One Hour

Courtesy Clker.com

Cade was born this week. Born with a major birth defect his life on this planet would be short; approximately one hour. But for that one hour Cade knew that he was loved by so many people. In that one hour a family was able to pour out their affection to their little boy.

On December 26^th of this last year I spent an hour with my mother. She didn’t know me but Kathy and I sat by her and my dad as he held her hand, kissed her and sang to her. Before we left I leaned over kissed her on the forehead and said, “I love you mom.” That was the last hour I would ever spend with her.

An hour seems like such a short time, but to some it’s a lifetime. These two events got me to thinking. How do I spend the hours that God has given me?

Phil Ware illustrated in a sermon not long ago how many days we have with our children before they are grown. We can use the same analogy with life. The average lifespan is 78.7 years as of a 2009 study. That gives us a total of 689,412 hours in our life more or less. I’ll be 64 next month so that gives me around 128,772 hours left on the average, Lord willing. Take from that the fact that sleep, getting ready for bed and getting ready when I get up will take about 9 hours a day or 48,290 hours I have 80,482 hours left. I’ve already used up including the future bedtime hours close to 90 percent of the time God has given me.

So the question is how do we plan to use the hours left that God has given us?

Again, what would you do if you knew you only had one hour left?

Watching TV? Arguing over some silly subject? Complaining? Sleeping?

Or…

Is there someone you’d like to call and tell them you love them?

Is there someone you’ve been working with on a problem that you’d like to help one last time?

Is there someone who isn’t a Christian with whom you’d like to share the gospel?

Is there someone with whom you need to make things right?

Would it be to take care of one final need in the church?

Would it be to be around those that we love and know love us; surrounded with God’s affection and the love of our family and friends.

How often do we wish we could go back and change the last hour with someone? To love more? To encourage more? To change what we said or what we did?

One hour.

Sixty minutes.

Thirty-six hundred seconds.

You know what? This could be our last hour. Any hour could be our last one. So we should make the most of it before the next 3600 seconds have passed. I’ve already spent over 1000 of those 3600 writing this. It’s a short time; then again maybe a lifetime.

Make your next hour count.

Tell someone you love them before it’s too late. Tell someone you care for them before the hour is up. Pick up the phone and call them. Go on Facebook and write on their wall. Email them. Go by to see them. Text them.

But do it before your hour is up. You may never get another chance.

The clock is ticking.