Thursday, October 28, 2021

Limited Resources

As the rain came down this morning, I stared over my coffee cup towards my friend who was smirking. He had lines around his eyes. I knew that he was tired, but we wanted to have coffee. We won't have that many opportunities soon. I'm moving and he's staying.

So that's not so easy.

He started off our morning conversation this way:

"I've been meeting up with a lot of people. It seems like the world is full of struggle and tragedy."

I nodded. He's right, but...

"I was meeting with another friend who's going through a tough time," he continued, "and we got onto the subject of 'time.' He doesn't know how much he has left. Whatever is still in the hourglass, it never seems enough."

I agreed with him. We don't really think about the time that we have, only the time we don't have. We don't have time for conversations like this because we've spent too much on work, on recreation, on distraction. So we complain that we have 'don't have time' to slow down because life is fast.

My friend agrees with me on this, but he actually acts on it.

"As my friend and I are talking, I said to him, 'We don't realize how precious a resource is until it's limited."

My mind caught there. Like a skipping record, I realized that he had expressed something I'd been pondering for a long time. Not the old flippant, 'Time is Money," but time is the most important resource that we have. But just like any other gift we have, time isn't just spent it should be shared.

We're bombarded by the media today the limitations of resources. Pipelines are being nixed, there are shortages of fuel and deliveries; people are worried that there won't be enough presents for Christmas (what has the world come to?), there's even a question of supply chains not bringing us the goods we need for everyday life. (Toilet paper shortages, anyone?)

These media driven fears are all a distraction from the fact that there is only one resource for humanity that is completely limited, and that's time.

And yet we waste it on so many things that don't matter. We spend frivolously on things that don't mean anything. I'm preaching to myself even before anyone else.

Yet one of my other friends spoke just as profoundly to me the other day as he left the church. He said, 'Pastor Reid, thank you for sharing time with me.'

Incredibly, I was stabbed through the heart, because this person expressed the truest of all truisms - when we think about time as something being shared, it is multiplied. That sounds odd and perhaps cliched, but it is true. As he and I sat together over a cup of tea, time seemed to cease to exist. Just two people who had all the time in the world.

As each of us draws closer to the end of the line, the last grain of sand in the hourglass, whatever metaphor you want to use for the end of life, wouldn't it be great if our world recognized that this limited resource is so precious, that not a second of it should be wasted, but shared. 

I hope you have a chance to reach out to someone you love today and share time with them.


1 comment:

Debbie Gortowski said...

As Yoda would say, “A precious gift time it is.” I think the older we get, the more we understand how precious time is. Time is indeed a limited resource. This truth comes to focus with the loss of a loved one. Especially when the loss is sudden. All the “meant tos“ come jumping out. “Why didn’t I call and talk more often?” “I wish I had done more X with her.”
I work with teens who in their last year of high school, suddenly realize that their childhood is over and they need to go to college, get a job, be an adult. This sends many of them into a head spin with anxiety and even depression.

My favorite songwriter is Chris Rice.
He wrote two wonderful songs about this. Life Means So Much and TickTock. My favorite line from Tick Tock is: “Not the dates on your tombstone, but the dash in-between.”
God has given to each and everyone of us the same amount of time per day. No matter if we are rich or poor, a leader or a follower, child or grandparent. I pray that He teaches us to thank Him for this. May we make the most of this precious gift!

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