903 How To Spend a Day

Today, you have been given something more precious than any riches. Something that cannot be bought or borrowed, but it can be stolen. You woke up this morning with the gift of TIME. Time to live. Sadly the gift of time has grown old to most of us and instead of immense gratitude, we woke up with dread. We woke up with the desire to just sleep a little more. We woke up with regret that it was once again Monday and the weekend is over. We woke up thinking of all we have to do. And dang if we’re not totally missing it … we’re missing the absolute gift this is. My sister, YOU HAVE TIME TODAY!!!!! Others have begged for this time and didn’t get it. Some have bargained and tried to make deals for this time, and didn’t live to see it. But you received it. TIME. Now the question becomes, how will you use it? Will you protect it? Will you invest it? Will you enjoy it? Today is simply time. It is hours that turn into minutes, minutes that are given to you to live as you wish. With every minute of today you will make decisions. You’re continually deciding how to spend this precious and priceless gift you have been given. A paragraph from the book “The Best Yes” puts it like this: The decisions we make dictate the schedules we keep. The schedules we keep determine the lives we live. The lives we live determine how we spend our souls. So, this isn’t just about finding time. This is about honoring God with the time we have. How will you honor God with the time you have today? Doesn’t he expect a return on this day of life he has given you? Didn’t he give it to you for a purpose? Jesus often taught by telling stories. One of the stories he told is found in Matthew 25: 14-30 titled “The Parable of the Talents”. It’s a story of a master who gave 3 of his servants a measure of money, called a talent, to watch over while he went away. When the master returned he asked his servants to account for what they had been given. Two of them invested and doubled the money. But the third was afraid of losing the money, so he hid it and returned to the master exactly what he had been given, unused. The master was furious over this fearful way of living and took from him the little he had and gave it to the ones who had used what they had been given. Maybe you don’t feel like God has plopped a pile of gold in your lap, but he sure has given you the priceless gift of time. And just like the master who returned and asked for an account on what he had given, our Master will ask us what we did with the hours of today. What decisions did you make today? What schedules did you keep? How did you spend your soul today? Will you waste this time? Oh how we’re guilty of living, but not really living. We’re here, but not fully here. We’re watching others live their lives on our little screens, while our own lives our begging for our attention and getting little. A few weeks ago I sat on the coast here in Key Largo watching the most magnificent fireworks over the bay. A crowd had gathered, and the majority were watching the magnificent bursts of color in the night sky through their cell phone screens as they carefully documented every moment on their live videos and stories. But, the man beside me really took that to a whole new level … as he sat in this beautiful place in the presence of a show in the sky, he sat on his phone, scrolling Instagram, watching the fireworks videos of his friends, missing the live show right in front of him. Oh my goodness, it was the most ridiculous thing … yet, don’t we all do it in our own way? We’re missing the live show and unfolding of our life because our attention is on something else. Life is happening all around us and we’re numb to it. Don’t waste this.