Time Well Spent

I think I was in eighth grade when singer and actor David Cassidy took his turn as teen idol for adolescent girls. (Heartthrobs are like tennis champs: they reign for a time before succumbing to the next up-and-comer.) You couldn’t walk past a celebrity magazine newsstand without seeing his face plastered all over the place. He had talent, looks, fortune, and fame. The girls in my class loved him. The boys didn’t.

David Cassidy passed away last month. He was 67. Too young we might say. It is always sad to lose someone early, yet it was these, his last words that brought me up short and stopped me in my tracks: “So much wasted time.” That was it. How empty it must have felt to exit this life in such regret.

I do not share this story in pointy-finger judgment. Quite the contrary, Cassidy’s heartache jolts us awake from the slumber of routine and elicits a cry from our soul, “Lord, may this never be true of me!” Indeed, the pop singer’s daughter and actress, Katie Cassidy, tweeted, “This will be a daily reminder for me to share my gratitude with those I love so as to never waste another minute ... thank you.” She has the right idea—to focus on the things that matter.

But how? How do we live a meaningful, fulfilling, satisfying life? Sharing gratitude is certainly a step in the right direction, yet we do well also to consider insight from another David of long ago, another musician, a psalm-writer. His advice? “Trust in the Lord and do good ... delight yourself in the Lord ... commit your way to the Lord ... be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.” When we live openly before God this way, our interests and longings shift over time from the temporal glory of this world to God’s eternal glory and the next. We joyfully discover that the things that truly matter are also the things that last far beyond our lifetime and into forever—namely, loving God and loving other people, not only in the way we feel toward them, but even more so in the things we do for them. Others are served, and we savor satisfaction; God is delighted, and we find fulfillment. For time invested into that which is timeless is time well spent. No regrets.

Father, I confess I don’t always use my time well, in fact, I often don’t. I am truly sorry. Fill me with your Spirit that I would delight in your forever purposes and live this life in love and service to you and to all who journey this life with me. May my life matter for your kingdom. I ask this in Jesus’ name. Thank you for loving my soul and hearing my prayer. Amen.

Christ in me is life.

[Click here to read King David’s advice in Psalm 37:3-7.]