Life is like an Onion
Wednesday 9th July
This time of year people begin to think of the calendar and the fact that their present well worn calendar has become outdated.
We are reminded of just how fast time seems to be flying by when we come to the end of the year and begin another.
Many people have made some wise comments on the subject of time. William Penn said, ”Time, what we want most, but... what we use worst.” People talk about saving time, yet it is the one thing that is never saved but always spent. William Penn was right about the fact that most of us do not make the best possible use of our time.
In fact, it will be the way we spend our time that will determine the verdict we will receive from our Lord at the judgment seat. The righteous will have used their time wisely in service to the King and the wicked (to borrow Wm. Penn’s words) ”will have used worst.”
Will the new year be any better, any different from the one that has just passed? It won’t be, unless we do something different.
Perhaps Carl Sandburg’s description of life would fit our feelings at this time of year. He said, ”Life is like an onion, you peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.”
As we recall how we peeled off the days of 1990, do we weep? It is no use weeping over last year – ”crying over spilled milk.” It is gone and we cannot relive it, but we can learn from the mistakes of the past and decide to do better in the future. Will we?
The world is famous for making what they call ”New Year’s Resolutions.” They are usually broken as quickly as they are made.
We will be wise to reevaluate our life to see if we can profit from last year’s mistakes and face the coming year with a renewed determination to put God first in our lives.
There are so many things that seem to want to come between us and the Lord we love and serve; we need to make careful and deliberate plans to ”serve Him with a pure heart fervently.”
If we don’t do something positive, then we will probably do nothing and this new year will not be an improvement over the one just past.
A time study expert came up with a catchy question which we would do well to ask ourselves over and over all day long, every day, all year long. This is the question. ”Am I making the best possible use of my time right now?”
Even while driving to work, we can listen to a tape or sing hymns to ourselves, or repeat the Bible verses we are memorizing.
Where there is a will there is a way and the way for us to please our God is to make the best possible use of our time all day every day.
Let us live as well as sing, ”Life is the time to serve the Lord, to do his will, to learn his word.”