A Living Sacrifice

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."

The Apostle Paul, Romans 12:1

Paul has a set pattern in writing his letters, with the main body composed of a theological section and application. Romans presents his most developed theological argument, with ten and a half chapters devoted to our need for God's gracious salvation, given without regard to works of the law. The word "grace" occurs more than 20 times in the letter, as Paul insists that everything we are and have is a gift of God.
It is because of this - because everything we are and have is a gift from God - that Paul makes his appeal as he turns to the application: "Present your bodies as a living sacrifice." Everything we are is a gift from God; our appropriate response is to offer ourselves back.
If this is true, then the concept of "my free time" is, at best, a half-truth. If I am a living sacrifice, then my body and my time belong to God. This doesn't imply that using "free time" is sinful - it may be that God wants me to use some of this time in relaxation, in pursuing hobbies, or in idle recreation. But "what shall I do with my free time" is never the right question. For a living sacrifice, the right question is always "what does God want me to do with this time?" 

This teaching is difficult - I tend to think of "my body," "my time." On the day of my ordination, when I was asked "Will you observe the following directions? a) Be diligent. Never be unemployed. Never be triflingly employed. Never trifle away time; neither spend any more time at any one place than is strictly necessary...." my answer was an honest "No." I have frequently been triflingly employed, and trifled away time. But the challenge remains, and it's a reasonable one: to consider myself a living sacrifice.

What do you think?
How often do you think of time as belonging to you? How might your life change if you intentionally viewed yourself as a steward of the life God has entrusted to your care?