If a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, then perhaps a wasted life begins with a mis-used minute.

And I am also culprit here, it’s easy for me to dream big dreams and sit around discuss an excellent life, as my private life ebbs away in wasted minutes, hours.

Wasted hours probably discussing Champions league at the water cooler at work, wasted hours trying to get to the bottom of my Facebook news feed, ( often in vain) wasted hours going back and forth on email, usually casually.

It might now be cliche but “Life’s short.”

The babies we received in the maternity ward two, three Decembers ago are now speaking up in some mid-day class, somewhere.

The broke second year student that often had daddy on dial is now somebody’s daddy, the girls in your campus discussion group now only meet during immunisation.
The guy you hang out with many Valentines’ ago is probably expecting his second grandson, well, maybe his first.

Do you see what I am saying? time flies, but before it does, hours and minutes do,
Yet simply “self-determining” not to waste our hours, and eventually our lives, is not enough, the psalmist asks God to “teach me to number his days so that I may gain wisdom. ” (Ps 90:12)

If one of the ways wisdom arrives is by relying on God’s instruction, then going to his word when several hours are at stake is – you guessed it – wisdom!

A lot of zigzag living is a product of “leaning on our own understanding” (Prov 3:5) – approaching the day’s tasks as if we sustained our breath last night.

We linger in our most productive hours trafficking in trivia and entertainment because most of our motivations are ragtag, because our minds are often not “set on the things above”. (Col 3:2)

After spending several chapters emphasizing who  we have become in Christ, the writer of Ephesians finally encourages his audience in Ephesus to “redeem the time”, the reason he gives?

“For the days are evil.” (Eph 5:16)

In a world plagued by incessant media distraction for example, Christians, of all people, shouldn’t be numbered among the glib.

Energized by God’s grace to work towards God’s glory, our sense of industry should be like Solomon’s, our thinking like the psalmist’s, and our resolve driven by awareness- an awareness that the “days are evil.”

Otherwise, we risk letting another hour pass by.

Life is a day, mind your hours.