Time

Each man's life is but a breath (Psalm 39:5).

Why are we preoccupied with time? Almost everyone wears a watch or carries something that shows what time it is. Every car has a clock somewhere on the dashboard. Whether you live in a house or an apartment, I’d bet that you have at least one clock in almost every room.

One reason that we are so fixated on time has to do with money. Bosses want to squeeze every dime’s worth of productivity out of their employees, so they watch the clock very carefully to see when you arrive, when you leave, and how much time you take for break. It’s frustrating to make a call and be put on hold, when you’re dealing with an important deadline and time is running out. The days can seem endless when other employees are lazy or have no idea what they’re doing, and it’s up to you to keep things working right.

Another reason we count the minutes is so we can pack as much fun into each day as we can. Being stuck in traffic is annoying, because after a long day at work we want to get home to relax. We grumble when we want to download a file, but the Internet is running slowly. We grouse about how long it takes to make dinner or finish a load of laundry when there’s a game we’re eager to see or a sale that we want to check out.

But nothing makes us think about time more than death. We know that we have a limited amount of time here on earth, and the older we get the more precious that time becomes. Retirement starts looking like a final opportunity to squeeze happiness from the days remaining to us.

Time is a finite commodity; once used up it is gone forever, and it only comes to you in limited supply. Time is the most precious resource that you have; it should be used wisely. And what is the best way to use your time? You should use it to get ready for the eternity that follows death. What death holds for you depends on the decisions you make before your time runs out. Death can be terrifying, but what follows will be infinitely worse—that is, unless Jesus is your friend. But if you use your time to build a relationship with Him, then death is nothing to be scared of, and you will find that your time on earth was only a brief prologue to eternal joy in paradise.