Redeeming the Time

 

Time is a very interesting thing, it’s so tricky and deceptive! While I know that time is constant, it seems as if at different periods and stages of life that time runs differently. For example, time seems to move much faster when you are on vacation than when you are going about your normal work week. When you are in the long line at the DMV, time seems as if it’s at an agonizing stand-still. I remember growing up, right after Thanksgiving ended, we would begin to count the days until Christmas, which seemed to take an eternity! As you get older, time seems to get lost as the days trail off into weeks, weeks into months, and months into years. The best we seem to be able to do is to hold on and not get too lost in its flow.

But wouldn’t it be interesting if you knew what time you had left? What would you do if you knew that you only had a month or a few weeks to live? What would be your focus? What would be the most important thing that you would spend your time doing?

Some of us would spend time with family and friends. We would make sure that they knew how much we loved them and cared for them. We would seek to make new memories with them and enjoy every moment together. Maybe we would seek to repair damage and hurt we had caused others. We might offer and seek forgiveness from those we’ve offended and those who have offended us. We might finish off our bucket lists and travel to places we’ve always wanted to go and see things we have always wanted to see. Some of us might even look into getting ourselves right with God before the day we were going to meet Him.

You know what the strange thing is, we don’t realize how little time we have until we realize how little time we have left. World-wide, human life expectancy is 72.6 years. The closer you get to that, the more you realize how short this life we have been given really is. It seems like yesterday when Taima and I were having our babies and raising a young family. Now, our baby boy is having a baby girl of his own! Life has changed and time continues to fly by! But what is most important is what we do with the time we have left.

We don’t realize how little time we have until we realize how little time we have left

Paul seems to understand this very well, especially as it relates to the greatest task we have, making disciples for the Kingdom of God. Paul tells the believers at Ephesus to: Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Ephesians 5:15-16 (ESV)

We live in extremely dark and evil times, it’s all around us. From the hate and intolerance toward us from those crying out for tolerance, to the acts of evil we see, like the tragedies that have taken place in Uvalde and Tulsa. The days are evil because wicked people seek to live out the wickedness of their hearts. In their sinful nature, they hate God and pursue their own sinful desires.

               What can we, as followers of Christ, do in such evil days and in such wicked times? Paul tells gives some important tasks we must pursue in 2 Timothy 4:1-8. He tells Timothy to: “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” Why does he say these things? Because, “…the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” So, because of this, we must fight “the good fight”, finish “the race”, and keep “the faith”.

We must not waste the moments that God has given us than anything less than the pursuit of His glory!

               If you look around and wonder what the time is, the time is now! It’s time, past time, for God’s church to rise out of the ashes of doubt and apathy of the past and pursue the will of God as we strive to make disciples and live out His truth for the world to see! No matter how much time you have left, we must not waste the moments that God has given us than anything less than the pursuit of His glory!

Pastor Paul Beam