Heart Tracks - Killing Time

"And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgement." Hebrews 9:27...."We all get one container of time - but no one gets to know what size that container is.....You have only one decision every day: how will you use your time?" Ann Voskamp

After reading Voskamp's words, the question that came to me was, "Are we killing time, or is time killing us?" I'm also put in mind of an old beer commercial that used as it's main line, "You only go around once in life, so you've got to grab for all the gusto you can get." This is a piercing definition of the world's idea of how we spend our lives, our time here in this very temporary realm. It's all about us, and it's all about getting all we can while we can. Grabbing. Clutching. Holding onto, adding onto. This is what life is to be about. It's a value system that has found a warm reception in a large segment of the church. We've created quite a "Me" centered gospel here in the west. Jesus is the Savior, Healer, Giver of life who came for me. For us. It's all about us, and Christ is relegated to the role of supporting player. It's we who are at center stage. That's how we spend our time, and our lives here in this realm. A realm we have grown very comfortable with. Yet Voskamp says that "Time is not something to grab; it's something to give." So just what is it that we are giving our time to, spending our lives, literally, upon? Are we killing time, or is time killing us?

When Stewardship is preached on and taught in our fellowships today, most often it's about finances. I wonder if that's a sign of where our priorities really lie, in that which can be counted, accumulated, and added on to? Yet the Father's idea of stewardship has everything to do with how we spend our lives and upon what that we spend them. They say that in the average church, 10% of the people do 90% of the work, but it is not in the main about work. We can spend great amounts of time working for Him, but very little in actually knowing Him. The motives for what we do can be far more about us being in the spotlight than in bringing glory to Him. When that's the case, in the end, all we've done is waste time, not bring glory to Him in the midst of it.

I remember my first pastor preaching a message, and he used the name of one of the Old Testament figures who had lived a very long time. He said that all Scripture said about the man was that he lived and that he died. Nothing else. When the grains of the sand's of time run out of our containers, what will be said of how we spent our lives and what we spent them on? This is about more than being active in your church. It's about the entire focus of your life, of your heart. Is it set upon knowing the mind, heart, and desires of the King, and then being at His disposal for how He chooses to spend your life? Do we grab for the gusto, or give ourselves over to Him?

We are all living in time. We will all stand before Him to account for our time. If you have never come to know Him as your Savior and Lord, then now is the time for that to happen. The grains are running out of your container. Time will run out, despite satan's great lie that "there is still time." If you confess to be His, does your stewardship of time give proof of that claim? Are you held captive in time, or do you live above it in Him? Voskamp says that "The way to break times hold on me is to be broken and given with my time." Are you, are we, broken and given with our time...for Him, and for those He loves? They say our checkbooks and day planners show just who and what we are really devoted to. Who and what we really love. So do our thoughts, our dreams, desires, and hopes. What do yours and mine say? What will they say to Him on that day of accounting? Will we have just been killing time, or will time have killed us?

Blessings,
Pastor O