Hennie Symington

My days pass by without hope, pass faster than a weaver's shuttle. Remember, O God, my life is only a breath. Job 7:6-7a

Man has always been obsessed with time. Your birth date and date of baptism are carefully recorded while a coroner must certify the time and date of your death. Just think how many dates you had to memorise in the history class. Calendars and clocks are our way of controlling time. We rush about with one eye on the clock and the other on our to do list. “Don’t waste my time!” or “Time is precious!” are part of your daily vocabulary. We even measure people in “man hours”.

The problem is we think we own time. We will decide when and for how long. The factory worker is ruled by the siren while the alarm clock is our master. The irony is that time is a precious gift from God’s store of time, which should be handled wisely. It is right that we should experience urgency around time because time cannot be bought back. The question is on what do we spend our time?

Remember that your times are in God’s hand. He wants us to spend our time in the right way within his kingdom. The way you spend your time therefore only makes sense if it is spent in line with what your values are. If you give priority to what you value in God’s creation, and you plan your time accordingly, time and how you spend it will take on a whole new meaning. The Psalmist rightly prays:Teach us how short our life is, so that we may become wise. (Psalm 90:12)

You cannot change the past, but you can use the time you have more sensibly as of now. The writer of Ecclesiastes says: There is a time for every season under heaven.  Ask yourself as you plan your time: Have I consulted God on my time management plan for the year?

Prayer: Lord, time is a gift from you and therefore we should be able to give an account of how we have used it. Show me how to use my time in a responsible way.  Amen