Chaplain's Corner

It is hard to believe, but the summer we waited so long for is almost over. Just yesterday I was talking with a 96 year old woman and she commented, “My, how is it that time moves faster when you get older?” We all know that time doesn’t move faster or slower depending on one’s age, but our perception of time does: children perceive time as moving very slowly and as we grow older our perception is that time flies.

The truth of the matter is that one of the only equalities that exists in life is that no one has more than 24 hours in a day. It doesn’t matter that you may be the CEO of Apple Computers or just one of the many little guys who punches the clock. We all get just 24 hours in a day. The question is: “What use do we make of the 24 hours a day we each get?”

Time management folks would measure the successful use of time by how much you can get done in 24 hours. Did you waste any of that time, were you efficient and effective in the way you used the time? Were you able to multi-task so as to squeeze even more productivity in to the time you used? Not bad questions, but productivity is not the end all when it comes to assessing the way one uses time.

From a spiritual perspective, using one’s time to make a difference for eternity is often held up as the measure of the best use of this gift. Thus you find many spiritual people who drive themselves all the time to be involved in as many ways and invest as much time in things like service and missions. This is noteworthy but it may not be the best measure of whether one has used time wisely.

In my studies I have been struck by the ways in which importance has been measured by God in His Word, the Bible. This morning I was reflecting on some verses in 1 Corinthians 15 where God says that the Gospel is of “first importance”. This has nothing to do with productivity or service but with our openness to recognize and receive God’s gift by faith.

Then my mind turns to the “Great Commandment” where we are told to “love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.” Or the New Commandment Jesus announced, that we “love one another”. Neither of these things has to do with productivity as a measure of success.

It seems in God’s economy that love for God and one another are the measures to be used to determine one’s successful use of the 24 hours a day we are given. Everything I do should and can be an expression of love for God and others. Love for God and others describes the spirit in which we do things not what we do.

Solomon had used his time very productively, he built great buildings, written books, attained international renown as a person of great wisdom; yet in his treatise on finding meaning in life (Ecclesiastes) he begins with the assertion “everything is meaningless” and come to this conclusion, “Fear (reverence, trust, love) God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man”; another way to express the supremely important duty of loving God and in turn loving each other.

As I look back over my 61 years of life and I seek to determine if I have used the many 24 hour days God has given me; I guess I need to ask the question, “Have I made loving the Lord with all my heart and loving others the measure of the meaning of my life?”