I read something today that caught me up short. The concept of time.
Time is a fragment of eternity, a clock nibbling at eternity.
Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. Today is the only time we have to invest for God. Lost opportunities can never be regained.
The Psalmist said: “Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are; help us to spend them as we should.” (Ps 90:12)
The analogy I read today gave an illustration supposing someone would credit your bank account with $86,400 every day. You had to spend it all in the same day. Anything left unspent was lost. I would not be credited back to your account. Of course, you’d make every effort to spend that money.
We each have a “time account” in the bank of Heaven. God has given us 86,400 seconds to spend—today. At the stroke of midnight, those seconds un-used are gone forever.
So why did that strike a chord with me? I am most definitely not making good use of my allotted 86,400 seconds today. Nor did I do so yesterday. Nor the day before. I’m finding myself in a kind of limbo-like trance, just frittering my seconds away, never to be retrieved. Never to be changed, altered or re-used. They’re gone.
Forever.
I need to spend some time in prayer. I need to seek God’s plans for me and the days that lay ahead of me . . . those days’ God sees fit to allow me. That devotional reading this morning has been a sharp prod in the behind, a warning that I need to make the best use of my time from this day forward.
It’s not going to be easy. I’m still hurting. I’m still trying to adjust to my new reality. And I know I will only survive if I put my entire trust in the Lord.
What about you? Are you wasting your 86,400 seconds today/
Wow,Peggy, great post! Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI waste so much of the time God gives me. I'll try to do better today--especially seeing how there will be so little to spare today. But then, it seems like when time is at a premium is when I'm most likely to be most efficient. Why is that?
~Anne
I know what you mean about being most efficient when time is at a premium. So many times, when I have too much to do, I find I can cope so much better! It makes no sense. :)
DeleteThanks for leaving a comment, Anne.
Nice post, Peg. I so agree with all you wrote here.
ReplyDeleteI would like to add when one is grieving, the time for God is spent a little differently. It is our time to grow closer to Lord God. It is our Valley of the Shadow. We may sit idle, but it's what is in our minds that counts.
I remember crying out to God often during my early days of grieving for my son. I may have been busy with my hands or sitting idle or lying on my back, but I sought God to give me comfort and to grow me up spiritually.
Then, I would live life and include time to reach out to others to comfort them or ask for their comfort.
Be kind and gentle to yourself, Peg, and meditate much upon the Lord. :)
God bless you,
Jean
Jean, you describe my time these days perfectly.
DeleteAfter Jim's death, I had little time to grieve properly because of the unplanned decision to pack up and move back to Wisconsin. Then getting into the "new" house and all the chaos that involved, I think I'm just now beginning to go through the grieving process.
Jim's body was donated to a research project through Hospice. After that was completed, he was cremated, and his ashes mailed to me. I received them two days before Christmas.
In the time between his passing and receiving his ashes I did not have time to grieve. Finally having him with me broke the dam and the flood-waters gushed. I broke. I guess I'm going through a delayed grieving process. Does that make sense?
Anyway, thank you for your words, dear Jean.