Your Own Little Piece of Time

I’ve been thinking a lot about “time” lately.  And not because it’s been 2 months since I last blogged, either.  And not because my last 30-something birthday is approaching this year.  Specifically, I’ve been thinking about what we do with our time, who we spend it on…how we redeem it.

I know this is horribly obvious, but we all have a limited amount of time.  We aren’t getting any more of it, and, for most of us, we don’t know how much we have left.  The Bible says in Psalm 139:16: “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.  And in your book they were all written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.”

Elsewhere, the psalmist wrote “So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (Ps. 90:12)

How do you number something you don’t know the amount of?  You treat every day as if it was your last.  You make it count.  You try not to waste its preciousness, because we’ve all been given a set amount of time.  We’ve all been allotted a number of days.  And we’ve all been put where we are for a reason.  We’ve been given the things we’ve been given for a reason. What will we do with them?

As I’ve been spending time going through the books of 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles, I’ve been especially struck by the passing of the kingdom from one king to another, and how each man handled the time he was given.

Asa was one of the relatively rare “good kings” of Judah.  2 Chronicles 14:2 says that “Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord His God.” Read through the Chronicles, and you’ll find those are rare qualities indeed.

I’d say they are just as rare  today.

One of the things I believe we seldom give our awareness to is that, one day, we’ll be gone.  One day, my son will carry my name on.  One day, my girls will leave my home (oh Lord this is hard to write) and start one of their own.  One day, my grandkids (Lord willing) will be here, and I’ll just be a picture on a wall (or smartphone/watch/screen thingy).

What am I doing to prepare THEM for that day?  What am I doing to prepare ME for that day?!!!  Honestly, we all go through our days pretty much like we’re always going to be here, because we refuse to face (unless we have to) that we won’t.  We think we’ve got time.

But do we?

We are all here for a reason.  It may not be reigning as king over a distant land, but it will probably involve coming into contact with hundreds of people in the course of time, and leaving some kind of mark on them.  It may involve having and raising kids, and having part in that indelible mark on the world.  It may be loving our wife through a trial we never asked for.  It may mean having responsibility for the lives of hundreds of people, or more.

Whatever the reason, God knows.  And if you seek Him, He’ll show it to you.  It can’t be missed, because He’s not the author of confusion.  You may get 40 years for it, like David and Solomon did.   You may get more.  You may get less.

The question is, what will you do with it?  Who will you serve?  What will you do with your own little piece of time?

Me?  I hope that one day it will be said that I walked in the ways of my father, and did what was right and good in the eyes of the Lord…with my wife, my kids, my ministry…that I did it as unto the Lord.  Lord willing…