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Time is such a valuable commodity. They say that time is money. We all have the same 24 hours in each day to fill. How are you redeeming your time?
One of my “things” I like to do for others at work is turn their calendars to the correct month. So many either forget to do so, are unable to, or have some difficulty getting up to do it for themselves, while the remainder do not even seem to notice or care. Growing up in a household that valued the importance of being on time to show respect to others I have developed a real liking for watches, clocks (especially cuckoo clocks) and wall calendars. When I visit clients I always notice what sort of calendar they have and whether it is current. We talk about what they have been up to recently and what sorts of activities they are looking forward to. Invariably they glance up at their calendar (usually depicting flora or fauna, beaches, famous buildings or celebrities) to be reminded. Now that we are in the month of December many calendars have the familiar diagonal cross mark through each day to mark off or countdown the time till Christmas.
Some people are buzzing with excitement anticipating family time together whilst others are stressed trying to figure out what to buy for every person on their list. On this topic my thoughts were stirred into action recently from an advert stating “Solving Christmas Giving” replete with several gift suggestions in attractive and colourfully packaged ways to entice the weary shopper. To solve means there is a problem or a challenge. People do feel the pressure to have everything “just so” — they want their plans to be perfect. The problem is that not everyone gets on well with everybody else at these gatherings and after a few drinks things can get rather heated due to disinhibited tongues wagging. Despite good intentions things can go haywire after such a buildup of marking off time on their calendars before the big day. Everyone had expectations all of which were probably not met, therefore the big letdown happens, sometimes accompanied by a big meltdown. Add to this presents that were not wanted or deemed less than ideal, imbalance of gift values or worth, and wasted time when some would rather be off on a holiday, watching the cricket, or having “me” time. No wonder arguments occur — a hot recipe for disaster in the land “down under”.
Time Is Far Too Precious To Just Mark Off
How about you? Are you marking off each day on your calendar as the days, weeks, and months go by? You may not be marking the days off one by one for Christmas if you no longer keep this pagan holiday which really has nothing to do with Jesus Christ. Those in the know realise Jesus could never have been born so late in the year and have to be patient with the vast majority of people until they come to understand the knowledge and wisdom that we have been given by God. It will happen one day and we can hardly wait to watch the amazement on their faces when the truth is finally revealed to them. Until then it is onwards and upwards with redeeming our time rather than marking it off. To redeem time simply means to use whatever time we have wisely so that we will benefit both physically and more importantly, spiritually. So instead of wasting time on things which do not really matter, we look to how Jesus Christ used His time on earth. There are many accounts to read through in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
I don’t know about you but my calendars...there are 3 of them spread around our home in strategic positions for instant access when thoughts and ideas occur...are full of things to achieve. The kitchen calendar in the pantry is full of appointments and commitments very important and not to be missed. The bedroom calendar has more personal things written on it while the one in the home office/computer room is more work related. My time is precious, as is yours, and we can only do so much in one day, even less when work gets in the way, so to speak. Relying on our memory can let us down at times, and that is just one reason calendars are helpful.
Noah’s Deliverance Through Redeeming The Time
Out of all the people in the Bible, apart from Jesus, the first person who comes to mind for redeeming precious time wisely, is that of Noah. He was the one God tasked with building an ark so that he and his family, a total of only 8 people, together with 7 of each clean animal, male and female, and 2 of each unclean animal, male and female, would be saved from the Great Flood . Scripture places this in Genesis 7:2 as 7 clean and 2 unclean makes it quite easy for us to remember. I love God’s sense of humour in guiding the division of Scripture into chapters and verses!
Why Noah? Genesis chapters 6 through 9 give some information regarding this man Noah who found grace in the eyes of the LORD (Genesis 6:8). According to Genesis 6:9 “Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God”. Noah lived righteously and pleased God amongst widespread violence with wickedly corrupt and perverse flesh (Genesis 6:11-13). In Genesis 6:6-7 the Bible says “And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the LORD said, ‘I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them’”. The only exception was Noah and his family out of all the people who lived about 2,000 years before Jesus Christ walked the earth.
God asked Noah to build the ark and told him how to prepare and make it (Genesis 6:14-16). Genesis 6:22 “Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did”. Genesis 7 explains how God caused the Great Flood to occur to destroy all living things apart from those with Noah on the ark. Chapter 8 details how God removed the Great Flood from off the earth so that Noah and his family along with all the living creatures could once again inhabit the earth. In Genesis 9:8-17 we can read about the beautiful rainbow which is the sign God gave to us as a symbol of assurance He would never again flood the earth as in the universal flood of Noah’s time.
What a remarkable account of how one man through righteous obedience pleased God and was able to save his family through his humble example. Can you imagine building an ark over 120 years, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade, until completion? On top of this every person living at the time with the exception possibly of Noah’s family would have ridiculed his actions. Relentless scoffing and taunting, jeering and laughing with accusations of stupidity would be enough to dishearten anyone into thinking is it really worth it? Will God follow through? Instead Noah by faith moved with godly fear to build the ark (Hebrews 11:7). His deep convictions of trust, reliance and confidence in God were unwavering in order to complete his commission.
Like Noah we also have a great commission (Matthew 28:19-20). We have been commissioned to set the example of living righteously while redeeming the time (Ephesians 5:15-16; Colossians 4:5) for the times we live in are full of evil ways where everyone wants to do as they wish (2 Timothy 3:1-5). If we sincerely repent and turn from our sinful ways God will teach us to number our days (Psalm 90:12).