Your most priceless gift this year

The older I get, the more I understand what Rabbi Harold Kushner called the “instant coffee theory” of life.

In his book When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough, Kushner noted that when you open a can of instant coffee, you tend to scoop out generous servings at first—after all, you have a whole can! But as the coffee grounds disappear, you start to measure every spoonful carefully. Before you know it, you’re scraping the bottom of the can, wondering where all the coffee went.

Similarly, Kushner observed, when we’re young, we don’t mind wasting time because we have our whole lives ahead of us. As we get older, we realize our remaining years on earth are dwindling, so we become more careful about how we spend our time. Then, as we reach the end of our lives, we wonder how the time went so quickly. 

Your most priceless gift is time.

As you consider how you’re going to spend the time God gives you this year, I want to share with you some wisdom from Moses. 

Psalm 90 is a prayer of Moses about how to spend our time before we reach the bottom of the coffee can, so to speak, reminding us that our lives on earth are brief and uncertain. I like the way The Living Bible paraphrases verse 5: “We glide along the tides of time as swiftly as a racing river and vanish as quickly as a dream.”

If you’ve ever been white water rafting, then you know what an exhilarating experience it can be. You can be floating along, enjoying the beautiful scenery, when all of a sudden, the rapids grab hold of your raft and pull you in an unexpected direction. You quickly realize you’re not in control—you’re just trying to keep your raft from capsizing.

In Psalm 90, Moses compared this life to rafting a river. You can be floating along, enjoying the blessings God has given you, when suddenly you’re overwhelmed by a difficult circumstance, such as an undesired divorce, unexpected diagnosis, or undeserved termination. You quickly realize how little control you have.

Life is brief and filled with uncertainty. So how should you spend it?

Some people adopt a hedonistic philosophy, as Paul described in 1 Corinthians 15:32: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” But Scripture tells us that our time on earth is a priceless commodity. In Psalm 90:12, Moses prayed, “Teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.”

How will you spend the fleeting, uncertain moments God gives you? The choices you make today impact your life now and your life eternally.

In 2 Corinthians 5:10, Paul said Christians will stand before the judgment seat of Christ to be rewarded according to what we did in this life, whether good or worthless. Are you investing your time in your own kingdom or in God’s kingdom? 

Life is short, but what you do on earth reverberates in heaven forever.

How you spend your time also determines the quality of your life right now. Jesus said in John 10:10, “I came that [you] may have life, and have it abundantly.”

This year, how will you use the valuable gift of time God gives you?

May your prayer be like that of Moses: “Lord, teach me to number my days. Help me to spend my time wisely.”

 Sharing the Truth of God’s Word,

Dr. Robert Jeffress