Thoughts for the Month

SEPTEMBER

‘Jesus said to them, ‘My time has not yet come, but your time is always here.’                           (John Ch. 7 v.6)

Time – there cannot be a day during which we don’t say that word at least once.

‘Time’s getting on’…. ‘I haven’t enough time’….. ‘What time is it?’….. ‘Time for’…. ‘Keep in time…’

Our lives are driven by time. Certainly, I don’t feel ‘dressed’ if I’m not wearing my watch! Without it, ‘I cannot keep track of the time.’

Have you noticed that, as you get older, time goes so much more quickly? Why is that?

Well, I think, it is because, as we get older and the number of years we have lived gets greater, time, as we measure it – in minutes, hours, days, months and years – becomes a much smaller fraction of our lives.

For a child of 4 years, a year is a quarter of their life but for someone of 20 years, a year is a twentieth of their life. For a 50 year old, that year is now a fiftieth of their life and so on. So, those minutes, hours, days, months and years now seem to get smaller as we get older and time seems to pass more quickly. It seems logical to me!

Time – have you ever thought how important it is to use our time in the best way that we can? For, just as time seems to pass more quickly as we get older, very certainly the time left in our lives is getting shorter.

How often have we said, ‘I wish I had….’ or ‘If only I could….’ or maybe, ‘I wish I hadn’t…’

I often feel that time controls my life rather than I use time to live my life. Do you ever feel that?

Certainly, as far as I know, we are here, on this earth, just once and so we should live our lives to the glory of God and the well-being of our neighbours and ourselves.

So, the time that we have, should be used as profitably as possible – and I don’t mean, necessarily, financially.

If one is going on a journey one plans when and how, in advance; if one is trying to lose weight, one plans one’s menus for the week and how to avoid those weight increasing delicacies.

Perhaps we should plan and use the time in our lives better, so that, at the end, we can say……….. ‘I have used my time on earth well; I have used the talents that I was given; I have done no harm to anyone; I have lived my life as the Lord would wish.’

‘Remember how short my time is – ‘    (Psalm 89 v. 47)

I really should use some of my time to plan how I can improve my remaining life and how it impacts on those I meet.

There’s still time.