Can’t Save the Past or Grasp the Future – Now’s All We Have

Alistair Begg is one of my favorite radio preachers. His winsome Scottish brogue remains with him despite many years of living in the U.S.A. But what appeals to me most is his ability to convey biblical truth in common, everyday ways that make you want to respond, ‘Oh yeah. I get it!’

 

On a recent program he posed an intriguing scenario. Every morning you have $86,400 deposited in your bank account. You can use the money in any way you wish. But at the end of the day, whatever remains is wiped out. Until the next morning, when another $86,400 is deposited in your account with the same stipulation. Whatever’s left at day’s end is removed. Then the cycle resumes the next morning, for your entire lifetime. You can’t save any of it for the future. You have to use it each day when you receive it.

 

Our first reaction is probably something like, ‘Wow! I’ll take it.’ Or for some of us, ‘That’s more money than I earn in a full year! Sign me up!’

 

Of course, pastor Begg was using that only as an illustration. He explained: Each day we’re entrusted with 86,400. But it’s not dollars, it’s seconds – the number we have in every 24-hour day. In a sense, we get a daily deposit of 86,400 seconds into our time account to use as we see fit. We can’t carry over any from yesterday and can’t borrow from the future or save any of it for later use.

 

A common response is, “Well, there’s always tomorrow.” And that’s not necessarily bad. Many times, if we can’t complete a project or a task, it can be carried over to another day. Sometimes – as I’ve learned about writing – it’s actually better to set something aside, let it “percolate” for a while, even a day or more, and return to it later.

 

Then there are people so driven that they’re perpetually burning both ends of the proverbial candle, oblivious to the reality that eventually they’ll reach the middle with no candle left. But I think what Begg was getting at wasn’t resolving to fill every waking moment with activity and energy expenditure. Rather, it’s about recognizing each new day is a gift from God and we’d be wise to spend – actually, invest – the seconds, minutes and hours at our disposal in worthwhile pursuits. Especially if they can contribute to the advancement of the Kingdom of God.

 

In Ephesians 5:15-16, the apostle Paul speaks about this directly: “Pay careful attending, then, to how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil.” Reading in The Amplified Bible, we find a helpful elaboration: “making the very most of your time [on earth, recognizing and taking advantage of each opportunity and using it with wisdom and diligence], because the days are [filled with] evil.”

 

This doesn’t mean time itself is inherently evil. But perhaps in this age more than ever, it’s so easy to get distracted or sidetracked from things we desire to do or know we should be doing. Not necessarily bad things, but not the best things. As the Latin adage states, “Tempus fugit” – time flies.

 

Careless use – even misuse, or abuse – of time can result in missing out on a number of things. These could include valued interactions with family members, friends, neighbors, and colleagues at work; getting started on a project that’s been put off for too long; pausing to appreciate and explore some of God’s creation; reading an inspiring book; speaking a friendly, encouraging word to an absolute stranger; and spending much-needed moments with the Lord, reading the Scriptures and praying.

 

Rather than engaging in frenetic, non-stop activity, “redeeming the time” concerns the wise use of the minutes and hours at our disposal. This could even involve a timely nap, because we all function better when we’re rested. But it also includes keeping our spiritual antennae up, seeking to be sensitive to God’s “divine appointments.”

 

As Colossians 4:5-6 admonishes us to, “Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of every opportunity. Your speech must always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.” I’m as bad as anyone at keeping my head and eyes down, focused on whatever I’m doing, failing to recognize opportunities to be a blessing for others.

 

The Scriptures teach we’re to be “ambassadors for Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:20), making ourselves available to the Lord to be used as He directs, not only to nonbelievers who need to hear about Him but also to those who are already members of His eternal family. 

 

For instance, in Galatians 6:9-10 the apostle Paul offers this encouragement: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially those who belong to the family of believers.”

So, how are you doing in utilizing your 86,400 today? What are your plans for using the rest of it? Lord willing, you’ll receive another 86,400 tomorrow. But how you use your allotment this day could make a great difference in the opportunities you’ll have the next. We don’t want our epitaph to be, “There’s lots I woulda, shoulda, and coulda done.” 

The Challenges of Handling the Times of Our Lives

Does it ever seem to you that time moves faster some days than others? Scientists will tell us that the passage of time is constant, but haven’t you had moments when you said to someone, “Man, it seems like today has gone on forever,” and they responded, “It sure has.” Or, “Wow, this day has just flown by,” and your friend replied, “Yes, I know!”

 

The years can be like that, too. In just a few days I’ll mark the 14th anniversary of my open-heart surgery. For a long time it seemed as if my surgery were just days ago; I could vividly remember the days leading up to it, the day I was wheeled into the OR, and the days, weeks and months of recovery afterward. But now, it seems like an entire lifetime ago. Lots of “water under the bridge” since then, as they say. That’s probably more than 500 million heartbeats ago!

 

When I was a boy, time seemed to pass at the pace of a slug. Days leading up to Christmas seemed interminable. Even the night of Christmas Eve seemed to be at least 36 hours long. Try as I might, I couldn’t fall to sleep, my mind racing with anticipation. It seemed as if daylight would never arrive. Now it feels as if fall lasts only about two days before sliding into winter; the Christmas holidays come and go in the blink of an eye.

 

Many Americans tend to be governed by the clock. We set alarms to wake up, have reminders to keep us on schedule each day, even pass on lunch breaks because, “I don’t have time.” In our latter years, however, we look wistfully back at our lives, wishing we had made time for important things in our lives rather than subjecting ourselves to “the tyranny of the urgent.”

 

The Scriptures tell us a lot about time, but not in the way we generally approach it. The book of Ecclesiastes, for example, offers a refreshing perspective:

“There is a time for everything, 

and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot, 

a time to kill and a time to heal, 

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance, 

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away, 

a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8).

 

For those of us convinced that we don’t have the time to do necessary things – because more urgent things are beckoning – this passage is convicting.

 

This is especially significant during a season such as this. Even with COVID restrictions, most of us to one extent or another want to continue with holiday traditions; we’re not about to let a little virus tell us what we can and can’t do. 

 

But it’s really not about squeezing the last second into our planning and errand-running. Rich or poor, executive or hourly wage worker, we all have something in common: 24 hours in a single day, 60 minutes in every hour, 60 seconds in every minute. The question is how we steward those seconds, minutes and hours. We’ll invest the time in some way – what will be the return on our investment?

 

Ephesians 5:16 offers these sobering words: “Redeeming the time, for the days are evil.” Other translations phrase it, “making the most of your time” or “making the most of every opportunity.” Time isn’t inherently evil, of course, but as the adage reminds us, “Time waits for no one.”

 

So how are we going to use it? Will our minutes, hours and days be spent on frivolous pursuits, matters we won’t even remember weeks or months from now? Or will we strive to keep alert, poised to recognize and act upon special, even once-in-a-lifetime opportunities when they present themselves?

 

Just a handful of days from now, Christmas will be upon us. Will we succeed in making memories, or will we spoil them because we’ve been too busy with trivial concerns? After that, we’ll barely have time to catch our breath before a new year emerges and, hopefully, doesn’t become a repeat of the year just past. How will we prepare ourselves for what lies ahead?

 

I like the advice of Galatians 6:10, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” We can’t go wrong if we do that.

Tackling the Time Conundrum

As I write this – a couple of weeks ago – it was one month after my wife and I were just arriving in Rome for our 12-day group tour of Italy, and one week since I was getting prepared for a heart valve replacement. I remember looking ahead to both of these events, along with the wedding of our granddaughter in Ohio several weeks earlier. Now, all three have come and gone, with new things to anticipate. And our lives go on.

Time is a funny thing. Science tells us it’s constant, that a minute is always a minute long, that a day is always 24 hours, and a year is always 365 days – except for leap year, when it’s 366. But have you ever had the thought, “This has been the longest day!” and then heard someone say the same thing? Conversely, occasionally we say, “This day has flown by,” and another person responds, “It sure has!” So, is time really all that constant?

My purpose is not to debate or conjecture the space-time continuum. I prefer to stick with things I know about. But what do we have that’s more precious than time? We might say it’s money, but for most of us, there are always ways of making or generating more money, whether it’s working more or selling stuff. However, we can’t generate more time – and we can’t really save it. You can’t put it into a safety deposit box, or stash it into a self-storage unit. It comes and goes, whether we’re ready for it or not. Today turns into yesterday in a flash, and tomorrow transforms into today before we know it.

When I was young, I remember summer vacations seemed to go on forever. But as I got older, those idyllic breaks in the educational process started moving faster and faster, until the summer seemed little more than a eye’s blink. As they say, time takes wings when you’re having fun.

As an adult in the business world, I attended classes on “time management.” If there’s ever been anything less accurately named, I can’t think of it. Because we can’t “manage” time. We can only use it as it comes and try not to waste the moments before they flee.

Not that we must squeeze every possible ounce of activity and productivity out of every minute. In Italy, it was interesting to see many shops and even restaurants close during the midday to give workers a couple of hours to rest. The Spanish call it a “siesta.” As I’ve written before, we Americans can become enslaved to the tyranny of the urgent.

At the same time, the Scriptures admonish us to “redeem the time for the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16). In other words, missed opportunities won’t return to give us a second shot at them. Sometimes this means working in earnest to meet an important deadline; sometimes it means savoring the opportunity to enjoy the company of loved ones and friends, even when speaking words isn’t necessary.

As Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 reminds us, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot…a time to tear down and a time to build…a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain…a time to be silent and a time to speak….”

There’s one other time reference that immediately comes to mind when I consider the Scriptures. It’s when God gives us time to interact with others about eternal, spiritual truths. As Colossians 4:5 states, “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.” Is there a moment when you can encourage another believer in his or her spiritual pilgrimage? Do it now. Do you encounter a non-believer who seems receptive to talking about Jesus? Speak with them now. 

And if God presents you with a situation where you can demonstrate His love and kindness to someone else, don’t hesitate: “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers”(Galatians 6:10). Remember, time flies!

Rebelling Against the Tyranny of the Urgent

Living in a culture of instant gratification, many of us march to the mindset, “Gotta have it – and gotta have it now!” There are advantages to this; Walking into a fast-food restaurant and not having to wait; being able to quickly find virtually anything on the Internet; being able to communicate to others without delay, whether by phone, text or instant message.

But as with many advantages in life, instant living has drawbacks. One of them is the increasing inability to distinguish the urgent from the truly important.

Days can fly by as urgent demands
crowd out important matters.

Years ago, Charles E. Hummel wrote an engaging little booklet, The Tyranny of the Urgent. He stated, “Your greatest danger is letting the urgent things crowd out the important.” This seemed cryptic the first time I read it. Aren’t urgent things always important?

For instance, if you get a call from your boss instructing you to do something immediately, isn’t that important? If your smartphone rings while you’re with loved ones or close friends, shouldn’t you check to see who’s calling?

As I pondered Hummel’s statement, however, I began to realize that indeed, urgent things are not always important – and important things aren’t always urgent. The challenge is learning to distinguish between the two, and then responding appropriately.

Another Hummel observation provided clarification: “There is an insidious tendency to neglect important tasks that do not have to be done today – or even this week.” At first glance this seems a tad confusing. If things don’t have to be done today, or this week, doesn’t that indicate they’re not all that important?

Once again, after a bit of thought, we start to understand what he meant. Sometimes urgent things also are important – if someone’s having a heart attack, they need immediate treatment. If there’s a fire, we must try to put it out. Or call 911. But if a friend asks us for a favor, that doesn’t mean we must drop everything to comply right then.

Many children’s trust has been shattered by promises repeatedly broken by parents because something “urgent” always seems to arise at the last minute. Or intended meetings with friends never happen because the “urgent” keeps snatching time from our schedules.

Having spent much of my working career reacting to deadlines, I know how easily the urgent can crowd out the important. Even now, I wrestle with the conflict between longer-term writing projects and more immediate, short-term tasks that “need” to be completed first.

In the Scriptures, we see an example of “urgent vs. important” in the lives of sisters Mary and Martha. The gospel of Luke gives a quick synopsis:

“As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, ‘Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!’

‘Martha, Martha,’ the Lord answered, ‘you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed – or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her’” (Luke 10:38-41).

At first glance, it’s easy to side with Martha. There’s a meal to prepare. Things to be done. Martha was slaving away, while her sister was “chilling,” listening to what Jesus had to say. But as He often did, Jesus was using this for a teachable moment. The preparations preoccupying Martha’s attention could wait a few minutes. Time with Jesus, however, was a priceless moment that couldn’t be recaptured later.

Seems to me this “tyranny of the urgent” impedes our ability to establish and maintain a close, intimate walk with God. Hummel also wrote about this in his booklet: “But the root of all sin is self-sufficiency – independence from the rule of God. When we fail to wait prayerfully for God’s guidance and strength, we are saying with our actions, if not with our words, that we do not need him. How much of our service is actually a ‘going it alone’?” 

Psalm 37:7 admonishes, “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.” This “resting” and “waiting” run counter to the instincts of our instant world, worshiping at the altar of the urgent. But if we’re to truly become all the Lord intends for us to be, we’ve got to discover how not to sacrifice the important on that altar. 

Like Mary and Martha, we need to discern what’s really needed – the better of two or more options. Is it really important, or is it just urgent?

Time: Greatest Compliment in the World

Did you know time isn’t constant? Yes, scientists tell us our 24-hours a day, seven-day week never fluctuates and can give empirical evidence. But we all know time isn’t constant. I can prove it.

Think about the last time you took a long vacation that you really enjoyed. Didn’t the time pass quickly? It probably seemed like just a couple of days. Compare that with the same duration of time, except you were on a strict diet. No good food, no fun. How fast did that time pass? It seemed to crawl, right? A one-week diet can seem like a month.

Sometimes time seems to pass with lightning
speed, other times it slows to a crawl.

Compare spending several hours with a good friend you haven’t seen in months, with having to spend time with someone you don’t like. With one you think, “Where did the time go?” With the other, even a few minutes feel like hours, right?

Have you ever had a day at work when you remarked, “Man, this day has flown by!” and one of your coworkers responded, “That’s for sure!” The next day came, and it seemed the hands on the office clock were stuck in mud. You and the same colleague agreed, “Wow, I thought this day would never end!” See, proof that time isn’t constant.

So much for the time-space continuum. But consider an observation I heard a while back: “Time is the greatest compliment in the world.”

I think the speaker was right. If you buy someone a gift, it costs you something. But money is like what they used to say of Doritos chips in the old commercial – you can make more. Time, however, once spent, is gone. It can’t be recaptured. Spending time with someone, especially when you have other options, is a great compliment. It’s essentially saying, “I’m here to give you a portion of time – part of my life – that I’ll never have again.”

We’re busier than ever. Everyone seems in a hurry, even if we’re not always sure why. This makes time, which can’t be saved or set aside for a rainy day, a precious commodity. Stopping whatever you’re in the middle of so you can give someone else a few minutes (or more) of your attention says a lot about them – and you. Philippians 2:3-4 says, “…in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” It’s like saying, “My time is your time. You’re most important right now.”

Writing to followers of Christ in the city of Thessalonica, the apostle Paul expressed it this way: “We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us” (1 Thessalonians 2:8).

In an age when people are so busy with their smartphones they can’t be bothered to look up and talk with each other, even sitting in a restaurant, standing in a mall, or participating in a meeting, to consciously and intentionally devote time to someone else says a lot. It’s a non-verbal way of communicating, “You’re significant. You’re deserving of my time.”

Taking this one step further, as followers of Christ we know God has all the time in the world – and more. And it’s clear He desires to spend some of it with us. The last thing Jesus said before His ascension to heaven was, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). To me, that’s like the Lord saying to us, “My time is your time.”