Time is not on my side.

After Saturday’s sermon (above), which was quite possibly the best tithing sermon I’ve ever heard, I’ve been pondering the concept of tithing time. What would it be like to devote about one and a half hours a day to God? (Based on a day of about 16 waking hours.) I was reading Jonathan Edwards’ sermon, Procrastination and this passage really struck me.

Fifth, men behave themselves as those who depend on another day, when they neglect anything today which must be done before they die. If there be anything, which is absolutely necessary to be done sometime before death, and the necessity of it be sufficiently declared and shown to the person for whom it is thus necessary, if he neglects setting about it immediately, sincerely, and with all his might, certainly it carries this face with it, that the man depends upon its being done hereafter, and consequently that he shall have opportunity to do it. — Because, as to those things which are absolutely necessary to be done, there is need, not only of a possibility of a future opportunity; but of something which is to be depended on, some good ground to conclude that we shall have future opportunity. Therefore, whoever lives under this gospel, and does not this day thoroughly reform his life, by casting away every abomination, and denying every lust — and doth not apply himself to the practice of the whole of his duty towards God and man, and begin to make religion his main business — he acts as one who depends on another day; because he is abundantly taught that these things must be done before he dies.

Those who have been seeking salvation for a great while, in a dull, insincere, and slightly manner, and find no good effect of it, have abundant reason to conclude, that some time before they die, they must not only seek, but strive to enter in at the strait gate, and must be violent for the kingdom of heaven. And therefore, if they do not begin thus today, they act as those who depend on another day. — So those who have hitherto lived in the neglect of some particular known duty, whether it be secret prayer, or paying some old debt, which they have long owed to their neighbor — or the duty of confessing some fault to a brother who hath aught against them, or of making restitution for some injury — they act as those who depend on another day.

I have been acting as though I have all the time in the world to do all kinds of things. But the fact is that the clock is ticking. And the choices I make about my time, perhaps even more than the choices I make about my wallet, are the best indicator of my commitment to the Lord. After all, I’ll make more money sooner or later. I can’t make time. It’s a very sobering thought.