The Balance of My Time

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he floor of the United States House of Representatives can, and usually is, a lively and animated place.  Here, decisions are made that potentially affect every man, woman, and child on the face of the planet.  In recent years, television has made it possible for people around the globe to watch our government in action.  When I have time, I like to watch the debates, the discussions, and the brawls that occur in this chamber.

I have noticed, however, that no matter from which side of the aisle a speaker hails, certain protocols are always followed.  The members always address the presiding officer as the “Speaker” and they always use the phrase, “I yield the balance of my time to…”  I find this phrase very interesting as it applies not only to the political process but to daily life as well.

Psalm 90 addresses this issue of time and how much we have of it.  This psalm was not written by David but is instead a prayer of Moses.  It is a wonderful piece of scripture and I invite you to read it in its entirety.  However, only one verse is the focus of today’s Tidbit.  In Psalm 90:10, Moses makes the following statement, “The length of our days is seventy years- or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.”  In this brief passage, Moses reveals just how short our lives are and how little time we have to impact the world for Jesus Christ.  But let’s put this in a more familiar perspective.

Although math is not my strong suit, I am able to do simple multiplication.  If we multiply 70 (the number of years promised us) by 365 (the number of days in the year) we arrive at the total of 25,550 days.  I am leaving out extra days for leap years because that is higher order mathematics, fully beyond my ability!!  Now that still sounds like a rather large number.  So let’s continue to make this more concrete.

If the total number of days represented dollars and your account was filled with $25,550 you would think yourself wealthy indeed.  However, if you spent $365 per day, you would have depleted the entire amount in only 70 days, a mere two months and 10 days.  Once depleted, there would be no more deposits made to your account; you would be out of money and flat broke.

The analogy is not too far off, is it?  What we don’t realize is that our bank accounts were filled with this many days at the moment of our birth.  The question is not will we spend them but how?  Each day finds our account total less than the day before and each year lessens our total by 365.  Isn’t it amazing that we would watch over that $25,550 with the utmost care yet we spend our days as if there were no tomorrow!  The truth is that today represents one less tomorrow than we had yesterday!

Returning to the statement made by the members of Congress and using the number of days in our lives form above, we can now ask ourselves the following question:  To whom are we yielding the balance of our time?  How much of our time do we give to God and to the furtherance of His kingdom?  How much of our daily time allotment do we yield to Him?  God has yielded all of eternity to us, given us all of His time, and made provision for us to live forever.  How much time are we giving Him?  Will we yield the balance of our time to God or will we be like Belshazzar who was weighed in the balance and found wanting? (Daniel 5:27)