What's an Hour, Anyway?

We just got back from a great morning walk on the beach. When here at the coast, we watch the tide tables to make sure we can get down there at least once per day at the lowest tide. (There is a great application that I downloaded to my iPhone that shows the tides…but I digress into technology…). ANYHOW, what a great walk. WE came across some amazing fossils today from the Crustacean era (or was it the Jurassic, maybe?) of these SHELLS embedded into solidified lava rock, uncovered over the eras, and now smoothed and worn by the pounding surf. We found agates, those great rocks that are translucent and polished by God’s great rock tumbler called the sea. We had some great talk time about things that God is showing to each of us…comparing notes. All that in an hour…a good hour…a gift from God.

So I get back here to my chair, and as I think about a “great hour” I think about hours quite the opposite. I think of those “gift-hours” that I have squandered. Mindless TV, “worrying” about something I cannot control, angry or irritated towards someone or something. An hour here or there doesn’t seem like much, but I then went into calculator mode: one hour a DAY not given fully back to God’s control is…sheesh, 365 hours in a year. Divide that by a 16-hour “waking” day, and I have just given almost 23 DAYS of my “awake” life to thinking or doing things that were less than what God wanted me to dwell on…or do.

How about you? How many hours in the last 24 (or last week, or…) did you spend on: fear, worrying about rejection, staring at a TV screen, looking at pornography, talking smack about someone who was not there to hear it, holding resentment or anger towards someone who doesn’t even KNOW how you feel, or just mindless reading or looking at “things.” Just a thought. A challenge. This is your hour. It was a gift to you. Make it your finest!