As I went through the photos on my phone recently, I found one of my soon-to-be eight-year old granddaughter when she was but a toddler. I sent it to my daughter-in-law, asking the usual question, “Where does the time go?” How often do we ask that and it gets us nowhere? She wrote back immediately with what is the title of this message: “Time Is A Thief.” Since we basically know this to be true, what are we doing with the time we have?
It’s interesting that we all have the same amount of time in any given day: those 24 hours that come and go with the dawn of a new day. Yet, depending on what happens in our individual lives, certain days which wouldn’t mean anything to you or my neighbor down the street are significant to me, whereas others are to you. April 22 marks the anniversary of my mother’s passing. Not a particularly important day to lots of people but one that will remain etched in my mind until it’s my turn to leave this earth. I thought about the years of her life and as I looked at them written out (1921-2014), I was struck by the fact that a small hyphen is what holds all the time she had here. Is that possible?
It made me stop and ponder the question: what’s in my hyphen? One of the definitions of the word indicates a “missing or implied element”. In the case of a headstone in a cemetery, the missing element is the lifespan of the person now laid to rest. Those of us still “above ground” (as is often said), still have time (which has not yet been stolen by the thief called time), to fill in that hyphen in a host of ways open only to each of us individually. Not one of us can determine what that is for another. We often have enough trouble determining it for ourselves. What we do with our time doesn’t have to be dramatic. Just worth the breath we still take.
If we each knew that the year after our hyphen would be 2025, what would we do differently?
“You are but a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.” (James 4:14)
And, time cannot be replenished… Your words are convicting and to be chewed upon today. Thank you.
Wow! Blows my mind! Pause for self examination!
Thank you for talking about the – in between the years. Very profound and thought provoking for sure. Why am I wasting my time on things that do not draw me closer to God?
Important consideration for sure!!
Thankful for each day, and your prompting to make the most of them.
👍
You, my friend, haven’t wasted a second! You have encouraged, informed, taught and challenged so many to grow in faith and mature in life. Thank you! The fact that time is a thief reminds us to make the most of it!
Amen 🙂
It can be spent but not saved. Use it wisely