The Time of My Life

It is hard to believe that this year marks the 20th anniversary of my high school graduation. In some ways, it seem like only yesterday--that is until I see an old photo. When I see an old photo, I wonder what happened to the time. I know where the time went. I won't bore you with the details. Life happened.

Twenty years ago, I was ruminating on the un-reassuring promise that those days "were the best days of my life." Such a promise cast a long, dark shadow over my future. I feared that if high school represented the best life had to offer the rest of life would be nearly impossible to bear. I battled with depression, anxiety, and insecurity in those days, and the thought of things only getting worse, pushed in me in a bad direction.

At 18, I didn't think I would be around to see a 20 year reunion. A couple of years ago, around my 36th birthday, I realized I had lived longer than the teenage me thought we would. With that realization, I came to understand that I had been operating on old plan. I hadn't made a "what comes after 35 plan."

In truth, the boy I was died along time ago. It happened late in 1995, when the truth of the gospel awakened my heart to reality of God and my need of forgiveness. My life took a definite turn (although the journey hasn't always gone as smoothly as I had hoped it would). I still make a lot of mistakes, but I am a different person today.

I have spent the last 18+ years discovering the best times of my life. In 1999, I married the love of my life, Delia. In 2008, we adopted our daughter Sophia. I have pastored the same church since August of 2001. I have learned much in the last several years.

We have encountered difficulty along the way. The hardest was the loss of our daughter Ellie in 2006. Born prematurely, she survived almost five months before she went to be with the Lord. That kind of loss changes a person, they never recover even if they are able to adjust to the new normal and move forward with life. But God, in his grace, carried us. We survived.

Even in my darkest days, I can say these are the best days of my life. Yet, through faith, I look for better days to come. I don't know that I would go back and change anything. I would be afraid that I wouldn't be the man I am today, if I did. But if I could go back, with the assurances that changes made would only make me a better person today. I probably would.

I find it interesting that days that felt life-or-death 20 years ago are often difficult to recall. Moments I swore I would never forget are lost to the past. And yet, I still let regret linger in my mind. What could have been? It doesn't matter. I'm content with what is, and excited about what is to come. I hope you are at peace with your past, and happy in present. Twenty years can pass in blink of the eye, so make the most out of this moment.

The Stewardship of Time

Time management experts claim that lack of organization is a key time waster. Lack of planning is another key time waster. Disorganization and poor planning go hand in hand. Disorganized people usually fly by the seat of their pants, while people who plan tend to be more organized.

Wasting time isn't just an educational or employment problem. It is a spiritual problem. We are to make the most of the time God has given us. We are called to make the most of every opportunity. If, however, we squander the precious few moments given to us in the vapor of a life, we are poor stewards indeed.

The good steward ship of time means that we must make plans. Someone once said, "If we fail to plan, we plan to fail." The Bible encourages planning. We are not to plan presumptuously as if our planning obligated God to ensure their success. We should seek the Lord's will as we plan, and ask faithful believers for their advice.

Developing a routine is important to establishing a rhythm to life. Organization and planning help to sync us to that rhythm. Disorganization and poor planning through us out of sync. I'm not suggesting that there is no room for spontaneity or flexibility, but approaching life with a careless attitude is dangerous.

God has given us a stewardship. We are stewards of all he has given us, including time. To make the most of it, we need to carefully plan and organize our time. If we do that, we increase our odds of making the most of the time we have been given.

With these truths in mind, what suggestions would you make to help someone become a better steward of time?

Numbering Our Days

"Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts" (Psalm 90:12, HCSB).

These words come from a psalm of Moses. It was probably written after he became the leader of Israel which means he was somewhere between 80 and 120 years of age. Most people would assume at that point in life you are a wise as you're going to get. Not Moses. He was committed to the process of learning.

Moses had to learn some lessons the hard way, and after that he was more inclined to listen. Maybe this prayer was written after Moses learned he would not enter the Promise Land because of his disobedience. Maybe the rebuke of the Lord left him feeling his foolishness.

Maybe he uttered this prayer while looking out over a vast multitude, freshly rescued through the sea. Maybe he feared the awesome responsibility of leading the people.

Whatever Moses' motivation, one thing is certain. Moses desired to live his life wisely. What would you do if you knew you were going to die in six months? Most of us would want to make the most of that time. To paraphrase Moses, "Lord, remind me of my mortality and impending judgment, so I'll do the right kind of things.

If you don't know it, your days are numbered. Only God knows the full count of them. One day, possibly soon, you will stand before him and give an account of how you lived. I hope you will be able to stand before him with a wise heart.

On Time

Time is a funny thing. I think it was Kermit the Frog who said, "Times fun when your having flies." Time can be wasted or saved. Time can be lost or found. Time can be managed (wisely or poorly). Time waits for no man, but heals all wounds. You can be on it or behind it. Time passes so slowly when your young or waiting for something or especially when you are young and waiting for something. I have heard it said, "The older you get, the faster time flies."

In a given day, if a person lives through from start to finish, we all get the same amount of it. We all get the same 24 hours, but we don't all use it the same way. Some people make the most of their time, while others kill time.

As followers of Christ, we are called to redeem the time. But what does that mean? It means we have to make the most our of every moment. We live, love, learn, and serve as if each moment might be our last. We must live out our time here with the full knowledge that at any moment we will be called to give an account of how we used our time.

The clock it ticking. Time is slipping away from us all. We can remember moments in our life, but we can't turn back time. God has given us this present moment live and move and breath in his glorious grace, but will we make the most of it?

Lost in a Moment

Have you ever had an experience where time seemed to stand still? You know what I mean, you're praying for what seems like hours, but when you look up only a few minutes have passed. Maybe you're listening to a sermon, and are so engrossed in what is being said, you can't believe 45 minutes has passed so quickly. I have that experience a lot. Sometimes when I read, I lose all track of time. If I'm reading fiction it's as if I leave this world, and enter another.

In times like these, the world around you seems to fall away, and time as you know ceases to function. Maybe you become more aware of every passing millisecond as if it were an hour, or perhaps you become less aware of time so that an hour passes in mere moments. Maybe it is a matter of focus, you focus on something so intently that time ceases to be important.

At look at moments like these as foretastes of eternity. When we step out of this world, and into the New Heavens and New Earth, time as we know it will cease. No past. No future. Just one eternal present that stretches on for infinity. In eternity hours will be moments and milliseconds will be centuries.

Of course, this is mostly speculation on my part. It is hard to say what eternity will be like. It is a category completely beyond mortal comprehension. Time is so woven into the fabric of our existence that we cannot truly understand what a life without it would be like. Concepts like beginnings and endings; days, weeks, and years; decades and century; morning and evening; and even now and later, drive so much of our thinking. At times, we even speak of eternity past and eternity future.

These time lapses or frozen moments, whatever we choose to call them are perplexing. It would seem that as creatures deeply rooted in time, we would not be able to "lose track." But we do. How do we explain such experiences? Maybe we aren't as rooted in time as we think. Maybe we were created for eternity, and just maybe every so often eternity breaks in to remind us that time is running out.

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Numbering Our Days

"LORD, reveal the end of my life and the number of my days.  Let me know how short-lived I am.  You, indeed, have made my days short in length, and my life span as nothing in Your sight.  Yes, every mortal man is only a vapor" (Ps. 39:4-5, HCSB).

"Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts" (Ps. 90:12, HCSB).

Time is something most of us assume we have.  Under normal circumstances, we operate without a sense of urgency.  A sixteen year-old assumes that there is another fifty or sixty years to come.  A thirty-five year-old assumes that there is another thirty or forty years left.  A fifty year-old assumes there is another twenty or so years left.

The reality is that none of know when life will end.  All we really know is that life will end.  It might be different for humanity if they came out of the womb with an expiration date.  David  (Psalm 39) wanted to know his expiration date.  He wanted to know the number of his days so that he could squeezes the most out of them for the glory of God.  It seems he knew how prone people can be to assuming that time is on their side.  David didn't want to be lulled into a false sense of security, he wanted to make the days he had count.

Moses (Psalm 90) also wanted to know the best way to go about numbering the days.   Moses reasoned that the right numbering of our days leads to wisdom.  If we are going to walk in the way that pleases the Lord, without turning to the left or right, we need to focus on the end.  The end must always be in sight.

Living with the end in sight allows us to major on the majors.  It keeps us from chasing all the time consuming rabbits that devour the precious moments of our lives.  It teaches us to maximize every opportunity.

It is dangerous to drift through life thinking that we will never run out of time.  That kind of thinking keeps us from fleeing to Christ for salvation.  We assume there is time for us to "live a little," and then come to Christ.  We fail to see that today is the appointed today, and that tomorrow may never come. 

Thinking there will always be more time, keeps us from fully devoting ourselves to Christ once we have trusted him.  "Tomorrow, Jesus," we say, "I promise I'll get on that first thing in the morning."  Time is ticking away, but we don't seem to hear it. Tick-tock. Tick-tock.  How long before the trumpet sounds?  We don't know.

I'm not suggesting we mope around worried about the day of our death.  Rather, I am suggesting we live as if our days are numbered and as if we want them to count.  Are you counting your days?  Are you making your days count?

Time for Scripture

Time is a commodity that is easily wasted. We'll exchange it for money, for fame, for power, for amusement, or any number of other reasons, but once it is gone, it's gone. Are we redeeming the time that God has given us, or are we wasting it? How does one know if he is just wasting time, or using it wisely? To answer this question, one need wisdom.

To get wisdom one needs to seek the Lord. We must first ask, and then sit at his feet and listen. What I mean is that we must get into the Word, and I don't simply mean casually reading it. I mean diligent study, memorization, and meditation. When we are spiritually immature these tasks are often difficult and unpleasant, and they rarely yield the fruit anticipated.

As we persevere in these tasks they begin to transform the soil of our heart and mind. The fallen nature, or old man as it is often called, is an inhospitable soil lacking the proper nutrients for spiritual life. It isn't until the Holy Spirit brings new life (often called regeneration) that the Word can produce fruit in us. This is often a slow process as the Spirit "fertilizes" our new nature with the truths of the gospel.

He begins the process of shaping us into the image of the Son by the sanctifying work of the Word. In the early stages of our new life their is still much cultivation that must be done. There are all manner of weeds and stones of false doctrine and idolatry that must be removed. This is the process often referred to as sanctification.

Thus, the work we may initially find difficult and unpleasant in our spiritual immaturity, becomes a labor of love as we mature. As we mature, the difficulty doesn't necessarily decrease, as much as our ability to enjoy the difficult task increases. It is no longer a drudgery, but a delight, because as we mature we come to understand that these tasks are drawing closer and closer to our desired end--to be like Jesus. Thus, time spent studying the Word of God, in a desire to walk in obedience, is time well spent.

Work is noble. Fellowship is sweet. Rest is important. But, these things need not be done to the exclusion of studying God's Word. In fact, they are only rightly done when done in response to God's Word. His Word tells us how we should work, how to maintain sweet fellowship, and why rest is important. For this reason, we are told to do what we do for the glory of the Lord, but this kind of living can only happen where people are obeying the Word.

I Need More Time

There just aren't enough hours in the day. I am trying to take some of my own advice and manage my time a little better, but there is always an endless stream of things that need to be done. Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining. I love my life. I have been truly blessed by the Lord. I have been blessed with a beautiful wife, a fun-loving, energetic, curious daughter, a cantankerous cat, a loving family, great friends and a loving church. I love pastoring. It allows me to serve along side of God's people, and more importantly, to serve my Lord.

Sometimes (always) the blessings of the Lord are so rich and so abundant it is hard to manage them all. If I miss posting a day or two, don't worry. I am still walking with the Lord, still thinking about how his truth touches our lives to transform them. I am still thinking about you and how I can best serve you through this blog. Some days it is a struggle to think of something to write, other days its a struggle to find time. I want to post articles that are edifying to you and glorifying to the Lord.