"Some time ago, I remember hearing an account of a woman who refused to bring neighborhood children to church any longer because she had purchased a new car and was afraid they would get it dirty.
I’m afraid she exemplifies the attitude too many Christians have toward their vehicles. Imagine how much time is consumed by those who worship and pamper their cars instead of seeing them as nothing more than the organized piles of metal they really are. God never meant for cars to be expensive toys or status symbols. We just don’t have time or money for that. Cars are tools, provided to us by God, to accomplish something for Him.
Consider this. If you buy a new car for $30,000 and keep it four years, you would be doing good to sell it for $12,000. That means it depreciated $375 every month.
Remember, selecting a vehicle that will provide reliable transportation at the most economical price with the least maintenance will redeem the time.
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"On your car mirror there’s likely a little phrase, “Warning: Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.” Sometimes I think calendars should come with a similar phrase like, “Warning: Dates in calendar are closer than they appear.”
That’s because there is an almost universal tendency to not realize how quickly dates that once seemed far away, creep up and become urgent matters that need immediate attention. For example, if you schedule a meeting, vacation, or special event six months in advance, it seems so distant you don’t feel the need to do anything about it yet. Then two weeks before it is supposed to happen, you suddenly realize how much work is yet to be done and things go into crisis mode.
God’s way is to focus on the long term and to prepare far enough ahead of time to avoid the last minute rush. Whether you are preparing for Heaven or final exams, realizing that dates are closer than they appear will help you redeem the time.
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"A black hole has been defined as a region of space with a gravitational force so strong that nothing, including light, can escape it. Some galaxies are believed to have “supermassive black holes” which are like giant magnets of gravity larger than 10 billion suns.
Unfortunately, many of us also have black holes in our daily schedules. They are those items which seem to have a powerful gravitational pull which sucks us away from the job we should be doing and into a state of diversion and idleness.
If you work with computers one of those might be your home page settings. That’s the page your computer goes to first when you click on the internet. For a long time my home page was a major news site which would often suck me in when I went online to do something productive. Since I changed that home page setting to the site of a Christian ministry that teaches time management skills, I’ve had more freedom to steer clear of that internet black hole and redeem the time.
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"It is a proven fact that people will more likely believe something if you tell them that Ben Franklin said it.
It’s true Ben Franklin did leave behind many wise sayings and many of them dealt with the right use of time. Here are a few of them:
All would live long, but none would be old.
Employ your time well if you mean to get leisure.
If you would live long, live well, for folly and wickedness shorten life.
Do you love life? Then don’t waste your time, because that is what life is made of.
Never leave till tomorrow what you can do today.
Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
Well done is better than well said.
You may delay, but time will not.
Wish not so much to live long as to live well.
Whether you’re quoting Ben Franklin or the Bible, the bottom line is the same- Redeem the time.
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