Perhaps you heard that the year 2008 went into “overtime?”  It’s true.  The authorities in charge of the “Atomic Clock” allowed one extra second to pass in 2008 before beginning the year 2009 in order to better match their clock with the speed and orbit of the earth.  You see the Earth, like most of us, is getting slower in her old age.  This was the 24th “leap second” to be added to the atomic clock since it began keeping time in 1972.  My!  Where HAS all that “extra” time gone?

 

So, what did you do with your extra second?

Many, I’m afraid, slept away their bonus time.  How foolish.  Aren’t you aware that most of the great and industrious minds of recent times considered sleep to be a necessary inconvenience?  Einstein, Edison and Ford would toil endless hours without sleep, often putting in twenty or more hour workdays.  Don’t you know the Bible verse that inspired the, so called, Protestant work-ethic:  Proverbs 20:13?  On the other hand, the Biblically wise among you will quote back to me Psalm 127:2.  Most issues are multifaceted, are they not?

My point is this:  Whether or not the “powers that be” choose to grant us any future “leap seconds,”  each one of us is only alloted a certain amount of time for this life.   Moses’ prayer in Psalm 90:12 is “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”  Is that your prayer also?  How would you live life differently if you lived it in the realization that “your days were numbered”?

Far too many are living as if they are already in eternity, and they have all the time in the world.  When it comes to Bible Study and memorizing God’s Word, we think there will be plenty of time for that later.  When something or other comes up in conflict with church attendance, we think there will be plenty of other Sundays for going to church.  When it comes down to a choice between sleeping in or getting up for morning prayers, we often hit “the snooze button.”  There will be plenty of time for prayers… later.  Only “later” seldom comes, does it?  Too often we squander the time we’ve been given, just like that “leap second” at the end of 2008.

“Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

May this be your prayer throughout the year 2009.  May you consider all that you have been given:  time, talents and treasure, and use them wisely for the Kingdom of God.

Praying for you a blessed New Year,

Pastor Clint