Perspective Shift #1: Perspective on Time

That line stops me every time I hear it. Nobody is making more time. Every one of us gets twenty-four hours a day, and none of us knows how many days. So the question isn’t whether we’ll spend our time — it’s what we’ll spend it on.

This post launches a new series here called Perspectives — places where seeing one thing differently changes how you live everything. And I can’t think of a better place to start than time, because how we fill our time quietly shapes who we become.

Prefer to watch? Here’s the 60-second version:

What Fills Your Storehouse?

Jesus gave us a word picture that has completely changed how I think about this:

“A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.” (Matthew 12:35 NIV)

Stored up. Think of your heart and mind as a storehouse — a pantry. Every book you read, every song you play, every podcast, every show, every conversation goes onto the shelves. And here’s the thing about a pantry: when life happens and it’s time to cook, you can only cook with what’s actually in there. You can’t serve what you never stocked.

Most of what passes through our days barely leaves a mark. But some of it sticks. Some of it goes on the shelf. The question worth asking isn’t “is this entertaining?” — it’s “when I need something from the storehouse, will this be useful? Is any of this useful eternally?”

Will You Be Ready When…?

Because life will come asking. Sooner or later, someone reaches into your storehouse:

• A coworker sighs and says the world is a mess — and looks at you like you might have an answer.
• A friend, hurting, says that God must hate us.
• Your spouse tells you they’re ready to quit going to church.
• Your child looks up and asks whether there really is a God.

These moments are hard to answer. They’re sometimes hard to even respond to. But here’s the question this series is about: who will be more prepared to glorify God in that moment — the one whose storehouse is filled with fluff, or the one who has been abiding with God, stocking the shelves with His Word, teaching from godly preachers and writers, and wisdom from fellowship with other believers?

Confessions of an Omnivorous Reader

Let me be clear about where I’m coming from, because this is not a post against fun.

I love reading. Whether I’m holding a book or listening to an audiobook, I devour a lot of material. I’m not only voracious, I’m also omnivorous: I enjoy many different genres. God has given me a desire to learn, a hunger for information, and a thirst for new ideas. I love His Word, theology and self-help books, fantasy and science fiction, thrillers and mysteries, biographies and well-written histories, humor, light reads, heavy reads — you name it.

So this isn’t coming from someone who thinks entertainment is the enemy. It’s coming from someone who had to face an honest question about his own shelves.

Permissible vs. Victorious

Here’s where the perspective shift lives.

“‘I have the right to do anything,’ you say — but not everything is beneficial.” (1 Corinthians 10:23 NIV)

Is there anything wrong with filling your morning commute with the latest thriller? Absolutely not. Is there anything wrong with unwinding on the way home immersed in a vivid fantasy realm? Still no. Are we condemned if we rock out while cutting the lawn? Probably not — depending on the lyrics 🙂

But we shouldn’t be living our lives based on what is permissible. That’s the lowest bar there is. We’re not living victoriously when we’re filling our minds and our free time with things that don’t ultimately matter. Permissible asks, “Is this allowed?” Victorious asks, “Is this stocking my storehouse with anything I’ll actually need?”

Imagine the Difference

Play this forward with me.

How different would our parenting be if we regularly listened to solid Christian books about raising children? How much more prepared would we be for a colleague’s hard question if we had just finished a book on apologetics? How much more ready would we be to face any of life’s temptations with His Word hidden in our hearts? Imagine hearing about godly role models so often that being one becomes second nature.

That’s not a fantasy. That’s just a stocked pantry. It’s what naturally comes out when good things have been stored up.

How to Start Stocking the Shelves

If you’ve read the Core series here, you know I believe in the meaningful minimum — small, consistent, sustainable steps over grand gestures that collapse in a week. Same principle here. Don’t overhaul your whole media life tonight. Just make one swap:

• One commute a week. Trade one drive’s worth of talk radio or thrillers for an audio Bible or a solid Christian book. One drive. See what it does.
• One playlist. Build a single worship or Scripture-based playlist and let it be your default for one recurring activity — the lawn, the dishes, the gym.
• One “next up” slot. Whatever you’re reading now, finish it and enjoy it. But decide today that the next book in line is one that stocks the shelves.

Small swaps compound. A year from now, your storehouse looks completely different — one commute, one playlist, one book at a time.

My Challenge to You

I still mingle other genres in. It’s a genuinely exciting day when Brandon Sanderson publishes a new Stormlight Archive book! But I’ve found that my thought life, my worship life, and my preparedness for whatever life brings are all so much better when I’ve been immersing myself in His Word, good Christian theology, Christian fiction with strong role models, Christian music, and books that sharpen me.

Nobody’s making more time. So here’s my challenge — the same one I keep giving myself: look honestly at what’s going onto your shelves this week, and make one swap toward what matters eternally.

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8 NIV)

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash