Every November my staff helps me finalize the annual calendar for the upcoming year.  This is one of the most important things we do together as a team.  Within the framework of an annual calendar we introduce our new church theme, set meetings and dates, prepare special campaigns, and establish specific ministerial and personal goals.  Such a plan helps us to stay organized and focused as we facilitate our vision.  But above and beyond that, it helps us to daily embrace one of the most precious commodities of life: time.

     “Time is the scarcest resource, and unless it is managed, nothing else can be managed” said Peter Drucker, “Within limits we can substitute one resource for another, copper for aluminum, for instance.  We can substitute capital for human labor.  We can use more knowledge or more brawn.  But there is no substitute for time.”  This is what the apostle Paul meant when he challenged us to “Redeem the Time.”  Quite literally, we are to make the proper investments with the time we have been given.  If not properly managed, time can get away from us, and before we realize it we have wasted precious, God-given moments on trivial and inconsequential things. At the risk of sounding cliché: we are not only instructed to count our time, we are to make our time count.