A Thought on Time

Well here is the deal, the year is about to end and in a few hours a new one is about to begin. Remember those moments when time seemed to crawl, now it flies. Lately I have been thinking about time and how it is a precious resource that we cannot waste, and yet how we willingly and happily sell it off. Perhaps, the most influential factor in this squandering of time is the singular thought "tomorrow" or the notion "there is time." In themselves, these are not untrue, but when there is a pressing task that needs to be dealt with, they are enemies disguised as good-willed friends. They offer us the false assurance that it is alright to postpone it just a little more. After all, what is tomorrow but just the next day; and yet we know this to be true, in most times, tomorrow never came. 

So how many hours in a day? Let us go with the normal 24 without getting into the technicalities of the calculation of time. The question is do we really have 24 hours in our hands to do our work in a day? The straight answer, NO! Someone may ask "why?" Well among many other things, we all need to sleep, in the right amount. An adult needs an estimated 7-8 hours of sleep which means there are now 16 hours left (taking the higher count). Suppose that through the day, the total amount of time to get ready comes to 1 hour, food and all rest/breaks totals 2 hours, commuting totals 1 hour, then these are a total of 4 hours which means we now have 12 hours left. Take 1 hour for leisure and we are left with 11 hours. While the estimates may not be accurate, the point is this: we do not have 24 hours. Now doesn't that make time a valuable commodity that we have. 

So then, can we make more time? Yes and no. Yes we can make more time by re-examining our routines/schedules/habits and identifying where the drain holes are. But no, we cannot make more time in the sense that we cannot add to the 24 hours and make it more. With Nature's cycle of time and a little accounting, we get rewarded with a leap year, but beyond that we are bound in the sands of time. 

There is an old, old song that says "Teach us to number our days rightly, so that we may be able to live wisely." I look back at this passing year and wonder if I have lived wisely? Well for some part, yes and for some others probably not. There are time lost, time left empty, time thrown away and there is nothing I can do to get those back. I can only work with the time I have in my hands now and the time that will hopefully come my way. So as I enter the New Year, I want to begin with a deeper appreciation for time. This is not a call for us to overload ourselves and get burnt out because we want to maximize on the time we have. This is rather an invitation for us to manage time well; knowing what should happen in the "now" time. The same old song referred to above, ends with a prayer, a prayer that the work of our hands will find favour before God, and that God himself will establish the work of our hands. We might add that such will ensure that our works are able to stand the tests time. 

As we step into the New Year, may we be more mindful of the time we have and in all times may God strengthen you and the work you do! Happy New Year!