When Time Runs Out
Lynn Lusby Pratt

Here Lies Methuselah, the oldest man who ever lived.

I once saw a silly watch. The numbers, instead of being neatly spaced around the edges of the circle, were all jumbled together in the 7:00 area – as if they’d come unglued and slipped down. In the middle of the watch face was one word: Whatever! I guess you give a watch like that to someone who is always late or has a very casual view of time.

Methuselah could afford to have a casual view of time. He had all the time in the world. He lived to be 969 years old.

That is not going to happen to you.

All things being equal, you can expect to live to be 70 or 80 years old. But all things are not equal. People in their 30s die. Toddlers die. Teenagers die.

In some cases, teenagers are very aware of time. A year is very important if you don’t make the cut in tryouts and have to wait a whole year for the next chance. A month is important if your boyfriend is out of town that long. One minute is important when you’re holding your boarding pass – and watching the plane taxi away. Even a fraction of a second is important if you happen to be a sprinter.

But you may not think much about the daily tick-tock, tick-tock. You may not be very concerned about how you spend an average day.

Guess what? Other people are after your time. There are over 24,000 movie rental stores urging you to spend time watching one of their movies. There are 700 amusement parks saying, “Spend the day with us.” There are over 50,000 commercial sports events wanting you to come and spend several hours cheering the team.

It’s interesting that we use the word spend when referring to time. We spend money. We spend time. The difference is that we also have the option of saving money. We can’t save time. We talk about saving time, but we really can’t do that. Snap your fingers. That second is gone. And that one. And that one. You can’t save the seconds. They’re gone and they’re not coming back. All you can do with time is spend it.

Methuselah was really just like you as far as time is concerned. He lived to be 969, but he didn’t know how long he was going to live. Every morning he only had today. You don’t know how long you will live. Every morning you only have today.

What would happened if you began every morning with “God thoughts” about today?

“Today we know that the Lord is with us” (Joshua 22:31, NIV).

“Today listen to what [God] says” (Psalm 95:7, ICB)

“Today I will give the carcasses … “ (OK, maybe we don’t need that one, but it’s 1 Samual 17:46, NIV).
“O Lord, … give me success today” (Genesis 24:12, NIV).

“I thank the Lord today!” (1 Kings 5:7, ICB).

God will give us important things to do if we give our “todays” to him. Let’s get our numbers glued back in place. Let’s erase the word Whatever! From our faces.

It’s time.

In Memory of Methuselah
“The time has come for my departure.” 2 Timothy 4:6, NIV

cbn