About Time

Ecclesiastes 3:11-14 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him. Last week I talked about time…the notion that it can be viewed as seconds ticking away (kronos)...or an opportunity that awaits (kairos). The message has followed…and, at times, nagged me. Probing me—is this productive? Is this how you want to spend your time? Are you going through the motions? It seemed like everything I read or every message/sermon I listened to talked about time. Which leads me to this week…what about time? Take three minutes to watch this brilliant object lesson on time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqGRnlXplx0 I’m sure you have seen this object lesson in one way or another. I love the simple reminder to take care of our golf balls first. The big things… Faith, family, friends, mental/physical/spiritual health, and passions…. Priorities are everything in life. As we progress through life, our priorities, or “golf balls,” change. We may get married and have to prioritize a spouse…and then we may have children and they become a priority…It is so important to have a balance in all of those. The smaller pebbles are important, too! Your job, schooling, car, home, etc…responsibility to those things is key. Two weeks ago we talked about our definition of happiness. I love that the professor in this video said, “Pay attention to things that are critical to your happiness.” Notice those big, “golf ball,” things that he mentioned were not material things. Is your faith a big golf ball? Or is it one of the smaller pebbles, or perhaps, a grain of sand that falls through the cracks? I assure you that if you prioritize your faith first, you learn to prioritize other things and will be blessed. Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” I see it in my life…we all have those moments when we are on fire for the Lord and everything is amazing even if circumstances are not. You just feel different! Those are the times when we are seeking after Him whole heartedly. Then there are the times when the fire dims…and life sort of seems to suck you in. And suddenly worry strikes our hearts. Distractions get in the way and we lose our focus. And you feel…”off” Your faith golf ball fell out of the jar! Faith helps us to not only stay in line, but also blesses us. My Habitudes book gave us a message about the Ancient Greek statue named Opportunity. At the end of the lesson it asked to: List the top ten activities of your week, and rank them, from the most important one to the least important, in order. The 80/20 Principle teaches us that with the right priorities, the top 20% of your activities gives you 80% of the results you desire. Start living by this set of priorities. Does this sound too strict? You must learn to value your time. • To realize the value of one year, ask a student who has failed his final exam. • To realize the value of one month, ask a mother who just gave birth to a premature baby. • To realize the value of one week, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper. • To realize the value of one day, ask the daily laborer who has ten kids to feed. • To realize the value of one hour, ask a boyfriend and a girlfriend who are waiting to meet. • To realize the value of one minute, ask the person who just missed their flight. • To realize the value of one second, ask the person who survived a car accident. • To realize the value of one millisecond, ask the person who has won a gold medal. One of my favorite movies is called…yep, you guessed it….About Time. If you haven’t seen it, and if you appreciate my recommendations, please do yourself a favor and watch it. It is a very sweet movie with a great lesson about time. Here’s the synopsis: A young man (Domhnall Gleeson) discovers that he can travel in time. He can’t change history, but he can change what happens to him. It starts as a sweet adventure for an awkward young man to find a girlfriend (Rachel McAdams) and it evolved to a brilliant and simple life lesson. He finds out that his unique gift can't save him from the sorrows and ups and downs that affect all families, everywhere. The young man touches on some brilliantly simple sweet sentiments that are great reminders of how we should live our life. “We're all traveling through time, together, every day of our lives... All we can do is do our best to relish this remarkable life.” …and… “The truth is, I now don't travel back at all, not even for a day. I just try to live everyday as if I have deliberately come back to this one day, to enjoy it... As if it was the full, final day of my extraordinary, ordinary life.” I love this movie because it reminds me of how we can trace life events back to decisions we made. I recently had a former student of mine interview me for a school project. One of the questions said, “if you could change one thing that happened to you or one decision that you made in life, what would it be?” Sure I had some things pop into my head right away, but as I carefully began to assess those things, I realized that one tiny decision could alter my life incredibly. And you know what, I love my life. I love exactly where I am. That doesn’t mean I don’t have aspirations, regrets, or dreams…it simply means that I have contentment. That is priceless. Comfortable/stagnant is never a place I want to be…I want to be content in all things. I want to grow…be challenged…and continue to learn daily. Every decision that we make has weight. Every decision has good and bad to it. When I look back on my life, I think about decisions like my decision to play volleyball at Pitt-Johnstown instead of some other schools I was looking at. If I would have never come to play here at UPJ, I highly doubt I would be in the position that I am. I learned to love and grow with this institution so much so that I wanted to stay a part of it and give back. I think about going through a failed marriage. Sure the pain that it took to get through the failure made me want to erase the decision all together, but as I carefully thought about the dominoes behind it all, I realized that I would not be who I am or where I am today without it. I grew as a person and in my faith tremendously. James 1:2-4 “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." I had a lot of pieces to pick up and put together. But. Kintsugi. Golden Repair. If I continued to take you on the path that traces my life back to that decision you would see that, again, my life trajectory may not have ended up back here at Pitt Johnstown. I am grateful and thankful for the Kairos to learn. To grow. To adapt. To be humbled. To continue to challenge myself. Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Long story short. Every single day we should be striving to make it the best day yet. We have the opportunity to make ordinary days, extraordinary. This could come simply through an interaction or simply by being consistent in valuing our priorities. When we become grateful daily for those golf balls...and pebbles...in our life, we, like the jar, are filled and fulfilled. Like I said before, those golf balls change as life goes on. There are seasons for everything—including golf! Haha! It’s what makes things interesting and renews us, but even as those things change, our God never does. Amen to that! Amen that we have a Creator that never changes, but is still mysterious in the way that He works and blesses us. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.