I read a great analogy that is credited to Christian comedian Robert G. Lee. He said to imagine you had a bank account that someone deposited $86,400 in every day. Each morning it would be cleared out and another $86,400 would be credited. Whatever you didn’t spend that day would be lost. The question is, would you find a way to spend the money each day, or would you waste some of it by leaving it in the account?
Each day we are each given 86,400 seconds with which to live our lives. We are not allowed to carry any over until the next day, nor can we borrow from tomorrow to get a little more time for today.
Knowing that we have a finite amount of time with which to live out the mission of Christ, how are we spending it? Are you truly making the most of every second of every hour of every day? I know that seems like way too much work and probably impossible, but here’s something I know for sure: if we don’t at least strive to make the most of our time, then I guarantee we never will accomplish all the things God has created us to do.
Making the most of our time requires that we intentionally live lives of purpose. It requires that we develop mass amounts of discipline and focus. You can’t accidentally make the most of every second. It takes diligence and concentration. Without a clear perception of where you are going and how you’ll get there, you will fail miserably. Jesus didn’t come to live among us without a plan. From birth he was focused on His mission and what would be required of Him to fulfill it. He never concerned Himself with earthly fame or recognition; He lived only to glorify His Father.
As followers of Christ, that is our model. Still, many of us drift through life without a plan, living each day with no defined purpose. I’m a very goal-oriented person, so living life intentionally makes sense to me on an intellectual level. Not everyone is wired like that, however, so the thought of planning their days sounds ludicrous. Free-spirited people love to take the world as it comes and simply make the most of it. I acknowledge and am thankful for the fact that God has created different personalities to interact with during our lives. Still, when it comes to being a disciple of Christ, even free spirits must adopt a central focus for their lives. That focus is to do the things that Jesus told us to do, and to love the way He loved. If we are not constantly focused on those things, we will squander the time allotted to us each day.
I believe we’ll have to answer for how we spent our time. Life is a gift from our Creator and it was not designed to be used frivolously. God is not against entertainment or relaxation. We know that Jesus had friends and went to parties (John 2:1-11; Luke 5:27-29), and that God created an entire day each week for us to rest (Leviticus 23:3). The key is to weave these things purposefully into our lives so that we might make the most of our time because the days are truly evil (Ephesians 5:15-16). We cannot afford to waste a single second because we will never get that moment back.
We all have been tasked with things to accomplish before we die. We may not know what those things are, but they will be left undone if we do not spend our lives in pursuit of Jesus. Don’t waste another second; don’t let another moment pass by uncaptured or undefined. Time is a most precious gift. Let’s not waste it.
Question: What activities are you engaging in that are simply wasting the time you’ve been given? You can leave a comment below.