Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: COUNT (01/27/22)
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TITLE: You can count on... | Previous Challenge Entry
By Mark Trodd
02/01/22 -
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Before the invention of the clock, humans learned about time from the cycles of the sun, moon and stars which God had provided. We counted on their reliability when planting crops and navigating a journey. When the mechanical clock allowed us to measure time more precisely than days, months, years and seasons, it truly revolutionized our lives. Now, we talk of hours, minutes, seconds, and even fractions of a second. We could not have the level of co-ordination and co-operation that we take for granted – on a global scale – without being able to count on such precision. These days, you can win an Olympic gold medal by milliseconds, and nominate an arrival time when traveling overseas.
Years ago, a friend of mine pulled his alarm clock apart to see how it worked. He learned a lot about how clocks work, but his clock became useless when he couldn’t put it back together. Dismantling the clock didn’t make TIME stand-still, or even explain what TIME was, but he did sleep-in the next morning when his alarm failed to wake him up for school. Time can be counted on to be on time, but we still need to be able to measure it.
Today, we depend so much on the technologies we use to tell the TIME, that we forget that TIME is something different from the technologies we use to measure it. We forget that it was God who made TIME possible when He created the universe and our world with cycles, patterns and rhythms that are predictable and can be measured – like clockwork. If everything was random, life would be impossible.
My father in-law lost his short-term memory – after a heart attack – so the idea of TIME meant nothing to him. He could no longer count on his memory to give context and meaning to his present. He had to live for the moment (literally), because each moment was gone within minutes. He found comfort from wearing a watch, but it had no practical value, because he could not count on his own memory to make sense of things. He had to depends on his family for everything, and it was impossible to learn new things.
Our ability to measure TIME with precision has enabled us to be far more efficient and productive, but there are downsides. The pressures brought on by appointments, deadlines, tight scheduling and even over-scheduling, have made TIME our taskmaster. Consequently, we must make TIME for the people and things that really matter to us. When my daughter had a serious car accident, the use of our TIME was dramatically changed. She became the priority, so less important things dropped away naturally. It is sad that it takes a crisis to remind us about what is important.
James reminds us of this when he said, “Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” James 4:13-15
TIME is also measured in a straight line – with a beginning and an end. Somewhere along that TIMELINE is where we get to live the life that God has given us. Our life consists of the dash between the dates on our tombstone. The Bible says that there is an APPOINTED TIME for everything, and that our TIME is in God’s hands. We can never be sure about how long that TIME (dash) will be, but we can count on the One who created everything, and brought TIME into existence. Paul reminds us about this when he talks about who Jesus really is.
In Colossians1:15-17 (N.I.V), he says, “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
You can count on Jesus to keep His promises to anyone who trusts in Him. Follow Him, and make your life count for eternity.
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Blessings~
Great thoughts.