Time Well Spent
By Gary Anderson | 3/31/2020

Today, I am starting off my devotion with a Dad Joke. Are you ready for it? Okay, here it is…During what month do people sleep the least? Think about it for a second. The answer is February because it’s the shortest month. Now after all the groans I want to share with you one of the greatest mysteries that we all face. Time. St. Augustine grappled with time, “What, then, is time? If no one ask of me, I know; if I wish to explain to him who asks, I know not. Yet I say with confidence, that I know that if nothing passed away, there would not be past time.” You can’t speed it up, you can’t slow it down, you can’t stop it, but we’ve all felt it pass. You can waste it, you can spend it, and when it comes down to it, we all have exactly the same amount of it in a day, week, or month. 168 seems to be the consensus on how many hours we have in a week—and that seems like a lot. But, how often have we said, “Sorry, I just don’t have the time.”? For me, far too often. Maybe I’ve been guilty of spending time on what is most urgent to the neglect of what is most important. If I didn’t learn from Stephen Covey, maybe I can learn from the honesty of the Psalm writer when he prayed: Psalm 90:12 (HCSB) Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts. In this time of social distancing, time is our opportunity! We can spend it, we can waste it, or we can invest it. This is a unique opportunity for a reboot of how we do life. Whether we are on the front lines of combating this virus, or keeping our society afloat with our “essential” job, or the student who is becoming the keyboard warrior from a remote location, all of these present an equal opportunity to invest ourselves in making this world a better place, and by doing so, making eternity better. Ephesians 5:15–17 (ESV) Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.