Where Do We Begin?
Oh, no…can it possibly be this time again? We are starting another new year with everything that comes with it! A new president, new responsibilities, and new opportunities… We set new goals and evaluate how we did with last year’s resolutions. No, really…what happened to last year!! There is a slight letdown after weeks of traveling, company and celebrations. The re-grouping of priorities, getting the house back in order, school beginning after vacation and the need to get all that Christmas paraphernalia back into storage boxes is lapping at our heels.
Seriously, where do we begin?
“Our greatest danger in life is in permitting the urgent to crowd out the important.” Charles Hummel
Life is a race against time. Time is limited and irrecoverable. It is no respecter of persons. We are accountable for how we spend our time and God establishes the number of our days. Life at the longest is amazingly short.
A converted Hindu who had been given a Bible and a clock said, ‘The clock will tell me how time goes, and the Bible will tell me how to spend it.”. Anonymous
The Bible uses several metaphors to help us visualize just how brief our life is. My life is wind Job 7:7 and My days are swifter than a weavers shuttle. Job 7:6 The psalmist compares life to a fading flower or a falling leaf. As for man, his days are as grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes…for the wind passes over it, and it is gone. Ps. 103:15-16 Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding. I Chron. 29:15 And Psalm 90:9 reminds us; We spend our years as a tale that is told. James 4:14 asks us, What is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.
“Life is so short that the wood of the cradle rubs up tight against
the marble of the tomb!” George Sweeny
All of us are given an equal amount of time. The only difference between us is in the way we spend it.
We are given 168 hours each week.
We spend approximately 56 hours for sleep, rest and recuperation.
We spend approximately 28 hours for eating and personal duties.
We spend approximately 40-50 hours earning a living.
We have 30-40 hours left to spend just as we wish!
How do we spend them?
Is the bulk of that time spent on:
Recreation and Entertainment
Devotions (Family and Private); Meditation
Exercise and health
Family mentoring and fellowship (Mom's are blessed with more time in this area)
Regular worship of God
Personal Interests and Achievements
Conversations (Snapchat; Twitter; Instagram; E-mail; Pinterest; Facebook...etc.!)
Time entrusted in the name of Christ (Witnessing, discipling, teaching…)
The question is…
What do we do with our time?
Have we made wise use of our time as good stewards?
Maybe we are very busy with good things, yet too busy for the best things;
those things that have eternal value. That is where we need to begin…
A New Year is an anniversary and “the chief value of an anniversary is to call us to greater faithfulness in the time that is left.” William Manning Every hour that is lost is gone forever!
“So teach us to number our days that we might apply our hearts to wisdom. Psalm 90:12
~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America. Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California. My passion is discipling and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights.
