Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Hellen Keller, Pasteur, Michael Angelo, Mother Teresea, Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein  ~  H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Well thank you, Captain Obvious, of course we do!  Yet it seems like the daylight fades much quicker than we thought it would, hours blend into days, and days into weeks, and before you know it, it’s next month or next year.

Modern conveniences are supposed to make our lives easier.  Easier to do our work, or prepare a meal.  It’s much simpler now to get an answer from someone across town or to catch up with a friend, but as we introduce more convenience, our days seem to get filled up with the mundane and we fail to enjoy the extra time that should be available.

We’re even sleeping less!  On average Americans sleep 6.8 hours each night, a decrease of almost an hour over the last 20 years.  So things are easier, and we have a little over 17 hours awake each day, but as the song says, time keeps on ticking…ticking.

Seriously – 17 hours, about 1,020 minutes or 61,200 seconds each day – yet if I came up to most folks or even asked myself, “could you do a little extra?” the answer would likely be, “no, I just don’t have the time”.  Now I get it, we don’t have that much time free every day. We still have to go to work and cook meals and well, the list goes on and we find activities to fill our days.

I was thinking about my wife as well as a conversation I had last week about finding time. You see, my wife dedicates a small piece of time each and every day to read her Bible as well as a couple of different devotions.  It amazes me that she manages to find time to do it…wait, 1,020 minutes…surely I could find a few minutes to spend with God each day – honestly we call could.

Roman 12:2 shares with us what some time with God each day can do for us it reads; “Don’t be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you can figure out what God’s will is – what is good and pleasing and mature.”

Here’s my pledge to you: each night at least 30 minutes before I go to bed, I will set aside my phone, computer, and the TV and spend that time with God, reading His word and spending quiet time in conversation. My challenge for you is to find 5 or 10 minutes with God each day.  See if it doesn’t change your life as I know the time I’m dedicating will change mine.

Boy is it Monday – sore, tired and don’t want to go to work.  Well, maybe it’s not that I don’t want to go to work, but it’s that I don’t want to go where I’m going.  Walking in, I’m faced with smiling faces and there’s a part of me that wonders if they are truly that happy or if they are putting on a good face…the old grin and bear it philosophy.

The journey to my cube, desk, cell (whatever you want to call it), takes me past a particular gentleman – a friend and brother in Christ. I stopped to say good morning and see how his weekend went.   As he turns, I can see a joy on his face.  My first question to him was, “So are you ready for the fun and games today?”  He responded by saying that fun may be a stretch of the truth, but he is ready for the day and what it has to offer.

I questioned him on that statement and his response was, “This is where God has put me today.  Clearly He wants me here for some purpose, so I’m excited to see what He (God) wants me to accomplish.”  With that sentence, my friend gave me an unarguable position, and while I’m not quite ready to accept it, (I mean, I took the time to tie the millstone on and drag it this far, I can’t give that up without some kind of a fight, right?), I can at least consider his position.

Well, I thanked him for the uplifting approach, shared that I’d need to ponder it a bit, and proceeded on to my station.  As I walked, I began to come to grips with his statement and his philosophy. You see, God establishes a path for each of us, and through our decisions and the decisions of others, our path winds and turns – goes up and down, can be covered with ice, or sometimes surrounded by the flowers in the prairie.

With each step along the path, God puts opportunities to strengthen our faith, to strengthen the faith of others or introduce Jesus Christ to someone who’s not ever been introduced to Him or His teachings. 1 Corinthians 1:9 can give us perspective as to our role each day. It reads, “God is faithful, and you were called by him to partnership with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

While it’s easy to surround ourselves with despair or dread, if you look at each step, each day, as an opportunity to be a servant of God and a partner with Christ Jesus, how can we not be excited?