Victor Borge, the renowned pianist, once told a friend that he could tell time by his piano. The friend wasn’t convinced so Borge proceeded to prove his point. He immediately began playing a resounding march. In only moments there was a noisy banging on the wall and voice on the other side screamed, "Stop that noise! Don’t you know it’s 1:30 in the morning?"
Borge may be able to tell time by his music, but he can’t stop time. Only God can do that. Time is like an unending river, and once your craft is launched on it, there is no turning back, no stopping it. Like a river which may wind through a meadow, there are seasons in our lives when it seems that time moves very slowly. Then there are other times when it seems the craft of our lives is carried faster and faster through the turbulence of white water rapids. More than anything else, we would like to slow things down. But we can’t.
Mario Andretti, the famous auto racer talked with reporters before driving his final Indianapolis 500 at the age of 54. "If I could make a deal with somebody and buy five or six years more of this life, I would." Think of it–trading his millions for just a few more years of peak performance racing.
He couldn’t buy time, and neither could the world’s richest woman in the world. As she lay on her deathbed, Queen Victoria, whose British Isles were at the peak of their glory, cried out, "My kingdom, my kingdom for an inch of time!"
Nothing so dominates our lives as time. This side of eternity, time is a fixed commodity, and when it’s gone, it’s gone. God trades neither money or kingdoms for more of it.
The only thing we can do about time is to learn to use the moment, to take advantage of what lies within our grasp. If there is any wisdom acquired in aging, it surely includes the importance of using time wisely, of saying what you have always wanted to say while the person you love can still hear those words, of writing the letter you have been intending to write while a friend can yet read it.
Sometimes I wonder what will happen if God gives us more years. We are such creatures of habit that few of us could really change our lifestyles should we live centuries beyond the biblical three-score-and-ten or 70 years.
God has given you today to prepare for eternity. It’s all part of His gracious goodness. Take time to get to know God, to love Him, and to use this day to glorify Him. Make today count.
Resource Reading: Job 2:1-10