Let’s say that your phone rings tomorrow morning, and it’s a call from the manager of your bank. He tells you, “I received a very unusual call the other day. Someone who loves you very much and is quite wealthy has given you a large sum of money. This anonymous donor will be depositing 86,400 cents into your account every single day.”
“How’s that again?” you ask.
“Every single day, this person will deposit 86,400 cents into your account.”
Is that much money? you wonder at first. Then you get out your calculator and figure out that it amounts to $864 every day. That’s pretty good, you’re thinking.
“But there is one condition,” the banker continues. “You have to spend it every single day. You can’t save it up. You can’t add it to the next day’s balance. Every day, you must spend that money. What is not spent will be taken away. This person will do this each and every day, but the condition is that you must spend the money.”
So you go back to your calculator and figure out that $864 times 7 equals $6,048 per week. That amount, multiplied by 52, comes to $314,496 per year. That’s a pretty good deal. And that is also a fantasy.
So let’s deal with reality. Someone who really does love you very much deposits into your bank of time 86,400 seconds every single day. That someone is God. And the condition is that you must spend it. You can’t save up time today and apply it toward tomorrow—there’s no such thing as a 27-hour day. Each and every day, you have the opportunity to invest your precious commodity of time.
The psalmist wrote “Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is” (Psalm 39:4 NIV).
I also like the way Paul wrote about this in Ephesians 5:15–17: “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is” (NIV).
