“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:1
“Having the time of your life” usually means “things are great; couldn’t be better.” Let’s re-focus our thinking on the word time. Time is life. “Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” James 4:14. What you do with your time is what you do with your life. Do you put things off because you don’t want to face the music? Do you put things off to keep control in your own hands as long as you can? Do you put things off until you don’t have to make your own decision—it’s easier if someone else decides? Managing your time is managing your life.
Technology has so revolutionized our lives that we have more control over time now than we’ve ever had before—sometimes real, sometimes imagined. Traveling, cooking, cleaning, talking, writing, learning—all are affected. Real time, slow time, daylight savings time, time warp, time travel. We can DVR, tape delay, replay, delete, overdub, simulcast, and re-run. But, there are two hugely critical elements that govern everything you do; what and when. What you do is not important if you do it too late. Figuring out what to do is hard enough; having a deadline makes it that much harder and nerve-racking—like April 15th, or your anniversary or spouse’s birthday! You have a window of opportunity, a slice of time when you need to act.
First, you need to decide what to do. Take the case of Terri Schiavo, a name that dominated the news in the early 2000’s. She was a young wife who lay in a vegetative state while a court battle raged over whether to end her life. What should they do? An intense legal and bioethical drama played out on the American stage that set several significant factors in sharp relief: the renewed call for getting a living will. (Most have not done it; most will not); the cold fact that judges, lawyers and health professionals really are in charge; and, the continual replay of the phrase, “I wouldn’t want to live that way.” (Why don’t we ask, “How long does God want me to live?”). It became a race against time. The when intensified the what.
If the what is decided, the when becomes paramount. For example, in the geopolitical realm, world hotspots and tensions erupt with time and date stamps, like the perennial Middle East stand-off, nuclear proliferation, and the global economy. In the world health arena, the rise of super-bugs, or virus and bacterial strains that resist medicines and anti-biotics, increase the worries of medical scientists. Coming crises in freedom of religion, freedom of speech and constitutional crises loom large. Time ratches up the tension in all these issues. “And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.” Romans 13:11-12.
You may not be in the loop to settle world events. But, what about huge decisions in your personal life? Some things can’t be relegated to bucket list status. They belong on TODAY’S CALENDAR! Don’t wait on someone else; they may disappoint you. Don’t wait on something else to happen; what if it doesn’t? Don’t wait until you feel like it; feelings are too fickle to govern your life. Don’t wait until it’s convenient; IT’S NEVER CONVENIENT TO DO RIGHT! Don’t wait until the devil leaves you alone; he won’t. Don’t wait until you understand more; no one ever understands everything! Above all, don’t put your eternal destiny in someone else’s hands. If you know what to do, the when can’t wait! Do it now!