Written
by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha
Time
is one God’s divine investment on humans which like other divine investments
such as skills, talents and expertise demands a return, in point of fact a
hundred percent and over return on investments. Time properly utilized or
invested translates into mental and intellectual prowess, divine health,
academic and economic achievements, spiritual growth, parenthood and as many
successes as you can think of. Time promotes and uplifts if time is properly
and promptly deployed into divine purposes.
An
idle person has absolutely no regard for time because s/he does not understand
the value of time. S/he does not know and understand that time is a gift from
God, a divine resource distributed to everyone equally for the actualization of
divine purpose. Time should therefore not be frittered in idleness such as
excessive sleep, rest, chatter, gossip, jesting, outbursts of anger, indecision
on issues or actions to be promptly taken and acted on (Proverbs Chapters 19
verse 15; 14 verse 23, 6 verses 6 to 11, 24 verses 30 to 34, 21 verse 25, 1st
Timothy Chapter 5 verses 1 to 16, note verse 13. Time should not be frittered
in giving of excuses for not investing time and other resources when you
should. Please see Proverbs Chapter 22 verse 13, Mathew Chapter 25 verses 1 to
46 for the very interesting and revealing accounts of the wise and foolish
virgins as well as the faithful and unfaithful servants in the parable of
talents. It is rather unfortunate that while the wise virgins invested time by
planning ahead, the foolish ones frittered time and were consequently
barricaded from the meeting with the bridegroom. How do I know that they
frittered time? Perhaps you should ask them what they were doing while the wise
virgins were taking extra oil in their lamps. That would settle the issue of
whether they frittered or invested time. Significantly, the wicked, lazy and
unprofitable servant chose to fritter time. What exactly was he doing while his
master was away? Did he look for any kind hearted master to serve since he
considered his master a heartless person who reaped where he did not plant?
Rather the wicked servant chose the path of wickedness by hiding the talent in
the ground. Beloved, which is easier to do; banking the talent or digging the
ground to hide the talent? He just did not want to be a blessing to anyone. He
preferred to just fritter time because time meant nothing to him. He chose the
path of idleness.
King
David knew; understood and respected the value of time from his youth. He
started investing time when some of his age mates were still at home playing
games. He tended the family sheep and learnt to kill wild animals so his flock
could be protected. He also invested time learning how to play musical
instruments and became great at doing so. The Bible describes him as a mere
youth when he killed Goliath. Thereafter, he served King Saul privately playing
music to calm Saul’s troubled nerves. Later, he was drafted into Saul’s army
and accomplished himself greatly. David kept investing time even as King. But
suddenly, David chose to relax and in the process, he frittered time with Bathsheba.
Fortunately, he acknowledged his sin and God forgave him. But David had not learnt his lessons in investing time no matter how little. For no reason,
perhaps for want of nothing to do because he was not thinking of investing
time, he chose to have Israel numbered and sinned against God. The judgment and
punishment was severe. Again, David acknowledged his sin and was forgiven. But
most importantly, he had learnt his lessons. There were no more idle moments of
frittering time.
No comments:
Post a Comment