These words were found engraved on a sundial:
"The shadow of my finger cast divides the future from the past;
Before it stands the unborn hour, in darkness and beyond the power;
Behind its unreturning line, the vanished hour, no longer thine;
One hour alone is in Thy hands; the now on which the shadow stands."
How true are those words of an unidentified author, “One hour alone is in thy hands.” What will we do with that one hour? Will we use it to worry or fret about the hours and days before us over which we have no control? Or, will we use it to bemoan our past failures and wallow in regret, self-pity, and the endless morass of “what ifs”? Or will we use this hour to do as Paul instructed, “redeem the time”? (Ephesians 5:16)
What impact can we make on others in this hour? What insight can we gain into God’s character or what expression of devotion and worship might we show Him in this hour? The Psalmist seemed to grasp the magnitude of this concept. “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise should continually be in my mouth” (Psalm 34:1). “This is the day that the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 18:24). A life of praise, a life of disciplined awareness that the time we have is given to us of the Lord is spent most wisely when our hearts are lifted upward in joyful thanksgiving. Today we can regret or worry, complain or speculate, or we can use this hour and the day to praise Him with a new intensity, rejoice with new fervor, and serve with new purpose.
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Its funny I should read this today because last night I laid in bed thinking about time and how if I really used it right I could devote 1/2 hour to reading my bible each day, if I could get up that extra 1/2 hour early or not watch that extra 1/2 hour of TV which has nothing on anyway. I feel fuel being poured on my fire again, and your words were so right about how we use our time. I could really get this fire going if I learned how to use that 1 hour of time like that poem.
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