A Life that Counts
Luke 12:19-20 Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry. ’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you.
Each minute that slips by is one less minute that you and I have to live on this earth. Life slips by with each tick of the clock. So what you do with your precious time, has everything to do with the sort of life that you’ll have lived, when it all comes to an end.
There are, it seems to me, three things that we can do with our time.
Firstly, we can spend it. And some spending is not a bad thing. We should spend time doing things that we enjoy doing, rest and relax. Absolutely. But as with your finances, if all you do is spend, eventually, you have nothing left to show for it.
Which leads me to the second thing that you can do with your time. You can waste it. At some point spending turns into waste – it’s about the quantum.
Spend just a few minutes each day scrolling through Facebook, or a half hour watching a re-run of an episode of one of your favourite TV shows, okay, if that’s what you want to do, fine. But spend hours each day doing those things, and you’re wasting your precious time.
The third thing, the most fruitful thing that you can do with your time, is to invest it; in people, in relationships; parents, in your children; grandparents, in your grandchildren – to love people, to share the love of God with them by travelling through the tough times together. That’s an investment. It’s about leaving an eternal legacy behind when you’re gone.
Jesus told a parable about a man who had the balance between spend, waste and invest completely wrong.
Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry. ’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. (Luke 12:19-20)
Imagine getting to the end of your life and looking back on a life that, by and large, has been wasted. A life that lacked purpose and impact. A bit like the story that Jesus told of that wealthy man.
He worked hard this guy. Eat, drink, be merry. But God said – You fool, for this very night your life is being demanded of you.
One day, that’ll be it. It’ll all be done, and then what?
What are you doing with your time? Are you spending up big? Are you wasting it on something that’s here today, gone tomorrow? Or are you investing your time and your energies in things that will last an eternity?
Because one day, your life will be demanded of you. Then what?
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
Blessed by this devotion?
Share it with a friend!
Respond