Healing Rays of Righteousness

In the beginning God created TIME. He then placed things into space and TIME. Then he created MAN and placed man in TIME as a subject of TIME to live in TIME.

This is to say that God created TIME and gives it to each human being as a daily gift, heartbeat by heartbeat. And someday, during one heartbeat moment, the same God who created TIME, works in TIME, and placed you in TIME is going to say, “That’s it. There will be no more TIME.”

During the past 80 years mankind’s average lifespan has increased by an additional 20-30 years. Unfortunately, many persons have not prepared themselves to fully enjoy these years of extended life, and so wake each morning without purpose and with a diminished sense of self-worth. They awaken each morning with no vision, no purpose, and little enthusiasm for living. Their days are just one long boring “rocking chair” wait for death. How sad!

Yes, each one of us will die. Life on this earth will come to an end. How will God call time, ending my life on earth? There are many possible ways. When will God call time? Only He knows. How much time do I have left? Only God knows. How do I prepare for that end moment and the latter years of life that precede that moment? That’s the focus of this presentation.

One of the comments I hear frequently as a chaplain and pastor is this, “I didn’t expect to live this long” or “I never thought I would get to be this old.” In those words I hear the confession, I wasn’t prepared for this. What should I be doing now?

What we do with our daily gift of TIME very directly shapes how we will age physically, socially, and spiritually; and determines what kind of person we will become in our latter years. To prepare for growing old gracefully and gratefully must begin before the time of retirement.

Today, not tomorrow, is given to us for the purpose of fully enjoying a meaningful present, while also preparing for our retirement. This early preparation is important not only for sufficient financial resources, but also for adequate emotional and spiritual resources to carry us through to the end of this life and into eternal life.

The Psalmist prays, “Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is.” (39:4). And again, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (90:12).

Joni Eareckson Tada writes, “…of all the things to be counted, this is the hardest – to number our days. We number everything else so easily. We know how much money we have in our purse and how many dollars in the bank. Farmers number their sheep and cattle. Restaurants number the meals served in a week. Teachers check off attendance records. Gardeners can tell you how many tomato plants are in the backyard.

Yet we find it hard to number something so precious as our days. Perhaps that’s because we see our days stretching on and on. They seem infinite and so there is no need, we think, to number them. Things we fail to account for, we waste. That’s why it is wise to ask God to teach us to consider each day separate from the next, distinct in its purpose, unique in the way it is to be lived.” (Diamonds in the Dust, 1993, Sept. 14).

Contrary to popular thought, we do not live on borrowed time but on entrusted time. Each day is the gift of time that God has given us. Today is the day we hold in our hands to manage and use for God’s glory and our neighbor’s good.

As Bill and Gloria Gaither sing so beautifully – “We have this moment to hold in our hands, and to touch as it slips through our fingers like sand. Yesterday’s gone and tomorrow may never come, but we have this moment today.”

What do you want to accomplish before your TIME in this world of TIME is ended? How do you want people to remember you? I invite you to join me in striving to use our gift of TIME in 2020 to make a difference in the lives of those around us, that is, to be blessed as we bless others. We are never too old to live and work in God’s kingdom on earth. Let’s do it!

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“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – January 22, 2020
http://www.geigler13.wordpress.com
Ray M. Geigley