Dear Editor,
We hardly ever take time out to think about the concept of time. The minute hand of the clock on your wall moves 1,440 times in a day; and with every click a minute of your life has gone by forever; will never ever come back. Yet, when we are bored at home, we think of ways to “kill” time. There are a host of ways we waste it: by sitting in front of our TV for hours on a daily basis, playing games on our phone or computer, excessive talking about insignificant matters, engaging in other useless activities or by doing absolutely nothing. Over the years, all of these wasted minutes/hours add up to many months and even years of our life.
We are all confident that we have plenty of time left. Everybody else dies; our best friends, parents and siblings; we don’t! I actually know a gentleman who many years ago told me all his relatives lived to be very old – they all passed away in their late 90s; some even became centenarians. So, he is now convinced that he will also live to a very ripe old age. I simply smiled when he told me this. He no longer lives on the island so I don’t know if he is still around or not. I have to admit that there was a time the same thought used to enter my mind. My Dad passed away at the age of 82, so I expected to live at least until around that same age. Stupid assumption!
I have so far attended two funerals where the coffin was so small it took just one person to easily carry it into the church. At one of the two funerals, I myself did exactly that.
God once appeared to recently appointed King Solomon in a dream and told him, “Ask! What can I give you?” Solomon replied, “I am just a youth with no experience in leadership. So, give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?” Wow! If only our politicians would constantly ask God for wisdom, we would indeed be living on a corrupt-free, greed-free and prosperous island paradise. (But, don’t hold your breath.)
It pleased the Lord that Solomon had not asked for a long life or riches for himself, but for wisdom to lead His people, so He gave him “a wise and understanding heart, so that there has not been anyone like you before nor shall any like you arise after you.” When God gives, He gives abundantly. So, Solomon was known to be the wisest king ever.
This king with his God-given wisdom made some profound statements to humanity. “I praised the dead who were already dead more than the living who are still alive.” He goes even further by saying, “Better than both is he who has never existed, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.” This wisest of kings also said that “the end of something is better than its beginning and the day of one’s death better than the day of one’s birth.”
I used to think that the vast majority of us were afraid of death. But the reason that’s not true is because none of us takes time out to dwell on the last day(s) of our life, and if/when we do, we reflect on it for like a whole two minutes. We refuse to give it much thought, as if by not thinking about it, it’s not going to happen.
The Bible also states that: “Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of His saints.” Therefore, we should definitely not be afraid of death. The thing we should all be very afraid of is being an unbeliever at the time of our departure or living an ungodly life during our brief days here on earth.
There are countless Scriptures in the Bible that talk about how brief man’s life on earth is. David’s prayer to God was: “Lord, make me aware of my end and the number of my days so that I will know how short-lived I am. You have made my days just inches long (the width of a man’s hand) and my life span is as nothing to You.”
The ambitious ones among us spend their entire youth pursuing a good education in the hope of getting a well-paid job. After they obtain their dream job, they accumulate a big house, a nice car and lots of other material possessions. Some of us even brag about our wealth and life achievements.
Certainly, a very sensible pursuit; however, after they accomplish all of these valuable goals, they spend little or no time getting to know their Maker and … what comes after death.
The answer to the question “Why is time so precious?” is very obvious. Because we don’t know how much, or more importantly, how little of it we have left. When you run out of time, you run out of everything. All the things you have accumulated over your lifetime won’t matter, since you can’t take them along with you. Starting today, let’s learn how to spend time wisely!
Clive Hodge
