Living a life that counts ~ our time

Read Psalm 90
For more than 25 years my Dad worked at Yale New Haven Hospital and yet we lived in a town 45 minutes away, so he had a long commute both to and from work every day. To avoid the rush hour traffic on the highway in the morning, my Dad would leave the house around 5:30 and every morning my Mom would wake up and fix their breakfast, eat with him, and then stand at the door and wave as he drove off to work. My Mom did this every day that my Dad went to work and I didn’t think much of this as a kid, it was just normal in our family, but then one day, probably when I was a teenager and sleeping in was the thing to do, I asked myself why my Mom got up every morning to do this when she could have slept in for another hour or more before she had to be at work, and if my Dad really wanted breakfast he was perfectly capable of getting a bowl of cereal all by himself. When I asked my mom why she did this, she reminded me of the Stewart family.

The Stewarts lived up the street from us when I was in elementary school and Mr. Stewart also had a commute to work every day and he traveled the same section of I-95 that my Dad traveled. One day on his way home from work Mr. Stewart saw a woman with a flat tire on the side of the road. He stopped to help and while he was changing her tire, he was hit by a car and killed. In the days that followed Mrs. Stewart shared with my Mom how hard it was because she never got a chance to say good-bye. She never got up in the morning to see him off to work and so she never got the chance to say I love you one last time. It was right after the accident that my Mom started getting up in the morning to fix my Dad breakfast and then stand at the door to say good bye. My Mom was going to make sure that if anything like that ever happened to my Dad, she would have at least seen him that morning and said, I love you.

While she may not have known it, my Mom understood one of the basic principles of Psalm 90, life is short. Look at Psalm 90:4-5. Our lives are like new grass – it springs to life in the morning but is withered dry by evening. The length of our days is numbered and they pass quickly, so God calls us to make the most of them. God tells to number our days aright so that we may gain a heart of wisdom. God is calling us to make the most of our days and we begin to do this by taking some time to reflect on our life and our use of time because this will help us determine our priorities. On the Bible Study insert in the bulletin are some thought provoking and honestly, some painful questions for us to think about: What is it that eats up most of our time? Do we feel good about this?

What activity wastes our time? Can we change this? Maybe the question isn’t can we change it but are we willing to change this? If we really want to live a life that counts, if we want our days to make a difference in the lives of our family, friends and the community in which we live then we need to get our priorities straight. We need to sit down and ask ourselves what is it that God is calling us to do and to be right now. Where is God calling me to spend my time? How is God calling me to number and live out my days? This season of lent, these days leading up to Easter, is a good time to think about this because deepening and developing our faith will most likely require us to establish some new priorities.

What’s encouraging to think about is that even Jesus needed to take some time to evaluate his life and get his priorities straight. Look at Mark 1:35-39. Jesus got up early to go off by himself to pray because he needed to figure some things out. Since he entered into public ministry what had consumed his time was healing people and driving out evil spirits. If we look at V32 it says that the entire town of Capernaum had come to Jesus looking for healing and strength. They were camped out on the doorstep waiting for him. As news of Jesus spread - more and more people were coming to him looking for help and healing, and while helping people is a good and healing people is a worthy mission, Jesus questioned whether or not it was his mission. Jesus takes the time to go off and pray because he needed to get his priorities straight, he needed to figure out of healing people was going to his primary mission in life. Jesus knew his days were numbered, he knew his life and ministry in this world would be short, and so like the rest of us he needed to number his days aright and get his priorities straight. Was Jesus going to be a healer and miracle worker, or was he going to be an evangelist and share the good news of God’s power and love and salvation to others? Both missions are worthy causes, but what was God’s will? What was God’s purpose and plan for Jesus’ life?

Jesus doesn’t just show us that we need to get our priorities straight; he also shows us how to do this. In Mark 1:35 it says Jesus goes off to a solitary place to pray. The first thing we need to do if we want to get our priorities right is to spend some time alone with God. While worshipping together is important and studying God’s word in small groups is important, time alone with God is also important and yet for many of us it is this time that we crowd out of our schedules. Time alone with God is not driving to work with the radio off. Driving can’t be quality time with God because our focus and attention is divided; at least it should be because when we are driving our primary focus should be on the road. By going off to a quiet place to pray, what Jesus shows us is that we need quality time in silence, prayer and reflection where we can open ourselves up God with ears ready to hear God’s voice and eyes ready to see God’s hand moving in us and guiding us in life.

If quiet time with God is not part of your regular routine, I encourage you in this season of lent to start the practice. Get up a few minutes before the children do, find a quiet moment at night, or take some time during a lunch hour to just sit in a quiet place to think and pray. Reflect on your life and how you spend your time. Ask God to show his purpose and plan for you at this moment, for this day, or this week, or for this season of your life. Ask God to speak to you through his word, or through the silence that surrounds you. This disciple of silence and prayer is not easy in a world that is constantly filled with noise, but it is important because many times the way God speaks is through the still small voice that can only be heard in the silence of our hearts and lives.

There’s a great story in 1 Kings 19 about the prophet Elijah. He’s at a point in his life where he is trying to figure out what God is going to do with him and he was told to go stand on the mountain and wait for the Lord to pass by. In 1 Kings 19:11 it says…
God was in the still small voice – actually other translations say that Elijah heard the sound of sheer silence and God was in the silence. It was in the silence and through the gentle whisper that God spoke to Elijah and gave him direction for his life. Many times God wants to speak to us in those moments of silence when we quiet our lives enough to be able to hear whisper. Will we make the time for this kind of silence and prayer.

For many of us, living a life that counts will begin by getting our priorities right and we will only know what God wants us to do and how God wants us to order our days if we will be willing to take the time to listen. While hearing God’s voice is important, once we hear God’s voice, we also have to be willing to act. When Jesus comes back from his time of prayer he tells his disciples that he came to preach throughout the whole region, so they needed to move on. If God calls us to order our days differently, we need to make whatever changes are necessary, and we can’t put this off until tomorrow, remember Psalm 90 says, our days are short. We may not have another day to make the change.

When I graduated from college I knew I wanted to be involved in some kind of mission or full time ministry. While I thought that would be accomplished by working in Christian television, that never worked out and so I took a job as an assistant manager of a movie theater. For 3 years I worked at the theater and was quite successful. It was a good job and I had good friends. Life was good, but I had put away any thought of using my life for mission or ministry. I had become content, maybe even somewhat complacent because when I did think about serving God in some way, I told myself I could do that tomorrow. What I had forgotten was Psalm 90, our days are numbered and they pass quickly. What opened my eyes to this truth was my Grandmother’s surgery.

My Grandmother was the most active and vital 80 year old woman I have ever known. During the summer she would swim in the cold waters of Long Island Sound every day. She read voraciously, she served in her church and community faithfully and she just loved life. After a routine surgery my Grandmother had a stroke and she never again was able to walk or speak. In an instant her life was changed and I was confronted with the reality that we may not always have another day and so I needed to get my priorities straight. I had been hiding from God’s call long enough and it was now time to seize the day. Over the course of the next year I made plans to attend Seminary, which was what my Grandmother always wanted me to do, and that change in direction led to full time ministry in the local church. It took my grandmothers illness to wake me up to the reality that for all of us, life is short and we can’t put off until tomorrow what God is calling us to do today. If God is calling us to make some changes or move in some new directions or step out into some activities – today is the day to do it

If God is calling you to spend more time with you family and to guard and protect the time you spend with your spouse – then make the changes you need to do this. If God is calling you to deepen your relationship with him through more time in worship and prayer, if God is calling you to step out in ministry and serve the church or community, then make the changes you need to do this. If God is calling you to make some radical changes to your life or lifestyle so you can support the work of God here or around the world – make the necessary changes to do this, because there may not be another day. If God is calling you to forgive someone or reach out and say I love you to someone, then do it today, because there may not be another day to do it.

If we are willing to listen to God and act on his direction, we will be blessed. Turn back to Psalm 90 and look at how it ends. If we number our days and live them to the fullest, God will…
90:14 - Satisfy us with your love.
90:17 – may the favor of the lord rest upon us and may God establish the work of our hands.
When we are willing to prioritize our lives the way God calls us to and then do the things God calls us to do, we will be blessed, and the work of our hands will be blessed by God. And when the work of our hands is blessed – we are making a difference in the world around us – we’re living a life that counts.