‘Time flies when you’re having fun!’ So the common saying goes — and doesn’t it fly!

That dream holiday or lost week-end vanishes into the past like a puff of smoke. The precious moments cherished before the departure of a loved one fly out of sight like a nifty little flock of swallows.

But for those anxiously awaiting the event that never seems to come, time can drag terribly. Standing in the cold waiting for a bus can seem like an eternity. Sitting around waiting to know if you have at last landed a job can seem like half a lifetime. The young lady waiting for her boyfriend to propose, finds weeks turning into months and months into years.

A common problem

Every day we hear it or say it: ‘If only I had the time...’ There are things we want to do — some of them important to us—but we cannot get to them. The urgent takes the place of the important.

Urgent things are the ones that present themselves more visibly or are pressed upon us by someone else. So we put other things off to attend to the demands of the present circumstances. Sometimes there is no choice but to fit in with those demands, especially if it is an emergency.

The bottom line is that we can be cheated out of attending to matters of real importance—or we cheat ourselves. Time gets lost or wasted, often by choices and preferences we make and regret later.

Beating clocks and calendars

It would be great if we could get the mastery over the old enemy, time. In my contest against time, I have been beaten convincingly over the years. Take Saturday jobs for instance. I start with the day’s list of six tasks to be done before nightfall. You guessed it! When the first three have been crossed off, the sun has set and I’m working by moonlight. You’ve been there too!

Beating the final siren

How seldom do we take into consideration the fact that our whole life has a deadline; that at any time the curtain may fall, our time all gone. The sandglass will be empty, the contest against time, lost. Doors of opportunity forever shut.

Look at the death notices in the paper. Every day there is evidence that not only old people die. All ages are represented there. One day your name will appear and you don’t know how soon.

Some things left undone won’t matter very much. The house you were going to build or the dress you were going to make won’t mean much then. But some things will matter tremendously.

What is the most urgent and important thing to attend to while we are here in this life? It is getting right with God. What could possibly be more important that that? It is imperative that we find out what to do and then do it. God has told us all, that the death of Jesus on the cross took place in order to bring us forgiveness and pardon; to bring us into a right relationship with Himself; to prepare us for the day we meet Him. Have we responded to His offer?

Now here is something else that can be too easily shelved while we attend to other things. Don’t risk your eternity. Don’t place a bet against certainties. Don’t fiddle while Rome burns.

God says; ‘Listen! This is the hour to receive God’s favour; today is the day to be saved!’ (2 Corinthians 6:22 Corinthians 6:2).