Did you ever have a day or even a week that was just a blur? Maybe, the question should be not "if" but how recent did you have a day like that? Our lives can get so filled up with activities, responsibilities, errands and the like that our minds cannot even process what we are doing. Not matter how many "shortcuts" are provided by today's culture, it only seems as if we have less time and not more.
One of the songs from the musical "Rent" sings of "525,600 minutes - how do you measure a year?"
While there are days went those minutes seem to drag - like a teenager waiting for the last bell of the last day of school to ring or the interminable ticking of the clock as you wait for the results of a medical test - still there are no more and no less minutes than the day before. Or on those days when it seems as if summer vacation is over before it really began or when the time spent with a seldom seen friend or family member has come to a close - still then, we have the same number of minutes.
How are your minutes measured? What do you do with the gift of time that God has blessed you with?
Look at your calendar and reflect on the amount of time you spend in particular areas such as work, errands, chores, in the car, in front of the computer/TV, etc. How do these minutes reflect your own priorities? Are these minutes lived as a blur, a burden or a blessing?
In Ecclesiastes 3, the teacher proclaims "for everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven", time for birth and death, war and peace, weeping and laughing, mourning and dancing, seeking and losing, speaking and silence. All these minutes and moments are gifts from God. Too often, we pay too little attention to time. Now, I'm not saying that we all need to become clock-watchers. I stopped wearing a watch on vacation over 15 years ago and have yet to put one back on.
No, I mean do want to live life in a blur or in blessing?
In reflecting on how we spend our time, we may find that there are things that are not life-giving but life-stealing. What are those things that we need to omit from our lives? What are ways that we can re-prioritize how use live our moments?
I know that this can be easier said than done. And I can also hear all the "but, Pastor, what about...". There are not necessarily "easy" solutions; hard decisions might need to be made. Yet, in doing so, we may find that time is a blessing rather than a burden or a blur.
We are given these 525,600 minutes to live each year, how will you live them?
Here are a few more of the lyrics from the song from "Rent" which is called "Seasons of Love":
In Daylights - In Sunsets
In Midnights - In Cups Of Coffee
In Inches - In Miles
In Laughter - In Strife
In Truths That She Learned
Or In Times That He Cried
In Bridges He Burned
Or The Way That She Died
How about love?
Measure in love
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