Best Use of Time?

“Time is golden.” In fact, it is our most precious asset as it is inseparably bound to our life. We can lose money and still live. We can move on after failed relationships. We can even go without food or drink for a time. But when our time is up, so is our life: to lose time is to lose life.

How do we prevent loss of time? It never stops, constantly ticking away without ever ceasing. We can’t slow it down or pause it. Unlike other things, we cannot save it for later. Even when we do nothing, time passes. Paradoxically, the best way to save time is to use it.

So then, the most important decision in life is how best to use our time. Keep in mind that we can only do one thing at a time among so many things we need to do, ought to do, and want to do. “The greatest enemy of the most important thing is the second most important thing.” When we decide to do something, we are refusing to do a thousand other things we can do. Are you sure that what you choose to do is the most important thing to do at that moment?

But how do we determine what the best use of our time is? This is like asking what the best car in the world is. Is it to be determined by price or horsepower? No, it must be by what purpose. Lamborghini may be a great car—an expensive one at that! But it is a terrible car to drive when youwant to go off-roading. To determine what the best use of our time is, we mustfirst decide what our life’s goal is. If having fun is the goal of our life, wewill have certain criteria. If it is retiring as early as possible, we willhave a different set of criteria.

In this world,there are things that are beautiful and pleasant to look at, such as jewelryand works of art. We try to keep them in their immaculate condition because,once they are sullied, their value drops drastically. But there are also thingsthat are there to be used up, not to be preserved. Their value lies in their utility,which comes out when they are used and consumed. Think about food. In cookingcompetitions, the presentation may be important. But at the end of the day,nobody makes food just to display it. Food that is not consumed is good fornothing except to be thrown away and left to rot.

To what categorydo you think our lives belong? Is your life valuable because you are pleasantto look at or because you are useful for a cause that is greater than yourself?Don’t we see how quickly youth passes and beauty fades? We can hope and try to livelonger, but we cannot live forever in this world. If so, simply prolonging ourlives cannot be the main goal of our lives; we must use up and pour out ourlives for something else, which is worthy of our sacrifice.

There are manycauses in the world, for which people willingly make extraordinary sacrifices—family,friends, country, humanity, etc. While noble, they can only take; they can’tgive back what you give.

But your life isnot yours to give to whatever you’d like. The Bible says, “For we must allappear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what isdue for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Cor. 5:10). In otherwords, we are His stewards, entrusted with what belongs to God to manage it forHis interest. But He is no slave driver. He is willing to bestow on us His richblessings beyond measure if we live, seeking His interest, even though it is whatwe ought to do anyway for our Maker.

But we all have failedto live that way. We have become thieves and embezzlers, liable to gravepunishment. The good news is that God is willing and ready to forgive us if weconfess our guilt and look to Jesus Christ as our Savior, who paid our debtwith His life through His death on the cross. We may have wasted our lives on alot of frivolous and even shameful things. But if we trust Jesus as our Savior,God will take our lives, though marred by our brokenness and failures and sins,and give us a life of eternal glory and beauty.