Letter From the Editor: The Time of Your Life

What did Solomon have in mind when he wrote Ecclesiastes Chapter 3? Time for everything?

A friend who'd been to a seminar on how to manage your time figured that time management experts are trying to squeeze more and more into an impossible, overloaded schedule and increase expectations to a level that is humanly impossible. May I suggest that you can never manage time? Days come and go. Minutes tick by – 60 seconds in every one of them. Yes, we can choose what we do with the time we have – but that's more about managing ourselves.

Have you heard the story of the big rocks? The lecturer turned up one day with a large container and some big rocks. Students watched him put as many big rocks as possible into the container. He asked if the jar was full. The students said it was, but he poured gravel in, filling the gaps. He asked again if it was full. "Maybe not," some cautious students answered. Then he poured in sand; Yet again, he asked if it was full. "No," came the answer. They were fully expecting him to pour in water, which he did. When asked what they learned, one commented, "No matter how full your schedule, there's always room for more."

However, that wasn't what the lecturer wanted the class to take away from his illustration. His point was that if you put in the Big Rocks first, other things can fit around them. If you put in the sand and gravel first, you'll never get the
Big Rocks in at all. I guess it's another way to
say, "First things first", because the Big Rocks represent what's most important in life.

What things are the most important for you? Well, for me, they're not even things. Here are a few examples, but I could easily give more. Relationships are really important for me – my relationship with God, relationships with family, friends and work colleagues. Health – now that's an interesting one. When everything is working well, health is often assumed and taken for granted. Do you know what I mean?

When Solomon said there is a time for everything, he was talking about the seasons of life. He wrote, "To everything, there is a season…" and he goes on to list a whole bunch of opposites: a time to be born – a time to die; a time to plant – a time to pluck up; a time to laugh – a time to cry. He also says, "God has made everything beautiful for its own time." He concluded, "There is nothing better for people than to be happy and to enjoy themselves as long as they can." That sounds good to me.

The Big Rocks story is about that, too. It's about effectiveness, priorities, a life well-lived and the joy that comes as a result.

Now, I'm inviting you to take a few moments to reflect prayerfully. If you were allowed five Big Rocks (what's really important to you), what labels would you give them? I'm not saying you cannot have more – but not too many. What would God want your Big Rocks to be? I trust that your joy will be full as you seek God in whatever season of life you find yourself in.