Day 113 Time Well Spent

 

4/23/2026

 "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend 

 a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit;' whereas you do not know what will 

  happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears 

                                                      for a little time and then vanishes away."                                             

 James 4:13-14

 

I've been thinking a lot about time and the brevity of it. The closer it gets to my birthday and another year, I wonder if I made the best use of the time given me thus far. In studying the life of Solomon and Rehoboam, his son, the commentary states that "Rehoboam followed the Lord only as long as it was politically expedient. Once his kingdom was solidly established, he had no further use for the law of the Lord - or the Lord of the law. But in the end, it was Rehoboam who was the loser for his foolish decision." The consequence of this decision was a divided kingdom with Jeroboam leading Israel and ten of the tribes, leaving Rehoboam with his tribe and Benjamin. The tribe of Judah did have a king on the throne of David as God covenanted with David, until Judah was exiled to Babylon. In this line of David there were mostly good kings as opposed to all evil kings who reigned in Israel, turning from God to the worship of idols. Although Rehoboam repented and cried out to the Lord, he was not completely destroyed, but he was an evil king who never decided to fully trust in God. His son, Abijah became the next king, and he too did evil in the eyes of the Lord. 

The commentary poses a little query:

"Think of your life as a shiny new penny. You can spend it any way you wish, but you can only spend it once. And you cannot spend half a penny - it's an 'all or nothing' transaction. Find a penny and hold it in your hand as you talk to God about your life...and how you will invest the remaining years of it in his service."

Our study group tonight looked at the scriptures found in Luke 12:1-48 and asked the question "What owns you?" We discussed how fear could quietly control our lives, taking different positions from earliest childhood fears to those we encounter in later years, that keep us stuck in cycles. I fully understand how to be dragged around and sucked down into a rabbit hole of guilt and shame for literal years, living in fear of never accomplishing my dreams, afraid to even have a dream. I felt as if I would never be good enough after all my failures. The Lord was blessing me, but I knew I wasn't worthy. Every time I tried to go forward, I'd be knocked down and trampled on for affect by trusted people in my life. I laugh about it now, because I've always been a person who persevered and kept body and soul together. Life has a way of preparing us for the next step and then the next. The pity would be never having taken those steps.

Pastor Jonathan pointed out that:

"Jesus redirects our focus away from fearing people and toward reverence for God. Not a fear that pushes us away, but one that rightly centers our lives on Him. When we understand His authority and His care, down to knowing every detail about us, it frees us from living for the approval of others and anchors us in what actually matters." 

The next consideration was hypocrisy that spreads when faith becomes performance - checking off boxes of things that we feel make us look good, like good little Christian examples, but it's all a show, a lie. There are no boxes to check that qualify us for the kingdom of God. There's only Jesus. His blood washes us clean. That's it!

Often we become consumed with having, and our focus is on accumulating wealth, possessions, recognition, and our priorities become all mixed up, and we can even lose our identity. We lose focus and turn our affections to worldly things, but Jesus says for us to "seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you" (Luke 12:31). Matthew 6:19-21 says, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Then there's the subtle trap of thinking that we have so much time, but really we are not promised tomorrow, only today. We are to live without fear, trusting Him, with clarity and purpose, knowing that our deeds reflect what's truly in our hearts. Living for today, in God's way. There's a saying that is attributed to John Wesley, but I have also seen it as a quote from Mother Teresa. Both great examples of living the purpose driven life. "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can."

May this be the focus and intent of our hearts.