What Time Is It?
Posted on March 8, 2007
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On a recent Sunday morning, I glanced down at my watch to see what time it was. There was nothing unusual about that action; most of us do it dozens of times each day. This time though, I was in church, of all places; I wasn’t in a hurry and the service had just begun. As I thought about why I had looked at my watch I wondered why I was so preoccupied by time? And why are we (as a culture) so obsessed with time that we strap clocks to our arms? Is it because we have so much of it or is it because we have so little time?
Do you know what time it is? You might know the date, day, hour, and minute, but where does any point in time fit into your lifespan? Everyone knows that his or her life will last for a certain amount of time, but no one knows just how long that will be. Whether it is a horrendous act of violence as seen at Columbine High School, a fatal accident, or the diagnosis is cancer, our time is often not what we expect it will be. Whether you are young enough to have never been touched by these types of circumstances or old enough to realize that they are inevitable, maybe we really don’t know what time it is.
When a person dies at a young age, it is called a tragedy. But the real tragedy is not in how long or short a person lives; it is when the time that is available to a person is wasted. I am not talking about efficiency and using every second productively, but I am referring to living well and investing your life well. I can’t imagine anything worse than looking back on life with the feeling that my time (life) had been misspent. It seems to me that one of the most difficult things about going to prison must be the feeling that time in the past has been misspent and that the time in prison would be wasted. Maybe that is why prison is often times a place where people begin to see what is truly important in life.
Ultimately, the question “what time is it?” is a spiritual question because it has to do with the best ways to invest a life. The answer to that question may be different from person to person, but it is important to remember who will determine if your time was well spent. If there is a God who created us and has entrusted a certain amount of time to us, He will have the final say.
In life we never really know what time it is, until it is over. In that case it makes sense to make the most of the time that we have. A wise person has said that we should plan for tomorrow, but live for today. Jesus Christ said it this way, “… do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Paul, the Greek scholar who penned many of the letters in the Bible, wrote this, “… be careful how you walk … making the most of your time…” The concept that he was referring to was not so much the wise use of hours and minutes, but of opportunities. That would seem to involve giving thoughtful attention to what is important in life and navigating each day by using those bearings. What time is it? It is time to take advantage of today.
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