Wasting time is wasting life …

David Cassidy, ’70s teen heartthrob who played “Keith Partridge” on the television show, The Partridge Family, died last week from multiple organ failure at the age of 67.

Cassidy’s daughter, Katie, took to Twitter shortly after her father’s death, and her tweet included what David’s last words word: “So much wasted time.”

What a tragic assessment of one’s life at the very end of it.

For Katie, it would be a new motivation: “My father’s last words were, ‘So much wasted time,’” she tweeted. “This will be a daily reminder for me to share my gratitude with those I love as to never waste another minute … thank you.”

It’s a good reminder for all of us, as it can be so easy to be wasteful with what is the raw material of life – our time. Arnold Bennett, writing in Bits & Pieces, delves crisply into the value of our time:

Time is the inexplicable raw material of everything. With it, all is possible; without it, nothing. The supply of time is truly a daily miracle, an affair genuinely astonishing when one examines it. You wake up in the morning, and lo! your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours of the unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life! It is yours. It is the most precious of possessions … No one can take it from you. It is not something that can be stolen. And no one receives either more or less than you receive. Moreover, you cannot draw on its future. Impossible to get into debt! You can only waste the passing moment. You cannot waste tomorrow; it is kept for you. You cannot waste the next hour; it is kept for you.

You have to live on this twenty-four hours of daily time. Out of it you have to spin health, pleasure, money, content, respect, and the evolution of your immortal soul. Its right use, its most effective use, is a matter of the highest urgency and of the most thrilling actuality. All depends on that. Your happiness — the elusive prize that you are all clutching for, my friends — depends on that.

If one cannot arrange that an income of twenty-four hours a day shall exactly cover all proper items of expenditure, one does muddle one’s whole life indefinitely. We shall never have any more time. We have, and we have always had, all the time there is.

The Apostle Paul had clear and concise instruction for us regarding our use of time:

“Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do,” Ephesians 5:16-17.

We can squander time, like we misuse other resources we’re blessed with, but like David Cassidy, in the end we will regret it.

Some react in an opposite way by trying to make life all about productivity. While what we “do” is important, life is more than just the measure of our productivity.

So what will cause us to be content at the end of our days when we see with the clarity of hindsight what we’ve done with our time?

God simply wants us to be fruitful with our lives. Fruitfulness was part of the original instructions given to the first couple, Adam and Eve, as God told them to “be fruitful and multiply” (Gn. 1:28), instructions He would issue again to Noah (Gn. 9:1) after the flood wiped out all living things except one family.

For the Christian, we can gain a good understanding of fruitfulness by the fact that God has given us a “greatest commandment” and a Great Commission. We are most fruitful when we obey the great commandment of loving God above all persons and things, and loving others (which is the second greatest commandment), and also by pouring our lives out in the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul referenced this need of being fruitful …

“So that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God,” Colossians 1:10 (NASB).

There’s a single purpose for all of us existing, which is to worship, glorify, and enjoy God. Living out our purpose is centered on loving God first and foremost, then loving others, and living as ambassadors for Christ who make disciples.

It’s not just us who will look at our lives at the end of it and assess what we’ve done with our time, Jesus will make His own assessment of what we’ve done with our lives when He returns:

“Again, the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. He gave five bags of silver to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last — dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip. The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more. The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more. But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money. After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, ‘Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest, and I have earned five more.’ The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’ The servant who had received the two bags of silver came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two bags of silver to invest, and I have earned two more.’ The master said, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’ Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.’ But the master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate, why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.’ Then he ordered, ‘Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver. To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth,’” Matthew 25:14-30.

What we do with our lives — which directly means our time — matters!

In that case, may this prayer of Moses be ours as well, “Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom” (Psalm 90:12), especially in the wise use of our time so that we may live fruitful lives.

Scotty