TIME IS WONDERFUL WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH IT?

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TIME IS WONDERFUL! 

What Are You Doing With it?

Ephesians 5:15-17.
Be careful how you live, not as fools but as those who are wise. 

Make the most of every opportunity for doing good in these evil days. 

Don’t act thoughtlessly, but try to understand what the Lords wants you to do.

In time, from the stretches of eternity…therein is God.  And therefore how you use this precious gift is of no small importance.

There is wasted time over which you really don’t have any control, such as: How much time do you spend waiting for a green light you just missed?  Or returning calls to people who are then never there when you return their call. 

But what about the wasted time over which you do have control?  Those wasted minutes that will never exist again - a slice of eternity dropped as if worthless at your feet.

          Charles Francis Adams, the 19th century political figure and diplomat, and son of John Quincy Adams and grandson of John Adams, kept a diary.  He had a superb family lineage but perhaps not always the best concept of what was worthy of his time for one day he penned: “Went fishing with my son today.  A day wasted.” 

However, his son, Brook Adams, also kept a diary, which is also still in  existence, and on that same day he made this entry, “Went fishing with my father.  The most wonderful day of my life!”

And therein lies part of the problem.  Are we capable of judging what is worthless or worthwhile when it comes to the use of that precious commodity called time?  Do we too often misjudge what is important or not important at all?

Do we need, on a regular basis, to prayerfully run our daily schedule by the throne of grace?  A kind of godly filtering to keep our thinking straight.  A prayer something like , “Lord, help me not to waste my life and help me to know the difference” rather than foolishly frittering away precious life portions with little or no concern.

          I’ve got an 84th birthday coming up in a few days and like everyone else, I ask,

“Where did the time go?” But I also ask, “And what did I do with it while it was going?”

How much more earthly time do I have left?  I have no idea, but I do know that when one is young they feel they have forever to straighten their life out.

Speaking of wisely allocating time:  Each of you, when attending church, have made a conscious effort to straighten up your thinking.  And when you are there, challenge yourself to make the most of this worship time.

To pray deeply and not let your mind wander.

To sing whole heartily rather than mumble or not sing at all.

And as you drive home, will you apply what you have heard to your life, or will you think, What the preacher said had nothing to do with me.  Or even if it does, will you think, I’m certainly not going to re-arrange my way of living just because of what I heard.

How did the morning’s scripture begin… “Be careful how you live…”

So consider, how do you live?  Carefully with thoughtfulness - or carelessly because you couldn’t care less?

Proverbs 10:17 says, “Whoever practices discipline is on the way to life.”

Do you consider yourself disciplined? 

Do you have a quiet time with God on a regular basis?  Filling your head and heart with the reality of an eternal God?  Is this kind of discipline for your soul a part of your time management? 

Do you exercise consistently to build your muscles, and eat less to maintain a good body weight?  Is this kind of discipline for your body a part of your time management?

          Have you disciplined your habits? 

Are you a habitual liar or a habitual truth teller?

          Do you have the habit of saying “no” to all the opportunities to sin that come your way or do you often give in and give up when it comes to disciplining your daily actions?

A key difference between successful-in-life people and those who struggle to get by is self-discipline. 

Disciplined folk don’t waste time.  Undisciplined folk squander far too much time accomplishing very little.  Successful-in-life people have formed the habits of doing those things that most people don’t want to do.

          As Confucius wrote, “The nature of people is always the same; it is their habits that separate them.”

          When Polish pianist Ignace Jan Paderewsky played before Queen Victoria, he won her enthusiastic approval. “Mr. Paderewsky,” she exclaimed, “you are a genius.” Paderewsky shook his head. “Perhaps, Your Majesty, but before that I was a drudge.”  Alluding to the years he had spent practicing and the number of hours he continued to spend practicing every day. 

          The writer Coleridge is the supreme example of a genius who wasted his writing talent by having a mind filled with all kind of books he never transcribed.

He was one of my favorite writers in college and as I read what little he did actually put to paper I would almost weep at his wasted life.

Discipline without some sacrifice is not discipline.  It’s a student studying when he had rather be enjoying the companionship of his fellow classmates.  It’s parents attending a PTA meeting when they’d rather be watching a movie.   It’s walking a mile or two when you’d rather sleep an extra hour.