By Dr. John Ed Mathison
Executive Director
John Ed Mathison Leadership Ministries
Someone has put together the following scenario. What if you had an account at a bank that would credit your account each morning with $86,400? It would not carry over a balance to the next day because it deletes whatever part of the balance you didn’t use that day. I expect we all would try to draw out every cent before the sun set.
There is such a bank – it is called TIME. Each morning it gives you 86,400 seconds. Each night it writes off everything that you did not invest for a good purpose. It never carries a balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you.You can’t borrow from yesterday’s account. You can’t put aside a little of that time for tomorrow’s account. You have to live on today’s deposits. That makes it awfully important to invest wisely how we spend every second.
We invest in a lot of scientific research on keeping time accurately. It was just released in April 2015, that we have a new atomic clock that is so accurate that it will not gain or lose one second in the next 15 billion years! Now that is accurate! No worry about correct time. The important thing is how well do we use our time, even if we might today be keeping it inaccurately.
I am not good with technology. Every six months we have to change our clocks involving Daylight Savings Time. I never can remember how to change the clock in my car. My brother George has the same challenge. He told me not to worry about it because he said, “John Ed, at least, your clock in your car will be accurate six months out of the year.”How we use each second is oftentimes the difference in doing something significant, or missing out.
Sometimes it is the difference in finishing first or second. Alabama is famous in the NASCAR world for the running of the Talladega 500. That is big in our state. Do you realize how close those races are? They drive those cars for 500 miles, and the difference in first and second place is less than one second.
In 2011, the margin of victory for Jimmie Johnson at Talladega was .002 seconds. Now a second is very short. This is not a tenth of a second, nor a hundredth of a second, but one thousandth of a second. That is a close margin. In 2010, Kevin Harvick finished first by a margin of .011. That is less than a tenth of a second. In 2002, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. won in .060.
Time is valuable. You have as much time today as anybody else. Don’t waste it or use it unwisely today. Time is a real treasure you have. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That is why it is called “the Present.”
Some phrases we use are “killing time” – “spending time” – “passing time.” I think the best phrase could be “investing time.” Ephesians 5:15 says, “Be careful how you live, not as unwise people but as wise making the most of time.”
What time is it? It’s time to be wise with our time!
John Ed’s blog posts appear each week in For His Glory.
Contact: JAM Executive Suite 4,4131 Carmichael Road, Montgomery, AL 36106 Phone: 334-270-2149 Email:info@johnedmathison.org
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