Time, the irreplaceable commodity

I think it Is fair to say that some people seem always to be look­ing at what was, others at what is, and others do not look. Charles F Kettering, American inventor and businessman (he held 186 patents, founded Delco, and headed research at GM) definitely belongs in the second category. Without any desire to impress, he simply said, "My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there."
       No one denies the reality of death. It's as certain as taxes, as the old saying has it. Not many, however, spend much time talking about it. After all, it is a rather gloomy subject, sinister, and shrouded in darkness. But the future is not simply about death; it's about all the incredibly valuable time between now and then. And that was what Kettering was talking about. To each individual has been allotted a certain amount of time to live and use for the benefit of others. The idea that life is for oneself is the plague of narcissism that has retarded the progress of civilization from the beginning. Even in the bounty of Eden's garden, the first inhabitants decided that they knew better than God and that they should be the ones to reap any benefit there might be in an act of bold disobedience.
       Time marches ahead with steady step and cannot be reversed. It refuses to go back. It lays out the framework for all that is yet to happen and invites us to invest our share of time in projects that reflect the goodness of the Creator and benefit the human race. I'm not talking about big enterprises in which the dil­igence of one generation enhances the life of the next. I am talking about little acts of kindness and concern that mirror in daily life the grace and goodness of the One who made it all possible. His­tory has shown the value of altruism and the personal rewards of social concern. Like it or not we were meant for relationships and to allow selfishness to cheat us out of those rewards is a tragedy.
       So, it is wise to use time carefully. Unlike a computer it doesn't "refresh," and once in "trash" it cannot be retrieved. Demonstrate by an other-oriented life the truth of Jesus' claim that to lose one's life is to save it (Luke 9:24).