Are You Redeeming the Time?
R.M. Cornelius is credited with identifying the seven stages of man:

So, what stage are you in?

It's amazing to think that I'll be 30 years old early next year. Hopefully, most of my systems are still glowing (although with the purchase of a house recently, it looks like I'm ready for the fifth stage--all systems owe!). Where has all the time gone?

It seems like just yesterday I was graduating college and getting married--that was over seven years ago! I can vividly remember mowing lawns in the summer as a teenager--over fifteen years ago! I can remember certain things from early elementary school--over twenty years ago! Job wasn't kidding when he said - "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle" (Job 7:6).

The most precious commodity we have today is not our money but time. Time is our most valuable and perishable possession. When we squander it on things that are irrelevant, we show ourselves to be foolish. Paul warns us in Ephesians 5:15-17 - "See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is."

Anyone with his eyes open can see that the days we are living in are truly evil. Sin runs rampant in our world. But, that should not discourage us since sin has dominated this world from nearly the beginning, but that has not prevented good from being accomplished in times past. Even today there remains much good to be done. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: "This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it." Friends, that is exactly right! Every age has its problems and blessings, but we must use our time wisely and make the most of life for the Lord and His kingdom. We need to regularly remind ourselves of the heavenly perspective - "If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Col. 3:1-3).

What will you do with the time God has entrusted into your care? Will we kill time frivolously? Or, will we make every day really count? Consider this: if we kill time now, how can we not but injure eternity in some capacity? We are each given twenty-four precious hours daily. How will we use them? Whatever age we find ourselves in, whether 16 or 76, let us serve God faithfully to the best of our ability. The grave awaits, and then the Judgment. Tick tock, tick tock. Are you redeeming the time?