GCV Blog

Grace Church of the Valley blog.

Time (no, not the magazine, the clock kind)
by Pastor David

Time. It can crawl by and drag on, it can run and it can race. Time flies and we run out of it, but we all have the same amount to work with. Time can disappear like a lady in a magic act and be wasted like a gambler’s dollar. We never get to relive the past and we never arrive at the future. So how should we think about the present? Especially as we race into our summer schedules, how should we be thinking about our time?

Peter Drucker wrote the following about time:

“Time is also a unique resource. Of the other major resources, money is actually quite plentiful. We long ago should have learned that it is the demand for capital, rather than the supply thereof, which sets the limit to economic growth and activity. People—the third limiting resource—one can hire, though one can rarely hire enough good people.

But one cannot rent, hire, buy, or otherwise obtain more time. The supply of time is totally inelastic. No matter how high the demand, the supply will not go up. There is no price for it and no marginal utility curve for it. Moreover, time is totally perishable and cannot be stored. Yesterday’s time is gone forever and will never come back. Time is, therefore, always in exceedingly short supply.

Time is totally irreplaceable. Within limits we can substitute one resource for another, copper for aluminum, for instance. We can substitute capital for human labor. We can use more knowledge or more brawn. But there is no substitute for time.

Everything requires time. It is the one truly universal condition. All work takes place in time and uses up time. Yet most people take for granted this unique, irreplaceable, and necessary resource.”

Our time is unique, and its uniqueness makes it valuable. How does God tells us to think about time? Here are two suggestions this week, with two more to come next week.

1. Make the best use of your time
In Ephesians 5, Paul wrote to “look carefully how we walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (15-16). We have to use intentional care about how we live, a care reserved for the wise. The evil that permeates our days should motivate us to make the best use of our time. So our use of time is constantly threatened, and wisdom is our crying need.

2. Realize the shortness of earthly time
We don’t have all the time in the world. Or rather, if you added up all the time in the world it would just be a cloudy collection of vapor. James reminds us, “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (4:14). Don’t treat this summer as if you could throw these days away. Life is made of precious few days, so let’s ask for grace to use them well.