"Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of."
Benjamin Franklin
I have always loved this Franklin quote.
It asks us first to commit to loving life. Admit that it is important. Admit that it is worthy to love life. I would say it is a requirement.
We all know people who drag through life and wait for the inevitable. They have no joy in the moment. They miss the wonders all around them, the incredible sunrise, the bird singing outside their window, the laughter and the dreams. We all have bad days when getting out of bed is a chore, but on the whole, I think most of us are glad to be alive even if our knees ache or we catch the flu. There is a joy of the unexpected always promised in the next minute, hour, day, year. Who knows what will happen? How exciting is that?
Once the commitment has been made, he reminds us time is not infinite. It disintegrates, and can't be replaced. How many of us in this modern age squander time? I can get sucked into wasting hours watching Facebook videos. I'll watch cake decorators do things I never would attempt. I'll watch funny cats and dogs, though I have neither. I'll watch people crash and burn because of incredible bad choices and count myself lucky I am not them. In short I will not use my time wisely. At the end of a squandered day there is always a sense of loss. Let me be clear, I try to limit myself and sometimes succeed. I am aware of the loss of something precious. I could have used that time in an infinite number of ways that were productive. Lord knows, my closets can use help, and there are mounds of books I have yet to read. Even calling a sick friend is a better use of time.
And finally, time is the stuff life is made of. I have just had another birthday, and so am acutely aware of fleeting time. Temps fugit! (Sorry. I can never pass up a chance to use my high school Latin.) I know time flies, because I am getting older. I am losing close friends in all manner of accidents or disease. Something inside me wrenches at the loss. "To soon! Too soon!!" I cry. "I wasn't ready for them to die." But God has his own timetable, and when your train is ready to depart, like the German train system, it waits for no man. This doesn't have to be a morbid awareness, but it should be a thought you should visit once in awhile. When you find yourself wasting time, go bake some cookies or walk in the park. Do something that will uplift your heart and remind you how precious a gift life is.