Time is so precious. We know this fact to be true. Never is this so evident than when you see a young man lying dead and lifeless in an open casket. Many remark and many more think “He was much too young to die.” Indeed, anytime a man or women dies before they are old they are too “young” to die, but please ponder this alternative view point. We are not promised tomorrow.
What I have been thinking about this week is Do we REALLY believe that we are NOT promised tomorrow? Do we really live like we are not promised tomorrow?
First and foremost I would like to come forward and recognize that this thought pattern is as cliché as it can be. Way to many: songs, books, poems and speeches have been made on this thought, I can imagine many of you might be thinking that I am about to pull out the proverbial stick and begin to beat the proverbial horse. But please hold on, I would like to offer a different spin on a very old record. If we all accept the fact that our time is precious; instead of contending for “living it up” and trying to make the most of OUR time. Rather, put your time into the areas that will bring forth the most profit. So now comes the question that I have been asking myself all week: Where can I invest my time, so that I will see the greatest return?
Some years ago a group of sanctified folks went down to Mississippi to hold a revival. In this period of time revivals were held in the open air, “tent meetings” if you will. It took a great deal of effort to do something like this. A venue had to be acquired, the tent had to be erected, you had to drum up interest in the community and on top of that; it was hot and muggy, not the air conditioned indoors that we experience today. Sanctified folks endured all this to try and get a revival going and win some souls for Jesus. However, during this particular “tent meeting” in Mississippi, not one soul came out. Not one person from the community……..NOBODY. This left one dear sanctified soldier feeling down and discourage, and as he sat on the alter rail, that they had fashioned with two by fours, he thought to himself; “are we wasting our time?” Now, this same soldier went on many years later to start a church in Jemison, Alabama. One meeting after he had preached a sermon a man walked up to him and said “Hi, my name is (actual name removed for confidentiality), do you remember setting up a tent in Mississippi?” “Yes.” Replied the preacher. “Well me and my mother sat on the porch every night and listen to you’ all sing……never have we heard such pretty, spirit filled, singing. We would have come on to the tent meeting, but for the fact we didn’t have a car, but I am here now.” Folks I am here to tell you that, the man who listen to the sanctified folks sing and preaching got sanctified at a alter in Jemison, Alabama, some ten years after a little tent meeting revival in Mississippi, where no one showed up.
Why am I telling you this story? Because simply put, you can’t waste your time doing the Lords work. It may seem to you and to everyone around you that you’re wasting your time. It may not be as glamorous as sky diving or rocky mountain climbing; as bull riding or hiking through Patagonia. It’s a humble way, time spent in the Lord; a “quiet and peaceable life.” And I submit to you on the faith of God’s word, that your name may never be mentioned in a newspaper, never seen on a T.V. program, never announced at an awards ceremony; but if you spent your life in the service of God; Brothers and Sisters you DID NOT AND CANNOT, WATSE YOUR TIME. Why, you made the best use of every breath that was loaned to you. You maximized you time on this earth, because God hath said “my Word shall not return unto me void, but shall PROFIT wither so ever I send it.” So send the Word out: in tongue, in deed, in spirit and in truth. Whether it be a life lived or a sermon preached; or both. Sanctified people, near and far, let us spend and be spent in the service of God. For we are not promised tomorrow! So let us invest our time in fields that will yield returns long after we are dead and gone. If you cannot waste your time doing the Lords work, then, are we better to spend our fleeting minutes in the Lord’s work?.........Yes Indeed.
What I been thinking on this week is: where my time is going? Is it in God’s field of labor or my own? What about your time? Your efforts?
That’s what I been thinking on this week. What have you been thinking on?
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