Time is limited! Even the longest life ever lived on the face of the earth is short compared to the endlessness of eternity. Unless we treat time with reverence and use it wisely, we will lose priceless opportunities for service. Time is the only resource we cannot produce more of; it is proportioned such that every individual receives the same amount each day regardless of their station in life.
The dictionary defines time as “a nonspatial continuum in which events occur in apparently irreversible succession.” Ben Franklin once provided this definition for time: “Time is the stuff life is made of.” I prefer a more practical, accurate, and analytical understanding of time. Time is the scale by which the movements of the universe are measured. For example, what is a day? Well, on planet Earth, it is 24 Earth hours…but a Martian day is 36 Earth hours…yet both are labeled a day. A day is the complete rotation of a planetary body around its axis. A year is a complete circuit of a planetary body around its galactic center. Thus, time only exists within the universe as it is used to measure the universe, and once the universe has ended, so will time, as there will remain nothing to measure the movements of. So, when the Bible speaks of the end of time, it is, in essence, speaking of the end of the physical universe, for which time is the measuring stick of its motion.
So here we all are riding the same celestial ball through space as we spin on our axis and run in a circuit around the Sun, and there is nothing we can do to alter its movements. So, we must redeem every inch of movement the best we can. But we all know someone who seems to get far more done each day than everyone around them. How do they do it? When do they sleep? Do they sleep? After all, they do not have any more time than you or I.
Just as some have learned how to use their money wisely, some have learned to use their time wisely. They avoid procrastination, and they avoid wasteful expenditures of their time. They treat time as the precious and limited resource that it is. Good time management involves an awareness that today is all we have to work with. The past is irretrievable and already spent, whether wisely or poorly, and the future is only possible as it is yet in your grasp. Every worthwhile accomplishment results from someone understanding and accepting that today is the only time to take action.
Jesus fully understood this concept of time management as He so wisely gave His disciples the following instruction recorded in Matthew 6:34: “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” The primary point Jesus is making is that all we can do is deal with the day we are currently living in. Whatever we might plan for tomorrow is subject to change. The inspired writer, James, puts it in perspective in what he wrote in James 4:13-14a: “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow.”
In Ephesians 5:16 and Colossians 4:5, the inspired writer Paul encouraged Christians to be wise and walk in wisdom by redeeming the time. We are all gifted with the same amount of time each day as we ride this celestial ball around the Sun, running its circuit through the Milky Way, which is on its course through the Universe. The only question is, how are you going to redeem the gift that is today? Time is rationed to each of us one moment at a time…may I suggest you use it wisely.
(Carl Hartman is the Minister at Main Street Church of Christ in Lockney)
