Time

What can we have in this life that will last? What can we own that will make us whole and that will not wither? When our bodies are broken and our hearts too, what will remain? 

Our consciousness of time, the value of our energy & commitment and how we rank our priorities is the 101 of managing our lives, but today I need to tell you, that you may be chasing the wind.  

For the last two weeks or so the Lord has pulled me to this verse over and over again and tonight as I sat down to write it down, I came across a letter I had written to my grandfather last year November, just 3 weeks before he passed away. I opened the letter and in it found the exact same verse the Lord has been giving me the last 2 weeks. It reads:  

“Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” Mark 8:34-36 

Where are we going? What are we doing with our time? We are always in a hurry, we always have so much on our calendar, we work hard and get home and then it's dinner and laundry and kids and bills and everything else. There is just a little bit of time for rest, then we go to bed and spend a little time with God, we go to sleep and tomorrow....we do it all again, next week, next month, next year, we keep going at it and that's just life. We do what we have to do.  

We have so many people to please, so many different things to keep going all at the same time and we are convinced, that, if we try hard enough, if we are more efficient, more productive, if we work faster and more concise we can make it all work for us, if we can earn more money things will be better for us and we can keep running and spinning and grinding as long as we remember to give God just a little bit of our time each day and maybe a little more on Sundays, because we have to, then things will be okay.  

We keep thinking we need to get everything done, work harder to complete all our tasks, because if we are done, then we will have time for the things that matter. Maybe we have good lives and we work hard to keep it, maybe we don't and we need to fight just to stay alive, whichever way, we all have things that take up our time, things that fill our lives and minds.  

Let me remind you of another verse in Luke 10:38-42: “As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed…or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” 

Yes, just as Martha, we have things that simply just need to be done, but at what cost? Do we realise what we are sacrificing and what it is we are sacrificing it for? Can we really cut back on all these things, can we pause or postpone our duties and responsibilities, maybe not, but we will lose life while we are so busy living, if we do not take the words of our Lord to heart, that few things are needed.. Indeed, only one.  

We may be doing good, doing what is required of us, what benefits others, what provides, support and grows, but are we investing our time in things that have eternal benefit, or are we gaining the whole world but loosing what matters most?  

Why are we running? How do we stop this train? The truth is, it's not going to stop, and even worse, it's not even really going anywhere, but it consumes us.  

We need to give it up, we need to look at our lives and evaluate the things that take our time and then ask ourselves, why am I doing this? For a better life? For a better future? For a tidy house, successful career, enough savings for retirement, a nice home, better life for my children? Is any of this worth more than my soul? Worth more than the souls of my children, spouse, family, friends?  

Friends, we may think that all these things we do are necessary, they all have a good purpose, but there is only one thing; one thing that will last, that will sustain, fill, protect, uplift, redeem, strengthen, teach and satisfy. There is only One who can be enough and He is the fountain of living water, His joke is easy and His burden light, there was none before Him and He shall be forever more, He is the beginning and the end and nothing, absolutely nothing else matters more.  

You need to make the decision to come and sit at His feet, all your responsibilities will still be there, but He matters more. So, let us talk to the Martha in all of us, let us stop and sit at His feet first, the world can wait.  

Miryna van As