Making the Best Use of the Time
美佳之窗 His Window 86（ Apr - June 2019 ）
Text by Rev Phan Wu Chung (Senior Pastor Mega CMC)
Translated by Stephen Cheng
“Be very careful, then, how you live not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5:15-16)
It is a phenomenon that people are usually late when attending a banquet, even though “be punctual” is printed on the invitation card. Surprisingly, most hosts dare not begin the banquet on time either, resulting in this bad habit being encouraged and continuously passed on.
This phenomenon also happens in the market place. When a company hosts a celebration banquet, we often see the bosses, VIP and senior management arriving late. It seems these people regard themselves to be very important and different from others; therefore everyone should wait for them. Because they are important, others dare not utter a word, seemingly agreeing with their behavior of “late arrival” to be acceptable. Isn’t it baffling that our status is being symbolized or measured by the level of “late arrival” to a banquet? Unconciously, some Christians adopt such bad behavioral culture in church. They are late for church services or meetings, thinking that there is no benefit in arriving early. Some churches do not wish to offend their members and may even compromise to the extent of delaying the meetings. Some church members ignore the friendly advice and reminder from the church, not realizing that their behavior is not only disrespectful but also incomprehensible to others.
The Apostle Paul reminds us as Christians to “behave cautiously”, to be always careful in order to live a respectful and reverent life, or we might become like the non-believers who are unknowingly confused, ignorant and hypocritical in their behaviors. As Christians, we should not treat our behavior lightly (including punctuality); instead, we should thoughtfully live out our Christian lifestyles. We should not conform to the “pattern of the world”, because imitating the world standard does not reflect our wisdom but it reveals our ignorance. A “man of wisdom” must know when and how to grasp the opportunity to do the right things. The original translation of “grasp” means to “redeem”. If it is used in the field of time management, then Paul’s intention is to tell us to tirelessly grasp hold of the “opportunity” (to the point of paying a price to purchase it), and not let it slip away.
Rev. Phan Wu Chung
Why do we have to grasp hold of the opportunity? Paul’s teaching about the evil world reminds us that God wants to save us from the influence of this evil world and make us wise people, knowing how to use every opportunity to do meaningful things and living a prudent life to please God. Yet, we invert our daily life into a state of confusion and aimlessness. Let’s single out the issue of “punctuality”. Does our attitude of “punctuality” show that we are men of “wisdom”? In fact, we all know we should practice this principle of punctuality, and question ourselves on how much attention and emphasis do we pay to this issue in order to develop a right attitude.
I believe many people have overseas travel experiences. Generally, we are required to be at the airport to go through the check-in process 2-3 hours before the flight departure (during peak season we may need to be at the airport earlier), but seldom do we see passengers arriving late at the airport, and sometimes, they even allow themselves 2 hours more than the required time. In order not to miss the flight, they intentionally prepare “well and early” everything that is needed for the
overseas travel. I find it hard to understand why these people cannot adopt the same “punctual attitude” when attending church services or meetings.
On 23 March (Saturday) night, the LG Ministry invited YB Yeo Bee Ing to the church to share her life experiences as a Christian politician. I observed that most of the people had arrived punctually to eat the dinner before 7 o’clock, and by 7.15pm they were already standing at the church front door waiting to be seated. Way before the scheduled time at 8pm for the talk to begin, the seats were all filled! This is a good punctuality example because it is not proper to let the minister wait for us. Why then do we let God wait for us when we come to church to worship God?
Brothers and sisters, let’s ponder over the cause of the punctuality problem. Is it really true that there is no way we can come early? Or do we think that coming early to attend church is not important ? Or do we regard boarding the plane is more important and urgent than worshinping God? Do we regard God as less important than the minister?
Let’s seriously look upon the issue of punctuality, and remember that time is God’s creation. Our Creator God Himself is very disciplined and orderly in nature, and He is also punctual in every stage of His creation. To be punctual to worship God shows our reverence for Him, and at the same time also shows our respect to those who are punctual.
Ask ourselves, “Are we a people who have the wisdom to know how to grab the opportunity?”