“Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered – how fleeting my life is. You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire lifetime is just a moment to you; at best, each of us is but a breath,” Psalm 39:4-5.
What is time? I assure you, if you try to Google it you will arrive much farther from your answer than when you even began.
Rick Warren, the author of “The Purpose-Driven Life,” sought to put his finger on it.
“Time is your most precious gift because you only have a set amount of it,” Warren wrote. “You can make more money, but you can’t make more time. When you give someone your time, you are giving them a portion of your life that you’ll never get back. Time is your life.”
I am not really looking for a definition of time – far smarter people than me have wrestled even with the concept of time’s existence, since technically there is no present, as future has already become the past.
I suppose my real question is, are we filling our time, or spending it?
These terms may seem very similar – I assure you they are. However, there is a fundamental difference: putting something into, and giving something out.
According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the definition of “fill” is, “To put someone or something into [a space or container] so that it is completely full.” This is the society we live in. I believe society does have a concept for how short life is, for death, illness and tragedy have a powerful effect. Yet, instead of choosing wisely the things we spend our precious time on, we simply try to cram everything into that most valuable span of time.
This is why we need cell phones; it is impossible to reach someone at a stationary phone, because we ourselves are never stationary. We need fast food because any other food just will not fit into the 15-minute window we set aside for lunch. We invented TiVo, because it is absolutely absurd to expect someone to be free from commitments by 8 o’ clock. Mornings begin earlier, and nights end later … and for what?
We as a people have developed a fear of stillness, so much so that we have become a culture of multitasking. We use Bluetooth headsets because our left hand has become far too valuable to be plagued with the task of holding the phone to our ear. We listen to music in the shower. We watch TV while we do homework. We text while we drive. We fill our time.
So what, then, is “spending” our time? By the definition of the same source, to spend, means, “To use or give out the whole of.” Time is precious in that, as Warren explained, you only have so much; once it is gone, you are not getting it back. If we truly understand the value of time, to what, or whom, are we “giving out” our time?
As students, oftentimes it is tempting to ignore that call from your parents when you are in the middle of watching your show, but to whom would you rather “give out” your time? As adults, we get so caught up in the rat race at work that we are faced with the choice of work or dinner at home. Would you rather “give out” your time to your boss, or your family?
Just as valuable as your time is the time of others. When professors stay after class to explain something further, that is time they are never going to get back. They chose to “give out” some of their precious time to you – do not lose sight of that. When your parents pick up the phone to call you, they made a conscious decision that you were worth an allotment of their precious time – do not lose sight of that.
In the end, our lifetime is set. Extend your hand and examine its width – this is your life; are you at the first knuckle, maybe the second, or is your time on earth approaching its last fingernail? It is impossible to know, which is why time is so priceless. Are we sucking our life dry for every second, or savoring it?
If today was your last day on earth, to what, or whom, would you give out your time?
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