Time

I’ve been watching how people use time lately and it’s interesting to see how much of that valuable and un-replaceable thing we all have that we waste so much of, especially when we are young.
Out of all of the things we could waste our time with, I don’t think there are many that would be equaled in destructiveness as watching TV or playing video games, though I see many young people spending more time doing those very things than they spend doing something productive and that has a lasting effect for good and for their future. Think about it for a minute, why would we want to spend the years of our life that are best for learning, in practicing moving a little lever back and forth with our finger in order to make the character on the screen in front of us move around? Or why would we sit in front of a screen filling our minds with something that is not true and has no lasting value? I think most people would consider their time a valuable possession. But has anyone stopped for one minute to consider that the time they call their own doesn’t belong to them at all? It is a loan from God! My time is not mine to waste as I please, time has been loaned for us to be stewards of, until the time when we have to give an account for our stewardship. Mat 12:36 “But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” Rom 14:12 says “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” I suspect that none of us would like to say at the time of giving account when He asks us how we used the time He gave us “ Well, I spent most of the morning sleeping, then I did a few chores before I played a few video games and then I watched TV for a few hours until bedtime.” I don’t think we would get commended for using the valuable time in such a manner. How much time do we spend in entertainment every day? Time yourself sometime, just keep track of every minute you spend with entertainment activities for a week. Also be sure to keep track of how much time you spend in building Christian character and studying God’s word. Which activity takes up the bulk of your time? Whichever activity you spend the most time on is probably the thing that is more important in your life. I’ll be willing to bet that for most people the entertainment will come out far ahead.
I can’t keep this to just TV and video games though. Some of us prefer reading a book to staring at a screen. Others spend a majority of their time throughout the day listening to music. A couple of days ago I stopped in at the library to find a few books for information on a project I am doing. While I was looking I came across a novel by one of my favorite authors that I had not read before so I brought it home. It’s a huge book, easily as big as a full size dictionary. The author’s style is fast paced and always exciting, usually several adventures going on throughout the book that are tangled together until the very end when they all finally work in to a final exciting ending together. I’m already extremely busy with other things but I figured that I could use a diversion away from other reading and reading a novel would be a good way to relax my mind for a little while. Wrong! I picked the book up to start reading it and thought, “What eternal good is reading this going to accomplish?” “How is reading this going to further the Kingdom of God or build my relationship with God?” The answer was obvious. It wouldn’t at all!
Now people will always ask, “What is wrong with a good novel once in a while?” Or, “What is wrong with playing a video game once in a while or watching a good movie at the end of the day to relax?” Technically, we shouldn’t even be asking the question that way. What we should be asking instead is “What is right about reading that novel, watching that movie or playing that video game?” I think if we answer that question honestly we will look at those activities in a whole new light.
You can usually tell a lot about what a person is like by the music they listen to and the books they read. So ask yourself this once in a while, “Have the books I’ve been reading and the music I’ve been listening to been edifying and building my relationship with my creator, or has it all been fluff and filler with no lasting benefit?” I think you will find, as I did, that you will have to adjust your life a little, but the rewards are far better than the short term satisfaction of attaining the next level of whatever video game you happen to be playing.