Time passes all too quickly. It was only yesterday that I awoke as a young child, waiting anxiously for Christmas morning and riding my new bike around the living room.
It was only yesterday that I had my first job, met my spouse, bought our first house, raised our children, moved far from my where I was raised, lost the love of my life, my house, my possessions, my direction.
Yesterday I found myself again, and began a new journey of struggle to undo what was done, and begin again.
And it was only yesterday I moved once more, for the last time, far from my home to a place unknown.
Change…
Time. In the blink of an eye or as slow as a melting iceberg, time changes everything. It is an opportunity to improve or lose it all, choose to live more fully or to die in poverty, to give or take, do for others or do for self.
Time is unknown; it is undefined. Scientists try to measure time, but fail to understand what it is. Philosophers explain it in virtue of what it affects – movement, change, etc. – by observation.
Like the wind, it is unseen. Only it’s passing is known.
And once it passes by, it is lost forever.
Waste…
Time isn’t to be wasted. As creatures of habit, we waste it all too much.
We work at jobs we hate, become too busy to see what is going on around us. Time is spent bickering or cheating one another. We waste it hating or being angry at ourselves, others, or our circumstances.
And we complain. Oh how we complain! Life was never meant to be that way!
Then…
One day we wake up and realize all the tie we had to accomplish our goals was lost. We find ourselves wanting to have more time to remake our choices, wishing we had done something differently, regretting what we didn’t do.
Our health, our age, the friends, things we could have or should have done are gone. And there is no more time.
Experience…
Trying to teach youth about what they should based on what we learned often goes unheard. They are too much into fulfilling their own pleasures. The experiences of those who have gone before is mocked, ignored, or considered irrelevant.
None of that matters to them.
Until it is too late.
Then, who do they turn to for help? All their elders are gone. All that experience has gone with them to the grave. They are only left with each other whose experience is no better than their own.
Life…
Time is so integral to life. Without it, there is no growth. If there is no growth, there is no wisdom.
If there is no wisdom, then we are doomed to repeat the failures of our elders.
Time is a gift given to each one of us. If we fail to use it wisely, then we will awaken an empty shell.
It is not ours to spend. It is given to us to use wisely. We will be held responsible for how we use, or wasted, it.
As I write this, I realize how much I have lost by youthful fantasies. My health fails. I think of all the friendships that were lost and relationships squandered. And the finances that were mishandled that could have brought me great wealth. I think about all the work done for nothing more than someone else’s wealth and dreams. All the while my own lay in the dust. My own dreams long gone, never to be regained.
Time will give you the opportunity to live fully and give it all away. Or to live in regret. You would be left clinging to the things you thought would give you happiness, only to find it has swallowed up your life and given nothing in return.
Choices…
Time. Choose to use it wisely. Set a goal and, like a north star, never lose direction to reach it.
You only have one life. It is given to you as a gift from God. Don’t squander it on your own immediate pleasures.
Use it all for Him. The reward will be far greater than you could ever imagine.