How are you keeping time?
- kirranicolle
- Jul 13
- 3 min read
BY JAMES BURNS
In my role of keeping you on-trend, I have some questions for you: How many watches do you own – none, one or more? If it's more than one, how many do you wear at once? Only one? How old-fashioned!
Apparently, many celebrities, like footballer Marcus Rashford, actors Bill Murray and Richard E. Grant, are wearing one on each wrist. Now admittedly, in Rashford's case, one is a gold Rolex and the other a Patek Phillippe, so I doubt that many of us can be quite so ostentatious. Perhaps as some of these folks are well-travelled, they may have one watch set to their home country and one to whichever country they find themselves in. Or perhaps they have too much time on their hands. Or should that be wrists?
One very famous passage in the Bible, in Ecclesiastes 3 (King James Version), talks about time. It says, “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die ... a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance ... A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away ... A time to keep silence, and a time to speak.”
The passage encourages us to recognize that God has ordained specific times and seasons for every aspect of life. It was turned into a song called "Turn! Turn! Turn!", which has been recorded by Dolly Parton, The Seekers and The Byrds to name but a few artists.
The opening lines of Charles Dickens' novel "A Tale of Two Cities" famously begin with: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...", and that neatly sums up how our lives can go. It's easier to trust in His perfect timing when things are going well, but harder when it's not immediately clear to us. Then, we need to cultivate patience and have faith in God's plan. Hard as it is, when faced with uncertainty, we should try and rely on His wisdom and timing, rather than our own understanding.
Is it time to think seriously about your relationship with God – a time to believe in Him and His son Jesus? You don't need two watches for that!
And what if you are already a Christian? In his book Finishing Well, Bob Buford speaks about the difference between success and significance. Success, he defines as using your knowledge and experience to satisfy yourself with fame and fortune. Significance, however, is using that same knowledge and experience to help others.
Success is all about getting; significance is about giving back. Surrendering to a vision that is bigger than your own ... to God's plan for your life.
Through interviews with 60 successful people in their 40s and older, Buford details how they've gone beyond success to significance. Now, although many of his interviewees have retired from their businesses, the same principles apply whatever age we are.
Ken Blanchard, author of the The One Minute Manager and one of Buford's interviewees, said, “Success is all about getting; significance is about giving back. Surrendering to a vision that is bigger than your own ... to God's plan for your life.”
People often look forward to retirement, and when they get there, they find that either they've lost their purpose, or retirement isn't all that it's cracked up to be. But whether we're approaching retirement or still have many years to go, we all have a calling that will keep us going well beyond retirement. And as members of The Salvation Army or another church, we're never short of opportunities to make a positive, lasting impression by giving back – whether that be time, skills, a listening ear or something else.
What are your plans for using your time and finishing well?
*James Burns is a Salvationist freelance writer from Dunstable Corps in the UK
