How We Spend Our Time “So teach us to number our days so that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Psalm 90:12 I had not seen my friend since before Christmas. He looked a bit thin and seemed nervous. He kept looking down and shuffled his feet in the snow. He shared that he has been diagnosed with bone cancer and that his five-year prognosis wasn’t good. He said several things that stuck out to me. “If I’d only known I would have done so many things differently in my life.” “I can’t believe how fast it’s all gone by.” “I need to make changes, but it may be too late.” And, “Where did the time go?” This may seem like a heavy way to start my message, but I hope it has the same effect on you as it did me. Not too many of us wake up each morning thinking it may be our last. Our focus is that we go off to work or to serve and expect to do the same thing tomorrow and next week. When we turn on the news we see planes dropping out of the sky, deadly car accidents daily, and I am sure those people were all planning on arriving at their destinations and carrying on with their lives. They had no idea. They didn’t know. None of us do. We can get into a “routine” even when serving the Lord at times. “I have to speak here on the 18th and be at this church next week and I have an appointment with this individual after that” assuming that it will just go smoothly. It’s not that we aren’t serving with love, but we need to be careful to appreciate each opportunity and to not just check off a date on the calendar as “OK, job done.” We want to be thankful every day that He allows us to wake up. We want to be appreciative of the blessings of life and to not let His call on our lives become “routine.” And we certainly don’t want to wait for a diagnosis to shake us to the point of asking those previously listed questions of ourselves. I was training new volunteers yesterday and one of them asked me “How would I describe the essence of a Yokefellow volunteer?” My answer was immediate — “faithful in service.” Which leads me back to the beginning of this article. I’m not saying that we at some point don’t think, “Boy, it seems like just yesterday that I was 29,” but we don’t live in that space. As Yokefellows, we are in a unique situation, and what I mean by that is this. This March will mark nine years since I first stepped foot in a prison, and I’m certain that you each can remember the year you first did as well. And while we may not remember the topics talked about on a specific day or even some of the men and women who came ... we do remember where we spent our time. And how we spent our time. We spent it doing what the Lord has asked us to do. And are blessed beyond what we deserve in doing so. James 4:14 says, “... yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” ESV
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