Time's Value

Time's Value

When speaking or writing about "TIME" in the biblical sense the New and Old Testaments contain almost 1,100 references to time. Ecclesiastes 3 is an excellent, nearly all-inclusive, place to begin. Here are those verses are as written in the New King James Version.

Everything Has Its Time

To everything, there is a season,

A time for every purpose under heaven:

A time to be born, And a time to die;

A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted;

A time to kill, And a time to heal;

A time to break down, And a time to build up;

A time to weep, And a time to laugh;

A time to mourn, And a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, And a time to gather;

A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to gain, And a time to lose;

A time to keep, And a time to throw away;

A time to tear, And a time to sew;

A time to keep silence, And a time to speak;

A time to love, And a time to hate;

A time of war, And a time of peace.

The Apostle Paul was never one to let challenging times or difficult circumstances control him. Rather, with the help of God, he was always determined to utilize his days and years working for the Lord. He helped others gain, or win if you will, the cross of salvation. Have you?

We read of his attitude, enduring dedication, and resolute determination from the words found in Philippians 3:12-14. “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

WHAT IS THE VALUE OF OUR TIME

Want to know the value of a particular year? Ask a soldier, man or woman, sent overseas to endure a hardship tour, IE., no accompanying spouse, or children. What is the value of one single month? Ask a mother, on the wrong side of the glass, watching the nurse attending to her premature baby. What is the value of one week? Remember the last time you were broke, and it was days until payday. Any week with sparse food was a long week.

What is the value of one hour? Ask someone terminally ill waiting for their spouse to arrive at the hospital. What is one minute's value? Ask the spouse who barely missed being able to say “goodbye” to their loved one who just died. What is the value of a split second? Ask anyone who recently swerved to avoid a child darting out between two cars. Most importantly though—is how do you value your time?

Of course, we know that time is purely a human concept. Since we can't touch it or hold it, do we humans spend too much time measuring time only to feel the aging effects of time's passing. God doesn’t have a desk clock or use a calendar. Most of us know the famous Bible quote that says, “With the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” (2 Peter 3:8) God deals with eternity, and therefore time is not an important factor to Him. We have an eternity to face head-on. So, should our time left be important to us? What do you think? How will you use it?

Our time is crucial because we live a limited allotment of time left here on earth. Some more, some less. Life begins in a mother's womb and, by God's grace we were born. The lucky ones grow into adolescence, mature to adulthood, middle age, advanced age, and old age. We measure life by segments of time and often declare our time is too valuable for this or that. What makes anything valuable? Oftentimes, it is scarceness. If there is a scarcity, then that item or resource quickly escalates in value. So, if something is rare, it is usually valuable. But if we have an abundance of something, often the value diminishes. The same is frequently true with our time. Maybe that helps explain the ever-widening generation gap. Young people feel that they are invulnerable and have plenty of time. To them, time is not precious. They aren’t too concerned about wasting or squandering it.

On the other hand, as we grow older and wiser, we begin to realize that our time left is diminishing, therefore, it should be even more valuable. Those of us in our more senior decades tend to look at those under 25 and advise them, “Don’t waste time, it’s too valuable.” Usually, they will reply, “No, problem, we have lots of time left, we can waste it if we want.” And the wider the age gap, the wider the gap between the various values that we place on time.