A New Year Reflection

From Assembly last week: a reflection based on the words of Stephen Cloud

As we look into 2010 we look at a block of time.

We see 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8,760 hours, 525,600 minutes, 31,536,000 seconds.
And all is a gift from God.
We have done nothing to deserve it or to earn it;we have not purchased it and we don’t own it. Like the air we breathe, time just comes to us as a part of life.
The gift of time is not ours alone. It is given equally to each person. Rich and poor, educated and ignorant, strong and weak—every man, woman and child has the same twenty-four hours every day.
And you cannot stop it. There is no way to slow it down, turn it off, or adjust it. Time marches on.
And you cannot bring back time.
Once it is gone, it is gone. Yesterday is lost forever. If yesterday is lost, tomorrow is uncertain. You may look ahead at a full year’s block of time, but you really have no guarantee that you will experience any of it.
Obviously, then, time is one of our most precious possessions.
We can waste it.
We can worry over it.
We can spend it on ourselves.
Or, as good stewards, we can invest it in lives that truly make the most of it for the good of all.
The new year is full of time.
As the seconds tick away, will you be tossing time out the window,
Or will you make every minute count?