By: Joel Ramirez
From a very young age, it was impressed upon me that any time I got money for my birthday or as a gift, I needed to save it and use it wisely. My wife and I have had the opportunity to teach our children the same thing in object lessons after one child has spent gifted money on treats that are soon eaten while the other child has saved and thought about where to spend the collected money. There are some who will say the first child was able to enjoy the treats which was the intent of the gift while others will say the second child will be able to enjoy saving and being able to make a larger purchase in the future. Both would be right as the second child missed out on getting the treats the first child enjoyed just as the first child missed having the purchase power of the second. I offer this, not all gifts are meant to be saved. Have you ever had a piece of dessert that you wanted to save, but by the time you ate it the flavor had gone stale, or worse, someone ate it in thinking you saved it for them? One of the most valuable gifts that our Heavenly Father has given us that cannot be saved is time. Have you ever thought about that? We talk about saving time by taking another route or doing something faster than normal, but the truth is we are all given a finite amount of time and once it is gone it is gone. It is like having a bank account and never knowing what your balance might be. We fool ourselves into thinking that we have some control over the balance when the only thing we can control is how we spend what we have right now. There is the possibility that I may not have enough time left in my life to finish writing this and there is the possibility that you as the reader may not have enough time to finish reading this. But we both have the opportunity to decide to spend what time we do have on either task. That is the choice that God has given us.
In financial terms, the money that has been collected by anyone is a payout on that person’s time. Somebody has traded their time working in exchange for that money. Some people are more profitable in that exchange for money but nonetheless, every penny represents time that someone exchanged. I submit to you the parable of the talents, (Matthew 25:14-30). “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability.” Our Father has given us each a finite amount of “talents” for safekeeping. None of us know the exact amount, but it is up to all of us to use it wisely. We can spend our time studying God’s word, praying, and working to bring others to the understanding of God’s will. When this happens, we have now increased the talents that will be spent doing our Father’s work because we can now add the time that another person has been given to God’s talents. But when we take our time, hoard it to ourselves, and sparsely spending any on things of spiritual matters, how much are we like the servant who only received one talent? Matthew 25: 26 “You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.” We would be wise to recognize that the gift of our time is spent more wisely collecting for the Lord as the warning is given at the end of the parable, v29-30 “For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
So, we realize that there are only so many hours in the day, and so many days in the week. How do we determine how God wants us to spend this precious gift? Many of the secular world would point to people who have secluded themselves in a monastery or other religious lifestyle where all their time is focused on studying religious texts as those who are dedicating their time to God. Without getting into the argument of what they are actually taking away from this, where is God’s will being done in this? Our great commandment is “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you”, Matthew 28:19-20. This commandment has a call to action in it and does not call us to isolate ourselves from the world. It is important to acknowledge that to do this effectively we must spend time studying to learn what God has commanded us, but it is much like building a house. There must be time laying the foundation, getting the plumbing completed and ensuring that there is electricity before the house is of any use. We also have to accept that some of our time is going to have to be used to ensure that we have the tools needed to do God’s will. This might include getting a job, raising a family, or attending to our own physical needs. Each of us require a different set of tools to complete the task put before us, but it is doing this work with our focus on God that makes it well spent.
It looks like we both have been gifted the time needed to finish this article. But what now? In writing this, I am able to reflect on much of my time that was used selfishly or not with my focus on God and the work He has for me. It is possible to do the things that God has asked of us without doing it with the right heart. We have the example that Christ gives in Matthew 6:1, “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward from your Father in heaven.” We can waste our time even doing the things that seem right if we do not have our heart and mind focused on the will of God. Chapter 6:33-34 of Matthew wraps up with Jesus saying “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” We have right now, so let us spend this gift wisely and look forward to the eternity that is promised to those who do.