Make Good Use of Your Days

I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. John 9:4​

​   I recently came across a thought provoking short reading entitled: “IF YOU HAD A BANK”. It reads:
 
“If you had a bank that credited your account each morning with $86,400, that carried over no balance, from day to day, and allowed you to keep no cash in your account, and every evening cancelled whatever part of the amount you had failed to use during the day, what would you do? Draw out every cent, of course!

Well you have such a bank, and its name is ‘Time.’ Every morning it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it rules off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balances. It allows no overdrafts. Each day it opens a new account with you. Each night it burns the records of the day. If you fail to use the day’s deposits the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against the “tomorrow.” You must live in the present –on today’s deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness and success!”​

   For the Christian --profitably investing every moment of time in some redeeming enterprise—is the only way to live. Inspiration writes:
 
“Our time belongs to God. Every moment is His, and we are under the most solemn obligation to improve it to His glory. Of no talent He has given will He require a more strict account than of our time.   
  The value of time is BEYOND COMPUTATION. Christ regarded every moment as precious, and it is thus that we should regard it. Life is too short to be trifled away. We have but a few days of probation in which to prepare for eternity. We have NO TIME to waste, NO TIME to devote to selfish pleasure, NO TIME for the indulgence of sin. It is now that we are to form characters for the future, immortal life. It is now that we are to prepare for the searching judgment…   
  We are admonished to redeem the time. But time squandered can never be recovered. We cannot call back even one moment. The ONLY WAY in which we can redeem our time is by making the most of that which remains, by being co-workers with God in His great plan of redemption.”  Christ Object Lessons 342
 
How is the average Christian wasting time? The American Time Use Survey [conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics] collects information about the activities people do during the day and how much time they spend doing them. “…On an average day in 2011, Americans age 15 and over slept about 8.7 hours, spent 5.2 hours doing leisure and sports activities, worked for 3.6 hours, and spent 1.8 hours doing household activities. The remaining 4.7 hours were spent in a variety of other activities, including eating and drinking, attending school, and shopping.” During the average work day for employed persons ages 25-54 with children in 2011, 7.6 hours were spent sleeping, 8.8 hours working, 2.5 hours were spent in leisure and sports with the remaining 5.1 hours spent in eating and drinking, household activities, caring for children and miscellaneous. These surveys show that a significant amount of time nationwide is spent in leisure activities. We have insufficient space to comment on time wasted watching television and reading novels and even news stories. But let’s touch on smart phone games for example. It is reported that 70% of the applications installed on smart phones are games. If you were to take every game available for all of the main mobile platforms, they would add up to more than 60,000. One of the more popular games is called: “Angry Birds”.

“Andrew Stalbow,  Rovio's GM of North America, says that… Thirty million people play the game on a daily basis…. One hundred thirty million people play Angry Birds monthly. The result? Gamers spend a whopping 300 million minutes playing Angry Birds daily. That's 109.5 billion minutes per year, or 1.825 billion hours.”
   How much time is that? “…Rovio CEO Mikael Hed announced [in November 2011] that… …gamers have spent over 200,000 years (collectively) playing Angry Birds games.”1

How much GOOD could be accomplished if we managed our time as the Master did when on earth?  In the Desire of Ages chapter: “As a Child” we are told that the Child Jesus was placed in a home, and under economic circumstances that assisted Him in acquiring habits of wise time budgeting. 

​“The parents of Jesus were poor, and dependent upon their daily toil. He was familiar with poverty, self-denial, and privation. This experience was a safeguard to Him. In His industrious life there were no idle moments to invite temptation. No aimless hours opened the way for corrupting associations. So far as possible, He closed the door to the tempter.”  …Throughout His life on earth, Jesus was an earnest and constant worker. He expected MUCH; therefore He attempted MUCH... Jesus did not shirk care and responsibility, as do many who profess to be His followers... The positiveness and energy, the solidity and strength of character, manifested in Christ are to be developed in us, through the same discipline that He endured.” DA 71

Conclusion:  In A.D. 64 the great city of Rome was devastated by a savage fire. “For six days and seven nights the citizens… watched helplessly as their city burned. After it was over, 70 percent of the city had been destroyed. Of Rome's 14 districts, only four remained intact. Three were leveled to the ground. The other seven were reduced to a few scorched and mangled ruins.
  As is usually seen in such mass tragedies, rumors began to wind through the devastated streets. Reports emerged that some men seen fanning the flames claimed they were under orders. As a result of the tremendous losses, the Roman people, feeling the effects of paranoia, looked for someone who might be responsible for the fire. They blamed their emperor -- Nero.
  Some rumors speculated that Nero himself had set the fire, others that he had ordered it. As Nero rebuilt Rome in a new style more to his liking, some believed he used the fire as an excuse for new construction. But perhaps the most interesting rumor that emerged from the great fire was that Nero had played his fiddle while Rome burned. …Nero actually did consider himself a serious musician. While he certainly didn't play the fiddle -- since it was not yet invented -- Ner­o did play another stringed instrument, the harp-like cithara.”
  O friends, let it not be said of us that while the world was going up in smoke, while souls were slipping out of heaven’s reach, that WE were “fiddling” with our televisions, smart phones and other things of little importance. Truly the “night cometh when no man can work” John 9:4.
References:
1) An article in the publication “Mashable” released Oct. 18th, 2011
2) Did Nero Really Play the Fiddle While Rome Burned? By Josh Clark

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