Making Time
Remember how short my time is…. – Psalm 89:47a NKJV.
The Psalmist was very aware of how short his time was on this earth. He says in verse 48, “What man can live and not see death? Can he deliver his life from the power of the grave?” No, the answer is obvious. Our time is short and valuable. The Psalmist is concerned about the waste of life and asks: “For what futility have You created all the children of men?” He, along with most of us, did not want to waste his life in doing futile things. Instead, he wanted and we want to live fruitful and fulfilling lives.
To live fruitful and fulfilling lives begins with life lived in the present. Lives lived second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour, and day by day. As many have so beautifully said: carpe diem, seize the day. Seizing the day involves prioritizing according to the eternal value of our activities. There is an excellent little booklet which I once read called “The Tyranny of the Urgent.” As I remember the booklet points out the trap many of us fall into. We become trapped by the urgent but not necessarily the most important things which are constantly demanding attention.
How do we escape the trap of the urgent and futile things? First, we need to remember who has put a time limit on our physical life. God has done that. So, within the framework of the total number of days each of us have been given it is possible to accomplish all that God would have each one of us to accomplish. It is possible in the days we have been given to be all of what God would want us to be. You could call each day a mini lifetime. Each day begins with a birth at dawn and gradually grows older until we go to sleep in the evening. To escape a lifetime of futility we must escape futility each day.
To know God’s plan for each day we must put the urgent on hold long enough to enter God’s presence seeking His direction. God has a perfect plan for your life, and this means that He has a perfect plan for each day. How can we know that plan without prayer and the Word? How can we seize the day when we do not know the right things to seize? Failing to give God this time will only result in lives of growing futility. Let us remember “how short” our “time is,” as we prioritize our days.