This past April, on one of the first hot days of spring, I went into my closet to dress. I had just finished working out. When I work out I wear yoga pants, which are so comfortable, I might add…stretchy, black and go with anything.
Anyway, after I showered I decided to pull out a pair of shorts…and to my surprise….they wouldn’t button. I took them off to look at the tag to make sure they weren’t Collins’ shorts (mentally hoping they were) but, nope, they were mine!! :(( Sigh.
The plain and simple and sad story for me wasn’t, “Oh, I am older.” It was the fact that over the last two years with my mother’s illness, among other things, I had become neglectful and random with an area I had always valued as important in my life: my health…my “temple!”
You see, I had always invested a small amount of time, on a weekly basis, in exercise. Very routine and a definite part of my regimen. I rarely missed my routine but what I had done over the last two years was to become random with exercise and neglectful with what I put in my body (fuel).
Where did that get me? To a place I didn’t intend to be nor see happening.
You see, my/your/our most valuable asset is time. YOU can’t over live! You can overeat, over spend, and over stay but you cannot over live. We all have a number of days to live. Job says in Job 14:5, “A person’s days are numbered.” I, on the Back 9, more than ever realize time is an asset you cannot get back…so now, more than ever, I value time.
I know for sure that investing small amounts of time on the important things is cumulative and can be of great value especially in the areas of spiritual, financial, physical and relationships. All of this brings me to two important warnings with regard to time:
1. Neglect in important areas is cumulative….it is easy but it is costly.
2. Randomness…the “here and there” approach…has no cumulative value. Exercising once a week, eating healthy only three days a week, reading your Bible just two days a week amounts to random.
Plain and simple, in the areas that matter most, you can’t make up for lost time. For me, neglecting to take care of myself in the area of exercise and not being intentional about healthy eating over the two years of my mother’s illness cost me physically. I could have been intentional, but I wasn’t.
My intention became random, then downright neglectful. I regret it but realizing my shorts were too little was reality. It took time over time to get that way and it was going to require intention to reverse the neglect.
Ephesians 5:15-17 applies to all of us as to how we spend our time. “Be very careful, then, how you live— not as unwise but as wise–making the most of your opportunity [time] because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.”
We all have the same amount of hours in a day. God wants us to be very intentional in how we spend them…not a randomness nor neglectfulness but with wisdom, especially when referring to the spiritual, relational, financial and physical.
I encourage you to ask God today…In light of my past experience and where I am currently in life, as well as looking into the future and Your will for me there, where do I need to become intentional about how I spend my time? Where have I been neglectful and random?
Some of the most important areas in life cannot be random or neglected.
God desires for us to be excellent stewards of our lives….and our lives are made up of hours, minutes, days, years. Zig Ziglar says it so well, “People often complain about a lack of time when the lack of direction is the real problem.” Seek God with an open hand and calendar. Be intentional with your time. It is your most valuable asset.