Time, Productivity, and the Timeless King

I've been thinking about time recently, and what it looks like to use time well as a follower of Christ. I have found that I usually think of time using a productivity framework. Time is a quantity, and is measured in how much can be done.

I really don't like this model of time. I don't like that the bottom line is always efficiency. I don't like when this model bleeds into my devotions, or my friendships, or my ministry. It breads self-reliance, and leads me to evaluate myself based on what I have done. 

Leland Ryken offers a helpful corrective from Redeeming the Time:

Time is not primarily a quantity but a quality. So are work and leisure. In a sense, the moment is simultaneously everything and decidedly secondary. It is everything in that it offers the possibility of our being all that we can be at that moment. It is secondary in that its true meaning lies beyond itself in its relation to an eternal world and a personal God.