Time is fleeting; there is no time to waste
To a child sitting in a classroom, watching the clock, time moves so slowly.
In my classroom years ago, I hung a large, easy-to-read clock near the ceiling, on the front wall. My students could see the clock, for their eyes were conditioned to look toward the Smartboard screen that hung on that same wall, just below the clock. To some educators, the passage of time may tick by slowly, but in my tenure, I found that time with my students traveled rather quickly. In fact, the twenty-four-plus years I taught high school English, passed as a solitary blink and as a vapor, as a handbreadth of time and as a mere breath.
The passage of time is fleeting; thus we must not waste our time allotted to live.
Please let me explain.
In the Bible, the psalmist David wrote—
“LORD, make me to know my end
(The Psalms 39: 4 NASB)
And what is the extent of my days;
Let me know how transient I am.”
As we live-out this earthly life, we cannot allow ourselves to focus only upon ourselves because our selfish pride really is nothing that will be needed in our eternity.
Now, if you know me, then you have heard me express my wish to live long. I desire to live far more years than I currently have gained. Therefore, as I plan for my LONG future, I tend to focus more on what lies ahead than what has passed. Nevertheless, the psalmist reminded us (and today reminds me)—
“Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths,
(The Psalms 39: 5 NASB)
And my lifetime as nothing in Your sight;
Surely every man at his best is a mere breath. Selah.”
Surely, time is fleeting. I do not know what today holds, but God does. I do not know God’s will for my day, but He does. The LORD in His infinite wisdom understands and plans our steps and even orchestrates and ordains our days, even before He gave us the first one. This is not my thinking but the truth found within God’s Holy Word. The psalmist spoke of this truth in The Psalms 139: 15-16. Pause to read this biblical chapter if you are unfamiliar or have forgotten.
We must not fret over time but simply follow God in obedience.
Therefore—
We must not mark time, as if marking off a calendar, but trust the Holy Spirit’s leadership.
Finally—
We must not unwisely think we have an overabundance of time but be careful how we live, making the most of every opportunity the Lord provides.
Time is not a commodity that we spend. Yes, this is fact, for we did not have any power over our creation. Only God, the Creator did; Only the Father, the Master, has the authority to create.
Our only recourse is to cry out to the LORD, as the psalmist—
“Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry;
(The Psalms 39: 12-13 NASB)
Do not be silent at my tears;
For I am a stranger with You,
A sojourner like all my fathers.
Turn Your gaze away from me,
That I may smile again
Before I depart and am no more.”
As stated earlier, one only needs to sit as a teenager in an English classroom to sense the slowness of time. However, as the instructor teaching in that same classroom, bound by the same hour of time allotted to a particular class, the passage of time is fleeting.
In like fashion, if we were to stroll through our family’s graveyard, stopping to read each headstone, then we (as the psalmist) would recall how we are merely passing through. The dates listed on each tombstone shouts this fact’s truth, for we (you & I) are “A sojourner like all my fathers.”
Thus, we come to this sobering fact and ask: What must we do?
- We must seek daily to allow God’s Holy Spirit to lead us through our gift of the single day.
- Whatever we must do, we must do it now.
- However the Lord leads, we must follow Him today.
In obedience to His command, the work God leads our hands to do in order to advance God’s kingdom—
- We must heed today, on this solitary day.
Time is fleeting, and I have no time to waste.
Time is fleeting, and neither do you have time to waste.
In the Bible, “James, a bond-servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ,” (chapter 1, verse 1—The Letter of James) wrote—
“Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.
(The Letter of James 4: 14 NASB)
You are just a vapor
that appears for a little while
and then vanishes away.”