Time's A-Wastin'

It was an easy mistake to make. I sat in my car, eating my sandwich and engrossed in a good book while the life in my battery slowly ebbed away.

It had been a rainy, foggy morning, the kind of day that demanded driving with the lights on. When the sky brightened later, I didn't think to turn them off. I went through the drive-thru at McDonald's and then parked to eat in the lot; actions that kept me from having to get out of the car, but that also kept the door alarm from signaling that the lights were still on. It wasn't till I was ready to move on and couldn't get the car to start that I finally realized what I'd done.

It was a simple fix that day to call Triple A, get a jump, and be on my way, but I know God well enough by now to realize it wasn't just “one of those things” that happens from time to time. Rather, it was a a forced delay to cause me to question Him, listen to what He had to say, and think about some things in a way maybe I hadn't considered enough of late.

What He spoke to me about that day was waste. I whine about not having enough time for all that I want to do, but the truth is that I throw time away in little chunks all day long. And when I look back at the end of a week, a year...perhaps a lifetime...I see large sections of each that went missing because I didn't use what I'd been given appropriately.

Some of us find ourselves in a similar “forced delay” that is likewise not of our choosing, held back from the plans we had made perhaps by a consequence of some earlier action, an illness, an infirmity, or the loss of someone dear to us. While we normally consider such an interruption in a negative context, a change in our perspective might bring about surprisingly positive results. What if instead of being irritated and frustrated by the turn of events, we became intrigued and fascinated by what God might want to show us in this time that He couldn't reveal to us any other way? We might find ourselves actually thanking Him for doing so!

When the Triple A mechanic showed up to jumpstart my car, his first action was to flip off the cover of the battery, and we were both surprised at what was hiding underneath. The severely corroded cell required a lot of time and several bottles of cleaning solution before the terminals were clear enough to be connected to the jumper cables. He warned me that if the car started at all it would get me home but not much further than that; I needed to replace the battery as soon as possible.

Perhaps God is using what we consider a difficult time in our lives to likewise cause us to see what might otherwise remain hidden from view, giving us a chance to check our connections with Him, with friends, and with our families so we can make corrections to the same while there is still time to do so. When a battery reaches the end of its lifespan it is easily replaced. Not so with our lifetimes; we only get one go at it. Face it, we're all “terminal”...and if there's any amount of corrosion hanging about our lives we need to clear it off so we can make the most of the time and energy we have left. So let's not waste this moment; instead, let's be grateful for a chance to review and re-evaluate how we're living and loving today...because any tomorrows are not a given, but a gift.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time...”

(Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV)