TIME: What will you do with it?

Time. It’s one of the few things that once it’s used, you can never get it back. In most cases time is something that can’t be given, it only can be taken away; and it can’t be bought, because if it could I promise you Steve Jobs would have paid someone well over a billion dollars just to add another 10 years to his life. But, there was no doctor, no healing medicine, or spiritual guru who had the ability/authority to give Steve Jobs any time or additional life.

We all have a certain amount of time that is allotted to us to live, unless we or someone else makes a choice to take our life abruptly. In the Bible it says that God limited the years a man can live to just 120 years (reference link). Now, no one knows for certain how long they will live or when they will die, or what exactly will be their cause of death; nevertheless we all know that eventually we will die.

Life is a journey and we go through seasons of life, and there is a certain amount of time given for every season. For example, the life of a child is different than the life of a teenager, or the attitude of a single adult is different from the attitude of someone who’s married with children, the lifestyle of a parent who has children living at home is different than that of a parent whose children doesn’t live with them; how we use our time and our priorities differ depending on the season in which we are living.

Over the weekend one of my friends called me as I was in the process of finishing up my workout at the gym. And she asked me what was I doing, and I told her I was working out; then she said something interesting, she said that she would love to have the time to workout. Reading the text, I paused and thought to myself, “I know this woman doesn’t have the busiest of schedules, so the only real reason she doesn’t have time is that she chooses not to make time once or twice a week.” And not to put her down, but she probably has the time, but what she lacks is the drive/passion to make time for it.

Now I understand that we have to prioritize our life so we can invest time into the things which are the most important/detrimental to us and also the things we love to do. However, I feel people should use more wisdom in understanding what they should and should not make a priority; which is ultimately being able to use wisdom.

Right now at this moment in time, I am writing a blog. I’m pouring out my heartfelt feelings and revelational wisdom to future visitors to my website; publishing my thoughts displayed in word-form on the internet welcoming opinionated criticism and replies.

But, what was I doing 10 minutes ago? Well, 10 minutes ago I was cleaning up my apartment because my roommate had a guest over this past weekend who doesn’t prefer to clean up after herself. So I decided to take some time and energy and put it into tidying up the kitchen and living room area.

Well, what about 3 hours ago; what was I doing then? I hate to say it, but I was just pulling up to the church parking lot about 20 minutes late after church started. I was late to church because I decided to cut my hair this morning, and it took me a while (or just longer than I expected) to cut my hair, clean my razors and hair clippers, take a shower, and get ready for church. But, all in all it was my fault that I was late, and I hate being late for anything.

In my life, one of the most valuable things to me is my time. HOW I invest it, WHO I’m investing it with, the things I’m SACRIFICING by investing it, and the measure of PROFIT that I will receive from of my investment of time are some of the things I think about before commit to doing anything in my mind. And here is an example… because I’m thinking about going to workout after I finish this blog.

WORKOUT – Making the decision of going to the gym for a few hours on a Sunday afternoon. So, here is my mental process [How I Invest It – Working out is something I like and need to do. It’s benefiting my body and my mental health. Who I Invest It With – Though I’m going by myself, I’m going to a gym where there will be people there who I respect, who are cool people to talk to or be around. The Things I’m Sacrificing – The only thing I’m sacrificing is energy, but I also need to clean up my bedroom… so I’m stealing time away from organizing my room. Measure of Profit Received – Working out will greatly benefit my body as I try to gain muscle weight and cut excess bodily fat.]

There is no such thing as Free Time… because whatever you choose to do with your time, whether is something or nothing, it’s costing you something. Because just by resting, you may gain energy and used your time wisely, but it still costs you time that you could’ve been writing a book, editing your resume, or time spent talking developing a relationship with a friend.

So… are you using your time wisely?