What Are You Doing With the Ticks?

Twenty four years ago, back in January, 1995 the staff of People magazine published a short article entitled, "Dead Ahead." It told about a new clock called the Timisis LifeClock. The clock calculates how much time you have left in your life, based on an average life span of 75 years for men and 80 years for women. According to the article, when you program your life and gender into the clock, "... the Timisis LifeClock ticks off your remaining time on earth in hours, minutes, and seconds ... " The clock was dreamed up and developed by Chicagoans Charles "Chip" Altholz, a talent manager, and Barry Faldner, an orchestra conductor. Faldner gave at least some credit to the musical genius Beethoven for leading them to the clock. Faldner claims that on his deathbed, Beethoven, who died in 1827 at 57 years old, shook his fist at the heavens and cried, "I need more time."

Who hasn’t said that? We hear a lot of talk, and most of us do some of it, about how fast time goes by. "Time flies," we say. "Where in the world did the time go?" we ask. "I can’t believe this year is already gone," we say, as if we really think it went by faster this year than it did the last 12 months. But it didn’t. It just went by one tick at a time. There were, in all, 31,536,000 ticks on the clock (that’s 31 million, 536 thousand!) this past year. Those seconds made up 526,000 minutes, 8,760 hours, 365 days. And it all just went by one tick at a time! The Bible urges us to understand the fleeting nature of time. About 3,500 years ago Moses wrote in Psalm 90:10, "The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away." The words of James 4:14b challenge those who think they have all the time in the world – "... For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away." Life is quietly but quickly slipping away, a tick of the clock at a time. John 9:4 makes clear Jesus recognized not only the brevity of life here on earth, but also our highest purpose for being here in the first place. In that passage the Lord taught that time and what we do with it are urgent matters – "I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work." With these words Jesus challenges our use of the quiet but quick and relentless, yet finite, ticks of the clock as they slip away each day. What are we doing with the little time we have? Paul Meyer reminds us: "Most time is wasted, not in hours, but in minutes. A bucket with a small hole in the bottom gets just as empty as a bucket that has been deliberately kicked over" (azquotes.com). Truly, all of us live at the same speed as far as time goes – we are all in the fast lane called life. As the clock ticks time away, the question is what are we doing with the ticks? Jesus lived a short life by today’s standard (scholars say 33 years). Yet the night before He died on the cross He told God in a prayer: "I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do" (John 17:4). We must do the same while time is on our side – or rather, while we are on this side of time. A gospel hymn asks, "How are we using God’s golden moments? Shall we reap glory, shall we reap tears?" Listen: "tick, tick, tick, tick" – your time on earth is ticking away. What are you doing with those ticks?

–Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN