the same coin; its the closet industry of the Typa As, the go-getters and the highly productive. Constantly aware of the ticking clock, many obsess over its passage and fret over what they are filling the hours with. Am I wasting time?
Jen Pollock Michel identifies as part of that tribe. A self-professed consumer of time management books, Michel has not added her contribution to that canon, rather, this is a gospel saturated reflection on what we do with this water in which we swim, or more precisely, how God uses the pool he has placed us in. This is an invitation into God's time, into His timing of our lives. As she puts it: “This book involves unlearning: about time as instrument, about time as material aspiration. … It will invite each of us into a different imagining of time, … where God’s will is being done without delay or haste. In this world, rather indifferent to the urgent ticking of the clock, we are free to be still (and) take refuge in the one who was and us and ever will be God.” (53)
Born out of the quandary of the 2020 quarantine (what will we do with all this time?) Michel has written a very personal piece that is woven together with the threads taken from her COVID journals, biblical commentary, literature and anecdotes of how she, her family and friends tried to make sense of the new normal that was life during that odd time.
Michel is a gifted and beautiful writer. Her prose is smooth, it moves like a river unimpeded by the boulders of disruptive ideas or organization. The book starts with her take on the concept of time, and then quickly moves on to the ultimate purpose of the book which is to offer the reader some well worn, but newly stated ideas on how to "manage" time. There's nothing novel, per se, in what she offers here, but it's fresh and purposeful and one can't help but come away intrigued by her musings.
But here's the main thing: The attempt at management is really only an acknoweldgement that time is on loan, its borrowed, we do not own it. Her chapter in which she faces down the impending death of a friend and the shock that she too might be headed down the same cancerous path is beautiful in all of its dire and ugly telling. It drives the point home: We are all going to die. Given that harsh reality is "the sword of Damocles" hanging over our heads, time becomes more treasured, and while "managing" it sounds a bit too scientific for these pages, wisely stewarding the time we are granted is the point.
From the book's cover to its final pages, the theme of her thoughts on time are nailed to the metaphor of trees, these beautiful, stately products of time. The reader, she presumes, is wanting to grow; To grow into wisdom, to grow into Christ, to put down roots into the soil of the gospel. It is a word picture that works. Anyone who has planted a sapling from a 15-gallon bucket knows that sitting under its splendorous shade cast by majestic and soaring branches is decades away. In good time that day will come, but now we water, we tend and we wait.
Michel has added another fine work to her small library of similarly penned reflections on life lived in the shadow of another Tree, at the foot of the one who died upon a cross in order to give us life.
Time management is the other side of the same coin; its the closet industry of the Typa As, the go-getters and the highly productive. Constantly aware of the ticking clock, many obsess over its passage and fret over what they are filling the hours with. Am I wasting time?
Jen Pollock Michel identifies as part of that tribe. A self-professed consumer of time management books, Michel has not added her contribution to that canon, rather, this is a gospel saturated reflection on what we do with this water in which we swim, or more precisely, how God uses the pool he has placed us in. This is an invitation into God's time, into His timing of our lives. As she puts it: “This book involves unlearning: about time as instrument, about time as material aspiration. … It will invite each of us into a different imagining of time, … where God’s will is being done without delay or haste. In this world, rather indifferent to the urgent ticking of the clock, we are free to be still (and) take refuge in the one who was and us and ever will be God.” (53)
Born out of the quandary of the 2020 quarantine (what will we do with all this time?) Michel has written a very personal piece that is woven together with the threads taken from her COVID journals, biblical commentary, literature and anecdotes of how she, her family and friends tried to make sense of the new normal that was life during that odd time.
Michel is a gifted and beautiful writer. Her prose is smooth, it moves like a river unimpeded by the boulders of disruptive ideas or organization. The book starts with her take on the concept of time, and then quickly moves on to the ultimate purpose of the book which is to offer the reader some well worn, but newly stated ideas on how to "manage" time. There's nothing novel, per se, in what she offers here, but it's fresh and purposeful and one can't help but come away intrigued by her musings.
But here's the main thing: The attempt at management is really only an acknoweldgement that time is on loan, its borrowed, we do not own it. Her chapter in which she faces down the impending death of a friend and the shock that she too might be headed down the same cancerous path is beautiful in all of its dire and ugly telling. It drives the point home: We are all going to die. Given that harsh reality is "the sword of Damocles" hanging over our heads, time becomes more treasured, and while "managing" it sounds a bit too scientific for these pages, wisely stewarding the time we are granted is the point.
From the book's cover to its final pages, the theme of her thoughts on time are nailed to the metaphor of trees, these beautiful, stately products of time. The reader, she presumes, is wanting to grow; To grow into wisdom, to grow into Christ, to put down roots into the soil of the gospel. It is a word picture that works. Anyone who has planted a sapling from a 15-gallon bucket knows that sitting under its splendorous shade cast by majestic and soaring branches is decades away. In good time that day will come, but now we water, we tend and we wait.
Michel has added another fine work to her small library of similarly penned reflections on life lived in the shadow of another Tree, at the foot of the one who died upon a cross in order to give us life.
April 23, 2023
For my entire adult life, I have been enamored with efficiency. Even now, when I should be older and wiser, my online bio describes me as an advocate for “the prudent use of little minutes.” A neat row of daily checkmarks is the reward for time well-managed, but In Good Time is Jen Pollock Michel’s well-constructed argument that time was never given to us to be managed.
How is it, then, that we can stay true to our American Protestant roots without allowing time to become “a lash held in the hands of some imperious master.” Set against the backdrop of her family’s COVID-19 lockdown, Michel’s journey is a movement from “time anxiety” to “time faith. Like Brother Lawrence, the believer is called to “do all things for the love of God”–regardless of the tallying of hours and days.
In keeping with her previous book (A Habit Called Faith), each chapter describes a habit for readers to bring to our relationship with time. With lyrical prose and biblical fidelity, Jen Pollock Michel writes from the vulnerable place of one who has failed and been forgiven or plowed her determined way to a finish line only to realize that God is more concerned with the slow work of forming wisdom in her heart.
I am coming away from In Good Time with a new appreciation for the goodness of time. I am encouraged to come to my daily do-list with “Why?” as my biggest question in place of my prevailing “How?” And I’ve been startled into awareness of all the ways I have made an idol of time. God has a way of toppling our false gods–in mercy, freeing us from their rule over us.
God, who lives outside of time, has given us the gift of hours and days, not so that we can fret over their passing, but so, like the children we are, we will have something to offer back to our Father in love.
Many thanks to Baker Publishers and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book to facilitate my review, which is, of course, offered freely and with honesty.
How is it, then, that we can stay true to our American Protestant roots without allowing time to become “a lash held in the hands of some imperious master.” Set against the backdrop of her family’s COVID-19 lockdown, Michel’s journey is a movement from “time anxiety” to “time faith. Like Brother Lawrence, the believer is called to “do all things for the love of God”–regardless of the tallying of hours and days.
In keeping with her previous book (A Habit Called Faith), each chapter describes a habit for readers to bring to our relationship with time. With lyrical prose and biblical fidelity, Jen Pollock Michel writes from the vulnerable place of one who has failed and been forgiven or plowed her determined way to a finish line only to realize that God is more concerned with the slow work of forming wisdom in her heart.
I am coming away from In Good Time with a new appreciation for the goodness of time. I am encouraged to come to my daily do-list with “Why?” as my biggest question in place of my prevailing “How?” And I’ve been startled into awareness of all the ways I have made an idol of time. God has a way of toppling our false gods–in mercy, freeing us from their rule over us.
God, who lives outside of time, has given us the gift of hours and days, not so that we can fret over their passing, but so, like the children we are, we will have something to offer back to our Father in love.
Many thanks to Baker Publishers and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book to facilitate my review, which is, of course, offered freely and with honesty.
March 16, 2023
Like this book’s author, Jen Pollok Michel, I find myself frequently wrestling with time, never feeling like I have “enough” and always wondering how and where to squeeze more out of my day. I’m happy to report, though, that this book is not exactly an answer to those concerns, but rather shows how those concerns should be submitted to the Lord of time. I so appreciate Michel’s discussion of fruitfulness versus productivity, the value of time seemingly “wasted” in caring for others in community, and the concept of fitting time-what is it that God is calling me to right now? Even if, from a worldly, productivity and efficiency driven mindset, my time is “wasted,” I can find comfort and hope in submission and obedience to God’s commands, and can trust that my time will be fulfilled in so doing. Highly recommend this book!
May 14, 2023
This was one of the most impactful books I’ve read this year. Michel writes about her fascination with time management books, and how she’s found that “there is more to making a life than keeping the hours productively and efficiently.” Rather than give us more time hacks, she provides eight counter-cultural, biblical heart practices regarding our view of time. The “Receive” chapter challenged me those most—how we don’t “manage” time but steward it as a gift from God. “As we learn our limits, we abandon the impulse to manage time and, instead, embrace hours as a gift.”
If you feel the pressure of productivity, this book will help shift your mind to a more Christ-centered view of a successful life. Michel is an insightful, profound, and brilliant writer. You will enjoy every minute spent reading this book.
If you feel the pressure of productivity, this book will help shift your mind to a more Christ-centered view of a successful life. Michel is an insightful, profound, and brilliant writer. You will enjoy every minute spent reading this book.
April 25, 2023
Faithfulness is built on the ordinary things we do faithfully every day.
A reflection on time spent, earned, and wasted. We all look at things differently since covind and I think time is one of those. Time is very closely related to faith in how we respond to it. There are 8 Habits that help with how we spend that time to get the most out of faith.
The book is split on two parts. Anxiety and faith and with the last 3 years, we have to be honest and say anxiety was in everyone's life. Some deal better with anxiety and some think they are dealing with anxiety but where ever you fall into, the habits of faith and the gift of time, will give you a different perspective.
To be clear, this is not a self-help book on how to spend time. We have enough of those books, but a book to savor on the goodness of a life lived in faith. Enjoying the gift of time.
A special thank you to Baker Books and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.
A reflection on time spent, earned, and wasted. We all look at things differently since covind and I think time is one of those. Time is very closely related to faith in how we respond to it. There are 8 Habits that help with how we spend that time to get the most out of faith.
The book is split on two parts. Anxiety and faith and with the last 3 years, we have to be honest and say anxiety was in everyone's life. Some deal better with anxiety and some think they are dealing with anxiety but where ever you fall into, the habits of faith and the gift of time, will give you a different perspective.
To be clear, this is not a self-help book on how to spend time. We have enough of those books, but a book to savor on the goodness of a life lived in faith. Enjoying the gift of time.
A special thank you to Baker Books and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.
January 23, 2023
I highly recommend this book. Jen Pollock Michel encourages her readers to disentangle their hearts from modern assumptions about time (obsession with productivity and time management for example), and instead, wrestle with timeless truths about the Author of time, She shares 8 life giving rhythms or habits to reorient our lives to a God honoring view of time.
January 31, 2023
This was a lovely book; all her books are lovely.
This one, about time, left me feeling hopeful and excited to practice patience, and to wait in faith.
I recommend it to anyone who loves great writing, who is suffering, who is waiting, and anyone who wants to think deeply about habits in God's economy.
This one, about time, left me feeling hopeful and excited to practice patience, and to wait in faith.
I recommend it to anyone who loves great writing, who is suffering, who is waiting, and anyone who wants to think deeply about habits in God's economy.
June 4, 2023
Michel uses her literary and reflective prose to question modern perceptions of productivity and time management, urging us to receive time from God as a gift to be gratefully enjoyed rather than a ration to be anxiously divided up. Drawing from the pages of Scripture, the practices of monks, and her own experience, she outlines eight habits designed to free readers from time anxiety as they begin to view all the moments of their lives as "God's time."
June 20, 2023
Amazing! I listened to the audio book and want to go read the hard copy now. Really freeing perspective on time; it’s not just another time-management book but a wholly different way of looking at time and how God views how we use time. If you, like me, are always reading time management books to see if there’s a better system out there…this book will challenge and encourage you.
January 7, 2023
Jen Pollock Michel's writing always challenges me, and this book is no different. Her perspective on time will remain with me and relieve some of my time anxiety as I view each day as a gift to be savored rather than a unit to be squeezed dry. I appreciated her honesty and transparency as she shares her own journey to tame her battle with limited time.
January 19, 2023
Some good thoughts on time and time management from an eternal perspective. It was rather repetitive, though, which seemed to cloud what could have been stronger points.
July 7, 2024
Jen Michel strikes just the right balance between giving helpful practical advice and guiding towards helpful spiritual understanding of time and our place within it.
September 16, 2025
Weaving in and out of a real-life experience during the pandemic, the author encourages readers to examine how we use our time, and re-work our definition of productiveness. Many of us can point to things we liked about who we were collectively during the pandemic. This book examines what lessons we might want to hold close from that time.
January 30, 2023
This book arrived in my life at a very good time, which is to also say: "now." Full of wisdom, insight, bracing baths of sober reality, and an even deeper current of grace and hope.
I took advantage of a pre-order bonus and participated in the author's workshop on the material, centering on developing a rule of life. Highly commend that resource as well to readers. Check her website for details. It was excellent to pair with the book.
I took advantage of a pre-order bonus and participated in the author's workshop on the material, centering on developing a rule of life. Highly commend that resource as well to readers. Check her website for details. It was excellent to pair with the book.
March 19, 2024
Read this as part of a YA book study. This book was kinda hit or miss for me at times, but a few chapters really resonated with me. Specifically the chapter on beginnings and practice really made me think differently and examine my relationship with God. Beautiful message on habits and rhythms and the importance of them in our faith journey and how we view time.
January 26, 2023
I would have given this one a 3.5 rating. The author’s writing is excellent - well thought out, beautifully crafted words. She framed moments and real life anecdotes with vulnerable honesty. This book is not for everyone, but I was definitely encouraged by it (I listened on audio). Maybe I felt something lacking because I was expecting something different. Maybe I wanted to hear something new on the subject, but what I heard was actually a book that processes and frames the subject with grace, hope, honesty and openness. It added to the ongoing conversation about how we spend time well in this life by reflecting on many of the recent world-shifting events but also brought it to personal level. At first I thought I would give it a 3.5 because it didn’t really change me - I think I give 4s and 5s when I finish a book and it grew and changed and shifted me or it just brought such enjoyment. This book didn’t shift me. But I think it nudged me - and maybe that actually is just as good of a thing!
February 20, 2023
Although 'In Good Time' wasn't what I'd expected from the 'blurb', I appreciated Jen's insights into 'time' being a gift to be received, and how best to live in "God's time" rather than "ordinary time". Time has become, for many, a discouraging measure of productivity, but living in 'God's time' releases us from its brutal demands and expectations.
Eight "life-giving habits" are proposed, based on this new definition of success or productivity; habits that seek to release us from any anxiety felt when trying to find time, manage time, or make the most of our time. Although I felt these could have been explained more succinctly, I have appreciated rereading my highlights since finishing the book, for there are some wonderful insights and perspectives which I'd find helpful to adopt.
Eight "life-giving habits" are proposed, based on this new definition of success or productivity; habits that seek to release us from any anxiety felt when trying to find time, manage time, or make the most of our time. Although I felt these could have been explained more succinctly, I have appreciated rereading my highlights since finishing the book, for there are some wonderful insights and perspectives which I'd find helpful to adopt.
January 6, 2023
4.5 stars! A fresh perspective on what it means to live faithfully in the time God has given us. I really appreciated her counter-cultural insights, especially for the habits of belonging, receiving, and practicing!
June 2, 2023
I enjoyed this book - though it took me a hot minute to get through it. I liked that it wasn't a self-help book, but a facilitation of thought about the way we view time.
"I've started to resist the notion that I must earn my keep in this world. Instead, I am receiving the days as a gift."
~
"To-do lists are, in the American imagination, a curiously moral type of software... With to-do apps, we are attempting nothing less that to craft a superior version of ourselves. Perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise that when we fail, the moods run so black. In other words, our to-do lists catalogue more than ambition. They inscribe the meaning we need to eke out of our lives."
"Every to-do list is ultimately, about death. They give us the assurance that if we keep the hours productively, our lives will achieve some lasting value, something that the tides of time can't carry away"
"Productivity is a measure, not of good, but of output."
~
"According to the bible, wisdom is formed incrementally by a long and slow obedience to God. In fact, wisdom, as a product of character, cannot be had all at once. "It takes time," writes Ellen Davis, "for the tree of human experience to bear the fruit of wisdom.""
"Hope is a virtue. You have to practice it, like a difficult piece on the violin or a tricky shot at tennis. you practice the virtue of hope through worship and prayer, through invoking God, through reading and reimagining the scriptural story"
"It's the habit of rehearsing what God has already done, what God has already promised."
"The hope of the gospel does not mean denying evil, but expecting its defeat"
~
"Effort has become our greatest enemy, easy our greatest desire. If I can't be bothered to get up from the couch to turn out the light, barking orders to Alexa instead, how will I rally the energies needed for transformation?"
"Self-help is an industry that enthrones the self, and though this can at times feel empowering, it's ultimately defeating. It says 'Your problems are always yours to solve through your efforts and cunning and self-discipline.'"
"It makes me think of the distance we've travelled from previous centuries, arriving at a place when minutes must be cajoles, corralled, coaxed from God's people."
~
"The premise of time management is control, and one way to achieve control is to eliminate contingency. Contingency is, of course, a feature of social human life. To belong to one another is to suffer the loss of independence, the loss of protected, cherished time."
"The sabbath is a day to remember that whatever we make, whatever we produce, whatever we offer of our lives and our time, it will not keep the world spinning on its axis."
"How much shorter it is and easier to do our common business purely for the love of God"
"All that he had once performed with dread, he will now begin to observe without effort, as though naturally, from habit, no longer out of fear of hell, but out of love for Christ, good habit and delight in virtue"
"I've started to resist the notion that I must earn my keep in this world. Instead, I am receiving the days as a gift."
~
"To-do lists are, in the American imagination, a curiously moral type of software... With to-do apps, we are attempting nothing less that to craft a superior version of ourselves. Perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise that when we fail, the moods run so black. In other words, our to-do lists catalogue more than ambition. They inscribe the meaning we need to eke out of our lives."
"Every to-do list is ultimately, about death. They give us the assurance that if we keep the hours productively, our lives will achieve some lasting value, something that the tides of time can't carry away"
"Productivity is a measure, not of good, but of output."
~
"According to the bible, wisdom is formed incrementally by a long and slow obedience to God. In fact, wisdom, as a product of character, cannot be had all at once. "It takes time," writes Ellen Davis, "for the tree of human experience to bear the fruit of wisdom.""
"Hope is a virtue. You have to practice it, like a difficult piece on the violin or a tricky shot at tennis. you practice the virtue of hope through worship and prayer, through invoking God, through reading and reimagining the scriptural story"
"It's the habit of rehearsing what God has already done, what God has already promised."
"The hope of the gospel does not mean denying evil, but expecting its defeat"
~
"Effort has become our greatest enemy, easy our greatest desire. If I can't be bothered to get up from the couch to turn out the light, barking orders to Alexa instead, how will I rally the energies needed for transformation?"
"Self-help is an industry that enthrones the self, and though this can at times feel empowering, it's ultimately defeating. It says 'Your problems are always yours to solve through your efforts and cunning and self-discipline.'"
"It makes me think of the distance we've travelled from previous centuries, arriving at a place when minutes must be cajoles, corralled, coaxed from God's people."
~
"The premise of time management is control, and one way to achieve control is to eliminate contingency. Contingency is, of course, a feature of social human life. To belong to one another is to suffer the loss of independence, the loss of protected, cherished time."
"The sabbath is a day to remember that whatever we make, whatever we produce, whatever we offer of our lives and our time, it will not keep the world spinning on its axis."
"How much shorter it is and easier to do our common business purely for the love of God"
"All that he had once performed with dread, he will now begin to observe without effort, as though naturally, from habit, no longer out of fear of hell, but out of love for Christ, good habit and delight in virtue"
February 10, 2023
Summary:
In Good Time is a teachable and encouraging book that helps organize the days instead of anxiety about the days.
In Good Time will help the reader determine the right steps to take to create wise habits. Habits that are faithful. Habits that make the most of the days we have been given.
To my knowledge there are few books in this genre.
My Thoughts:
Not everyone is interested in picking apart and analyzing the daily habits we keep. For me, I want to be a good steward of the days I have been given. I believe the day’s I’ve been given are a gift from God.
I follow Jen Pollock Michel through her webpage and Instagram. I was recently apart of a 4 week Zoom chat-workshop on this book. This is the 3rd book I’ve read of hers. I have another book in my TBR stack.
I love it when a book is so much more than I expected. In Good Time holds several themes that all resonated with me.
Some of the themes: patience, boundaries, faithfulness, habits, endurance, transformation, and reflection.
I had already been deep in thought about time and how I spent my days. I have been reminded that many years ago when I worked in a busy cardiac monitored floor at a hospital. Sometimes, I’d be given a sensor device that would go off every once in a while, and I was to document what I was doing at that moment. I disliked the added task to the workload, but it showed what kind of duties I most often did.
What if you wore a sensor that went off every once in a while? What would it reflect about your day?
Several reasons why I love this book:
I enjoyed the stories and quotes from St. Benedict and Julian of Norwich and Eugene Peterson.
I have been reminded to be patient with others who are in the process of “transformation,” not just patience with myself.
“The hours do not belong” to me. I am to be a good steward of the time “God has predetermined for me.”
The people who were monastics “understood” the importance of “faithfulness.”
In Good Time is concise, thought provoking, convicting, wise, and purposeful.
I love the reflective questions and prayers located at the end of the chapters in the second half of the book.
I am encouraged to create a rule of life.
In Good Time is a teachable and encouraging book that helps organize the days instead of anxiety about the days.
In Good Time will help the reader determine the right steps to take to create wise habits. Habits that are faithful. Habits that make the most of the days we have been given.
To my knowledge there are few books in this genre.
My Thoughts:
Not everyone is interested in picking apart and analyzing the daily habits we keep. For me, I want to be a good steward of the days I have been given. I believe the day’s I’ve been given are a gift from God.
I follow Jen Pollock Michel through her webpage and Instagram. I was recently apart of a 4 week Zoom chat-workshop on this book. This is the 3rd book I’ve read of hers. I have another book in my TBR stack.
I love it when a book is so much more than I expected. In Good Time holds several themes that all resonated with me.
Some of the themes: patience, boundaries, faithfulness, habits, endurance, transformation, and reflection.
I had already been deep in thought about time and how I spent my days. I have been reminded that many years ago when I worked in a busy cardiac monitored floor at a hospital. Sometimes, I’d be given a sensor device that would go off every once in a while, and I was to document what I was doing at that moment. I disliked the added task to the workload, but it showed what kind of duties I most often did.
What if you wore a sensor that went off every once in a while? What would it reflect about your day?
Several reasons why I love this book:
I enjoyed the stories and quotes from St. Benedict and Julian of Norwich and Eugene Peterson.
I have been reminded to be patient with others who are in the process of “transformation,” not just patience with myself.
“The hours do not belong” to me. I am to be a good steward of the time “God has predetermined for me.”
The people who were monastics “understood” the importance of “faithfulness.”
In Good Time is concise, thought provoking, convicting, wise, and purposeful.
I love the reflective questions and prayers located at the end of the chapters in the second half of the book.
I am encouraged to create a rule of life.
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