Tag: redeeming time

I am one of approximately 7.7 billion people on planet earth and I spend a lot of time telling others suggesting how other people should live their lives. I do not make these suggestions because I personally feel as if I’ve risen to a level above others but because I believe that there is a better way to live and that way, for me and frankly I believe for all people is informed by the Bible.

I often feel as if people are turned off by my posting because it’s either too detailed, too dull (come on) or too personal and their impression that I think too much of myself. My co-workers see these posts…they KNOW that I’m not perfect; some of the members of my previous church see these posts and they KNOW that I’m not perfect and some people from the church I presently attend also see these posts and KNOW that I’m not perfect what many who see these posts don’t seem to know is that I’m not writing from a position of perfection or attainment – I’m still en-route to spiritual maturity as well. Like the Apostle Paul said in (Philippians 3:13-14) I can say, “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

In honesty, sometimes I struggle to “forget those things which are behind” – those few successes and many failures which dot my past and hinder my present. But dwelling on them other than to learn from them and move on is not a very good use of the time God has given me.

Speaking of time, we all know the value of it, don’t we? That it is, as James said like “a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away” – that is, its like an exhaled breath on a winters day in Buffalo.

We understand that time is fleeting; we understand that it is passing in a irretrievable way and that once it is past there is no getting it back. But there is a way to make the most out of it and Paul encouraged believers to do just that; he wrote (Col. 4:5-6):

“Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.”

Given Paul’s instructions here, how many of us after an honest evaluation of the way we spend our time would discover that we have not put it to the best use?

While we have a view that redeeming the time is to make the most of the moments we have many also have the idea that it is to buy back or reward or reclaim the time we have spent back from the daily grind which consumes so much of it. I take vacations; I like time off but sometimes we take that time to reward ourselves for our hard work – in doing so we declare that the time we have on earth is OURS to use as we wish.

Don’t get me wrong, a day, a week, a month even to unwind, recenter and refocus is great – nothing wrong with it at all! But Our life, our time is not ours to OWN but it has been given to us to USE as the Giver of life sees fit.

Does that mean no more days off, no more recreation, no more vacations and no more fun?! Not really. What redeeming the time does mean is that every moment we have been given, whether spent with our kids on vacation or on the job with our co-workers their need to know the Lord Jesus Christ should drive our words, attitudes and actions towards them. In his sermon yesterday, Russel at Parkway reminded us to “breath life into every conversation” – that is what it means to redeem the time!

The best example of course is not mine, not even the apostle Paul’s but Christ’s – He used the time He had to do His Father’s will and redeem us, as the redeemed we are called to follow His lead.