A few evenings ago, I walked into Eden’s room to discover her piggybank was emptied and a dollar bill was lying on the floor in several pieces. I have been slowly teaching Eden about money and the stewardship of it, so obviously I still have some work to do. While we all know that ripping up dollar bills falls woefully short of “wise stewardship,” many people struggle with the stewardship of time. Perhaps wasting time does not feel as tangible as ripping up money, but it is equally unwise.
In Ephesians 5:15-16, the apostle Paul wrote, “Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise—making the most of the time, because the days are evil.” Paul had two words he could have chosen for “time” in this verse: chronos and kairos. Chronos refers to time in general. It is clock time and the root word for chronological. Kairos refers to a predetermined, specific amount of time. It is measured, allocated, and fixed. Paul used kairos here, and his word choice was huge. He was saying, in essence, you have a specific amount of time here in this world. That is it. It is already set. It is fixed. The clock is ticking. Your time is running out. Even now. So make the most of it. Don’t just spend it. Invest it. Be a wise manager of the predetermined time the Lord has given you.
What if we abhorred wasting time with the same intensity we despise wasting money? What if we were as frustrated with a squandered hour as we are with a torn up dollar?
Comments
This verse in Ephesians 5 has been a daily reminder for me(it has worked) about the importance of the necessary stewardship of time and purpose. This says to me that “God’s will for my life is not to be understood by senseless or rash(waste of time)methods, but by careful thought.” When one is “careful” and a good steward with the things God gives to us all(time) he/she can really know the will of God for just about everything there is to fulfilling His purpose for our lives.
I was having a conversation with a staff member about this today. The irony is the language that we use about time is similar to the language we use for money:
“spend” time
“save” time
“invest” time
“waste” time
(and so on…)
Eric,
I agree. What happened to adjectives like “redeem,” or “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time for this or that, etc. We are void of the scriptures when we speak of the very thing the Creator gave us . . .
Time has come today
Young hearts can go their way
Can’t put it off another day
I don’t care what others say
They say we don’t listen anyway
Time has come today, hey (Ramones)
The scipture says “Teaching us to count our days that we might apply our heart to wisdom” without time there is no way we can count our days, therefore time is important to every man. Nothing is as good as applying the wisdom of God in time usage because applying humanly wisdom brings disappointment
24hours well utilized is enough to make life-time change, time is money and poor utilization of time is a life waste