Read: Ecclesiastes 3:1–8
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted. Ecclesiastes 3:1–2
Time is possibly the greatest gift we have been given. There is a fullness to time that allows for every experience under heaven to take place. Some of those experiences will be euphoric, others will be banal, and still others will be painfully difficult. Unfortunately, we often wish away time. We look out at our daily task, or at a particularly busy stretch of time, and we say, “If I can just get through this next week, if I can just get through this upcoming project or assignment, if I can just get through the holidays!” Then what? Do we believe we will find ourselves in a more pleasant moment in time? Perhaps. But the next challenge will present itself to us soon enough, and we will once again be confronted with a choice: we can choose yet again to wish ourselves through the moment, or we can embrace the moment for the gift that it is. Time is a gift to be savored, not an experience to be endured—either you make the most of it or you lose it.
How much time have you wished away in your life?
Lord, I often treat the time I have been given as a chore I need to get through. Life is work—hard work at times. But time is also a gift filled with enough richness and complexity to provide a lifetime worth of discovery. Help me to receive the time I have been allotted for the gift that it is. In your name, I pray. AMEN.