Anyway...I wanted the watch so I could "redo" the 60/60 challenge that our church went through a couple of years ago. Incidentally,the 60/60 challenge is based on the "Living Life 30 minutes at a time" challenge that our church did five years ago.
Either way, the purpose of the challenge is to set the timer on your watch for 60 minutes, pray, and begin. When the alarm goes off one hour later, you are supposed to take a minute to reflect on how you used the last hour of your life; what you did, what you said, what kind of attitude you displayed; etc. It's really a great way for me to remind myself of what is really important in life...and of what I chose to make important for a period of time which I will never re-coup.
I've thought about "time" a couple of times today (like right now). My friend told us yesterday that a guy she taught with for over 20 years finally retired last May; and was diagnosed with terminal cancer in July. No warning signs or anything. Just a checkup that ends with the best estimate of the number of WEEKS you might have left. What a wake-up call. I can't even begin to imagine what is going through his mind.
I spoke with a friend last night about our relationship and made the comment that in the last six months we have been friends, there may have been three good weeks when we weren't fighting about something or not talking to each other. What kind of relationship is that? We decided that we loved and respected each other too much to keep getting in the way of the other person's life, so we are going our separate ways. I don't regret the relationship at all, and I even believe that someday, when we look back on all of this "stuff", we won't even remember why we we fought in the first place.
So my friends let me ask you....What do you think of time? Do you use it wisely? Do you fear it? Do you look back on it with regret?
We're all familiar with the first eight verses in Ecclesiastes:3...about how there is a time for everything that happens on the earth. But how many of us have ever bothered to read the next part? Verses 9-13.
I don't think I have ever really noticed the next five verses until today...and what they said really threw me for a loop. I think its about time you noticed them too.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
There's an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:
A right time for birth and another for death,
A right time to plant and another to reap,
A right time to kill and another to heal,
A right time to destroy and another to construct,
A right time to cry and another to laugh,
A right time to lament and another to cheer,
A right time to make love and another to abstain,
A right time to embrace and another to part,
A right time to search and another to count your losses,
A right time to hold on and another to let go,
A right time to rip out and another to mend,
A right time to shut up and another to speak up,
A right time to love and another to hate,
A right time to wage war and another to make peace.
Verses 9-13
But in the end, does it really make a difference what anyone does? I've had a good look at what God has given us to do—busywork, mostly. True, God made everything beautiful in itself and in its time—but he's left us in the dark, so we can never know what God is up to, whether he's coming or going. I've decided that there's nothing better to do than go ahead and have a good time and get the most we can out of life. That's it—eat, drink, and make the most of your job. It's God's gift.
