A Matter of Time

I’ve always believed the perception of time is purely mathematic. Think about it…for a 5-year-old, one year is 1/5th of that child’s entire lifetime. So one year seems like a very long time. However, for a 35-year-old, a year is only 1/35th of that person’s life experience—a much smaller segment. No wonder time seems to fly as you get older! But, as I was recently reminded, it’s not about how much time you have in life, but what you choose to do with it.

Aren’t you always amazed by people who seem to get so much done in the course of a day? We’re all given the same 24 hours, but some folks just seem to know how to make every 60 minutes count. Much of it has to do with goal-setting and discipline. Remember the old Army commercials? After a montage of scenes featuring very task-oriented young men going about their daily routine, the voice-over said, “We get more done before 6 a.m. than most people do all day.” Now, that’s a model for productivity!

Making the most of your time isn’t just a nice thing to do—it’s a spiritual principle. Ecclesiastes 3:1 reminds us “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” In light of that scripture, when it’s time to eat, a person shouldn’t be out running and playing. Just as when it’s time to work, someone shouldn’t be sleeping. There is a time for everything. Every activity has a season.

Perhaps this is why the old have greater wisdom. After 60 and 70 years, they have witnessed quite a few seasons. And because life is cyclical, these older folks have had a chance to see for themselves the pattern of life over the years. They know by experience that “every action has a consequence.” They understand that “weeping endures for a night but joy comes in the morning.” They realize that “this too shall pass.”

People often say that young people have their whole lives ahead of them. But that holds true at any age. Remember the saying, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life?” Whether you’re 16 or 46, you have the rest of your life ahead of you. And life is so unpredictable, no one at any age can be certain of how much more time that is. But everyone can make the choice to make the most of the time we have right now. We can talk about what we’d “like to do” OR we can choose to go ahead and make it happen.

It’s all just a matter of time. What are you doing with yours?