FROM SAVING AND MANAGING TO REDEEMING TIME
In a lifetime the average North American will spend:
Six months sitting at stoplights
Eight months opening junk mail
One year looking for misplaced objects
2 years unsuccessfully returning phone calls
5 years waiting in line
6 years eating
21 years watching television.
An article was once published entitled, “If You Are 35, You Have 500 Days To Live.” The article went on to contend that when you subtract the time you spend sleeping, working, tending to personal matters, eating, traveling, doing chores, attending to personal hygiene, and add in the miscellaneous time stealers, in the next 36 years you will have only 500 days to spend as you wish. Think about how you spend your time. When all of the necessary things are done, how much time is left?
A poet puts it this way:
Just a tiny little minute
Only sixty seconds in it.
Forced upon me. Can’t refuse it.
Didn’t seek it, didn’t choose it,
I must suffer if I lose it,
Give account if I abuse it.
Just a tiny little minute,
But eternity is in it.
God did not give all of us the same amount of talent, nor the same amount of wealth, but He has given each of us the same amount of time.
Imagine that a bank credits your account each morning with $86,400. No balance is carried over from day to day. Any balance is deleted each evening. What would you do when you knew that you would not use all your daily balance? Why, withdraw every penny, of course!
You have such a bank and so have I. The name of our bank is TIME. Every day we are credited with 86,400 seconds. Every night, that which we have not used is debited from our account. TIME bank allows no overdraft, there is no going back for a second chance. TIME bank does not allow borrowing from tomorrow and of course, and there are no leftovers. The clock ticks away, never waiting for anyone to catch up.
Time is money we say. I recently saw these statistics for a person who makes $25,000 per year working 40 hours per week. Each second is worth .2135, each hour worth 12.81. If he wasted one hour per day in a year those wasted hours would be worth $3,125. If he wasted one hour per day for 30 years those hours would be worth $93,750!
But, in reality, time is not money. If you lose money, you can always make it some other way. Time is not a renewable resource. Whatever time we lost is gone forever, never to be returned to us again. Time is infinitely more valuable than money ever will be.
All of us realize the value of time.
How do we value ONE YEAR? Ask a student who failed a grade.
What is the value of ONE MONTH? Ask a Mother whose baby arrived prematurely.
How much do we value ONE WEEK? For the sailors trapped in a submarine on the ocean floor it was the difference between life and death.
How much do we value ONE HOUR? Ask someone who missed a connecting flight because the first flight was delayed by an hour.
What is the value of HALF AN HOUR? Ask the parents of the flower girl and ring bearer who missed the wedding here yesterday because one of them thought the wedding was at 4:30, rather than 4 pm?
How much do we value ONE MINUTE? Ask someone who had a heart attack in a restaurant with a paramedic sitting at the next table.
How much do we value ONE SECOND? Ask an Olympic swimmer, who just missed qualifying by 3 one-thousandths of a second!
Because we value time so much, we usually try to SAVE it & MANAGE it.
We save time by using microwaves and automatic dishwashers. We save time by taking non-stop flights, paying others to do our yard work, housecleaning or snow removal, going to the bank or the grocery store at non-peak hours, taking shortcuts, ordering through catalogues, shopping online rather than standing in line, and in a host of other ways. John Cornelisse caught me saving time the other day when I passed him on the Lewvan and he was already doing 10 km over the posted speed limit!
Some people take time-saving to ridiculous extremes. I am told that an American funeral company has come up with a plan for those who are too busy to come inside the funeral chapel to either view the deceased or to attend the funeral service. Their proposal is to install a drive-through viewing window “for people who don’t have the time to bid farewell inside.” The funeral director said: “People are too busy these days with work. This is just one way of making it easier for them.”
Time Management is the buzzword of our generation, isn’t it? From Hasti-notes, Post-it’s, “to-do” lists and checklists to calendars, appointment books, electronic organizers and Palm Pilots to Daytimers and Franklin Planners that require you to assign priorities, clarify values, set goals and plan daily, from sending your employees to seminars and bringing in efficiency experts, Time Management is seen as the solution to help us handle time.
However, as Stephen Covey puts it in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, “Time Management” is really a misnomer–the challenge is not to manage time, but to manage ourselves.”
It is interesting that when we look at the Bible, we do not find a lot of emphasis on saving time or managing time. Yes, we are called to be good “stewards” of all that God has given us, and that includes time. But, more than that, in the words of the apostle Paul, in today’s reading from Ephesians 5 and again in Colossians 4:5, we are called to REDEEM the time.
What does it mean to redeem the time?
The word “redeeming” can be translated buying up or purchasing. The word “time” is not the Greek word "chronos" which means clock time that is measured in hours, minutes and seconds, but it is the Greek word "kairos" which is better translated. In other words, rather than being called to be good time managers, we are called to be good opportunity managers. It is not just the time, but also the timing. It is not just counting the minutes, hours, days, months and years, but making the minutes, hours, day, months and years count. Tomorrow we will be given more hours, but we may never have the same opportunity again.
In the days before modern harbours, a ship had to wait for the flood tide before it could make it to port. The term for this situation in Latin was ob portu, that is, a ship standing over off a port, waiting for the moment when it could ride the turn of the tide to harbour. The English word opportunity is derived from this original meaning. The captain and the crew were ready and waiting for that one moment for they knew that if they missed it, they would have to wait for another tide to come in. Shakespeare turned this background of the exact meaning of opportunity into one of his most famous passages, from Julius Caesar, Act 4, Scene 3:
There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
Some years ago an energetic young man began as a clerk in a hardware store. Like many old-time hardware stores, the inventory included thousands of dollars’ worth of items that were obsolete or seldom called for by customers. The young man was smart enough to know that no thriving business could carry such an inventory and still show a healthy profit. He proposed a sale to get rid of the stuff. The owner was reluctant but finally agreed to let him set up a table
in the middle of the store and try to sell off a few of the oldest items. Every product was priced at ten cents. The sale was a success and the young fellow got permission to run a second sale. It, too, went over just as well as the first. This gave the young clerk an idea. Why not open a store that would sell only nickel and dime items? ***He could run the store and his boss could supply the capital. The young man’s boss was not enthusiastic. "The plan will never work," he said, "because you can’t find enough items to sell at a nickel and a dime." The young man was disappointed but eventually went ahead on his own and made a fortune out of the idea. His name was F.W. Woolworth. Years later his old boss lamented, "As near as I can figure it, every word I used in turning Woolworth down has cost me about a million dollars!"
Everyone of us has had missed opportunities in our lives. There have been stocks we should have invested in, the job we should have taken, the pass we should have caught, the point we should have raised, the relationship we should have nurtured and the opportunities to share Christ that we passed up. Many years ago, a Regina businessman by the name of Gene Chuka offered my friend Greg’s Dad a chance to invest in something new at the time called Kentucky Fried Chicken. Bruce said: “Thanks, but no thanks, Gene” and invested in another restaurant called “Prairie U-Drive” instead. I’m sure you’ve all heard of it.
In the game of football, the best running backs are not those who know the plays well - all running backs know the plays well. All running backs also have strength and speed or they wouldn’t be chosen to be the one to run with the football. What makes a running back successful is the ability to keep his eyes open and find the open opportunities that come and to take advantage of them. A good running back is able to find the holes in the defense - which oftentimes requires him to abandon the plan that was made in the huddle. The plan is there, but he must run wisely and be ready for any opportunity.
Have you been REDEEMING THE TIME, taking advantage of every opportunity that God sends your way?–a friend who wants to talk, the chance to lend a hand to someone in need, the privilege of influencing the life of a child by teaching church school, the precious moments we share with our children at home?
A study of 1500 households at the Univ. of Michigan found that mothers working outside the home spend an average of 11 minutes a day on weekdays, and thirty minutes a day on weekends with the children (not including mealtime) Fathers spend an average of 8 minutes a day on weekdays and 14 minutes a day on weekends in different activities with their children.
Another survey, this one by Cynthia Langham at the University of Detroit found that parents and children spend only 14.5 minutes per day talking to each other. That is less time than a football quarter! But that 14.5 minute statistic is misleading, since most of that time is squandered on chitchat like "What’s for supper?" and "Have you finished your homework?" Truly meaningful communication between parent and child unfortunately occupies only about two minutes each day.
With a timid voice and idolizing eyes, a little boy greeted his father as he returned from work, "Daddy, how much do you make an hour?" Greatly surprised, but giving his boy a glaring look, the father said: "Don’t bother me now, I’m tired."
"But Daddy, just tell me please! How much do you make an hour, the boy insisted. The father, finally giving up, replied:"Twenty dollars an hour." Okay, Daddy? Could you loan me ten dollars?" the boy asked. Showing his restlessness and positively disturbed, the father yelled: "So that was the reason you asked how much I earn, right? Go to sleep and don’t bother me anymore!"
It was already dark and the father was meditating on what he said and was feeling guilty. Maybe he thought, his son wanted to buy something. Finally, trying to ease his mind, the father went to his son’s room.
"Are you asleep, son?" asked the father. "No, Daddy. Why?" replied the boy, partially asleep.
"Here’s the money you asked for earlier, " the father said.
"Thanks, Daddy!" rejoiced the son, while putting his hand under his pillow and removing some money. "Now I have enough!! Now I have twenty dollars!" the boy said to his father, who was gazing at his son, confused at what his son had just said.
“Daddy, can I buy an hour of your time?"
No one on their death-bed ever said: “Shucks! I wish I’d spent more time at the office.”
Author Terry Muck tells of a letter he received from a man who used to have absolutely no interest in spiritual things. He lived next door to a Christian, and they had a casual relation-ship like neighbours often do. Then the non-Christian’s wife was stricken with cancer, and died three months later. Here’s the letter:
“I was in total despair. I went through the funeral preparations and the service like I was in a trance. And after the service I went to the path along the river and walked all night. But I did not walk alone. My neighbour - afraid for me, I guess - stayed with me all night.
He did not speak; he did not even walk beside me. He just followed me. When the sun finally came up over the river he came over to me and said, "Let’s go get some breakfast."
I go to church now. My neighbour’s church. A religion that can produce the kind of caring and love my neighbour showed me is something I want to find out more about. I want to be like that. I want to love and be loved like that for the rest of my life.”
What made the difference in this man’s life? It was that one Christian dared to make the most of the opportunity he had to reveal Christ to his friend. There were few words . . . but the message came through. He had learned how to REDEEM THE TIME.
How about you and me? How are we handling this precious gift of time that God has given us? Are we still hung up on saving and managing it? Or have we moved towards redeeming it?
Are you blinded by the problems you have with lack of time, or do you focus on the opportunities God is opening up before you every day?
Carl Sandburg writes: “Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.”
Yes, time flies, but not on autopilot! You’re at the controls.
Jonathan Edwards said: "Resolved, Never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way I possibly can. Resolved, To live with all my might, while I do live."
One day, our time on earth will come to an end. And we will be asked to give an account of how we invested the gift of time that was given to us. We will not be asked how well we did in SAVING TIME. We will not be asked to prove how well we did in MANAGING TIME. We will be asked how well we did in REDEEMING THE TIME, in making the most of the opportunities that God sent our way.
The apostle Paul said: “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.”
What will you say?
Thanks be to God. AMEN.
