"A 21 year old German man bought a ticket to visit his girlfriend in Sydney, Australia. The only problem was he picked the wrong Sydney airport. When he landed in Portland Oregon his ticket showed he was to then board a small commuter plane for Sydney, Montana, population 5,000. After spending 3 days in a Montana airport, his family sent 600 Euros to get him on to Australia.
The young man paid a high price for not making certain he was headed for the right destination. And, even though it doesn’t often make the news, many of us will wind up somewhere we didn’t want to be because we didn’t examine which final destination our lives were leading us to.
The Apostle Paul challenged the Corinthians to “examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith.” He knew that many people in that church claimed to be following Christ, but didn’t have the lifestyle to support those claims. They were not concerned with their true final destination. They didn’t really redeem the time.
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"We often see news reports of firefighters rushing into burning buildings to save lives. But really, firefighters spend only a small percent of their time actually fighting fires. Much of their time is spent in fire prevention, equipment preparation, and training for the next crisis situation.
That is perhaps a model for us as Christians to consider when managing our time. It’s easy to get highly stressed over a sudden crisis that destroys our well planned schedule. But we have to realize that God’s plan for our lives includes crises and we have to incorporate enough flexibility in our schedule to deal with crises without our world falling apart.
Of course, if our lives are characterized by one continual crisis after another, we may need to spend more time in crisis prevention.
Still, God never promised us a life toatlly free from crisis. Rather, He gives us grace enough that even in a crisis we can still redeem the time.
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"A man went to his psychiatrist for help with his inferiority complex. The doctor took one look at him and said, “There’s no problem here. You’ve correctly concluded the fact that you are an inferior person.”
That probably wasn’t very helpful or accurate advice. But it’s true that some people do feel inferior and develop negative thinking because they can't see progress toward any meaningful goals. They don't see themselves moving any closer to fulfilling God's plan for their lives.
If you find yourself depressed because you are going nowhere and achieving nothing, learn how to make an achievable goal for yourself each day. Making a daily goal and achieving it, sets a pattern of positive accomplishment. It keeps you moving in the right direction.
Setting goals is a key part of good time management. Setting a God ordained, spiritually profitable goal and achieving it each day is an excellent way to create some positive motivation to redeem the time.
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"When Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy, France in the D-Day invasion of WWII, one of their most effective tactics was the use of rubber dummies on parachutes as decoys. When the Germans saw the multitudes of parachutes decending toward them they unloaded much of their arsenal on the dummies which were also rigged with firecrackers to make them more visible.
One of the most effective tactics in any battle is to get your opponent distracted with a fake attack. Then, when their focus is on the fake skirmish, and their energy is spent, the real attack begins. It works in military battles, sports, and all too often, it is a tactic of Satan to defeat the Christian in spiritual warfare.
How often have you spent your time fretting over traffic, office politics, or minor financial setbacks, only to arrive at the end of the day having failed to share the Gospel with even one single person?
Remember, choose your battles carefully so you’ll redeem the time.
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