Redeeming Time

Yesterday God afforded Brenda and I a unique opportunity. In some ways it felt like stepping back in time. It felt like going home. Before we married I got called to serve Spring Creek Baptist Church in Weatherford, TX as youth pastor. I met their youth while at a youth camp. For some reason we all connected and months later God connected me to that church. That was 28 years ago. Brenda and I wed just a few months into that ministry.

Yesterday I got to preach in that church. We saw familiar faces. We hugged necks. In-between the morning and evening services I sat in the sanctuary to pray. I couldn't help but remember scenes from years gone by. Precious memories. Victorious days. Brenda and I cut our teeth in ministry at that church.

God blessed our time back then so many years ago. He blessed our youth ministry with salvations and growth. One Sunday I got to baptize multiple teenagers during a service. What joy. A lot has changed over time. In that time Brenda and I have more mileage on us. So do the people at Spring Creek. None of us are youth chicks anymore.

Time goes on. None of us can stop the clock. It keeps on ticking. The challenge is how will we redeem the time? How will we make our days count for God? At 52 I know my days are numbered. While the law averages would indicate I have several years left I know there will be an end. I contemplate that often. There is so much more I want to do for God. So many more souls to reach. So many more things to write. So many more sermons to study for and preach. So many more books to read. So many more prayers to pray, visits to make, vision to cast and service to give.

When I die I would prefer to die with my face in the dirt and not my head on a pillow. I prefer to live productively until God calls me home. To redeem the time. I am painfully aware of days that have been squandered in unproductively. Some sit around always dreaming but never doing. I still have many dreams and visions but I long to see them become reality and not remain dreams.

Colossians 4:5 (NKJV)
5  Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.
Ephesians 5:15-16 (NKJV)
15  See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise,
16  redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

One of the meanings of the word redeem is to improve the opportunity. To put that another way it means to make the most of each day. Don't waste your life in front of a television or computer screen doing nothing productive. For me that means there are thousands of books I've never read. There are thousands of thoughts I've never captured and put down in print. There are tens of thousands of Bible passages I have never studied in depth or ever preached. I must make the most of whatever days I have left to improve them for the glory of God.

In the background somewhere a clock ticks. Tick tock. Tick tock. It is a reminder that time never stops. I can't stop time but I can improve how I use time. I must work diligently to redeem it. Maybe, just maybe, God will allow me to recapture the glory of former years in doing so.