Squandering time?

I think there are times in life when we perceive it to be one time but may not realize it is later than we think! The message today is to consider the time, for it may be later than we think. We may perceive time to be endless, especially in our youth, but as we age a little, we see just how quickly it passes. I dreaded summer vacation off of school as a kid because I liked the mental stimulation of school. A couple weeks of break and I was ready to go back! Time seemed to stand still as those three months passed! Now, a week can be gone in the blink of an eye! What once seemed unending now appears quite limited.

For everything there is a season, a time to every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. (Ecclesiastical 3:1-2)

In life, we have opportunities that come our way at a particular time in our life. They may not come our way again because they are more or less "time sensitive". I would have to say relationships are one of those things. We can twitter away fragments of time without ever realizing it, all the while believing we have time, neglecting the important things within that relationship. It may be God is asking us to pay attention to that time a little today - like he is calling us back into focus. Whenever he does this, it isn't to punish us, but rather to help us recognize the true time, for we never really know when it will be "later than we think". "How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flown. How did it get so late so soon?" (Dr. Suess) The age-old question: How did it get so late so soon? Define for me what the difference is between late and so late. Some might say the difference is being able to meet a deadline or being there just on time compared to totally missing the deadline or the timing for whatever needs to be done. Regardless of how we define it, the time we hold in our hands today will be gone all too swiftly and we know not if we are guaranteed more!

We want to imagine things as endless, but in reality, God is the one in control. He counted out the grains within the hourglass which fall all too quickly to the bottom of that glass. All we can do is manage well what we have been given today and ensure we don't miss the opportunities to show someone how much we love them, or how precious their relationship has been to us as time has passed. Someday all we will be left with are the memories of how we used our time. We all want those memories to amount to a legacy. Don't squander those moments...it is later than you think! Just sayin!