I just received an email from a dear friend that I consider absolutely brilliant! I really hadn’t thought this way before. The thrust of the email was that if you had $86,400.00 deposited into your bank account every day with the stipulation that you HAD to spend it all: you couldn’t save or redirect it. However, the bank could choose to end this daily deposit at their discretion with no basis of appeal and no opportunity to begin a new account. What would you do?
Most people would choose to spend as much of it as possible each day. Wouldn’t you? For yourself. For your family. For other people, even those you might not personally know. The point of this is… that’s precisely how many seconds you have each day – 86,400! So how do you spend them?
We do talk about time in terms of ‘spending’ (“How did you spend your time?”), thus something of value. But… do we value time? I suspect we don’t think much about it. And when we do, we think in terms of quantity first. We look at days, weeks, months… even years – not moments. If we were to redefine time in terms of smaller units, would we then value it more? Not necessarily.
We need a paradigm shift in our understanding and appreciation of time. Part of that shift is in terms of the units and part is in terms of our definitions. However, I am not disparaging long-term goals or time-lines that take into account bench marks along the way to accomplishment. None of that is irrelevant. But I am suggesting that we need a view of time that encompasses the shorter view.
Especially in those value ridden aspects such as family and love and living and personal growth, etc. we need to reassess how we are responding to them in the 86,400 parameter. We, too often, put off these until a ‘better’ more convenient time. There may not be a more convenient time. And these need to have as much value associated with them as the work related aspects.
Another friend responded this way…
“God has planned for those of us who are believers to be His representatives on this earth – to invest our time and energies in doing His will, representing Him and seeking to bless others in His name! This is what causes us to ‘enjoy life’ – we are blessed when we bless others and demonstrate God’s love.” DJF
We can’t save time – we can only spend it… wisely.
