The Clock Is Ticking

Many of the games we watch and play have an expiration date. We are aware of these when we play. The clock ticks away away with each moment we are on the field. Eventually time expires and we have either won or lost the game.

This is also true in the ability to play these games. I played high school football. I took off the pads on a Friday night almost forty years ago. I remember asking myself if I would ever put them on again. I didn't. The clock had run out on this time in my life.

Now, let's think of something much more important than a game. Let's think about life. God has placed each person on this earth for a purpose. Every person must know his or her purpose and fulfill that purpose. Each person has been given an amount of time to do what he or she was sent to do. Wasting time could mean that the purpose and the person are unfulfilled.

Paul said that you are being foolish if you do not know what God's will is. He certainly wasn't saying that you must know everything that God is going to do. He was saying that you should know what God wants you to do. Therefore, God's will must be more obvious than most people make it out to be.

He told people that the days were evil. That can't mean that everything in every day is evil. It means that there are other things which will take your time that will not allow you to do what you were intended to do. You have a dream but that dream goes unfulfilled because you are doing other things.

I know a young man who is an excellent musician. However, he spends much of his time playing video games and wasting his days away. Most video games are not evil in themselves. However, these are evil because they are keeping him from God's calling. He is allowing the opportunity to pass him by. He must consider these games evil so that he can get on with God's will.

This takes great care. It means that everything must have an evaluation. Even interruptions. Interruptions to what you are doing may not be evil. They may be God's method of teaching you something that will help you accomplish His will. You must ask yourself if this in an interruption which is leading you toward or away from God's will. Sometimes it is hard to know. It will take a lot of prayers during days with the most interruptions.

Of course, this means that God will also want you to spend time recreating with things that apparently have nothing to do with His will. He may even desire that you play some video games so that you can be relaxed. Yet, each of these must be measured so that you are neither playing too much or too little.

That is the level of care you need to take to do what God has called you to do.

The clock is ticking.

Ephesians 5:15-17 (NIV)
Be very careful then how you live--not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.