What can you do in thirty-seven seconds? It truly is such a short time. What if you were given seventy-five seconds? We more than doubled your thirty-seven seconds, yet because a second is so minuscule it doesn’t seem to add any significance. But thirty-seven years! Now that is a LOOONG time. But is it really? God says our lifetime is just a moment, a breath, a vapor. Maybe we should view our years on earth as really seconds.

Today I turned 37. Because 37 seconds happen so fast, we need to consider what we will do with these precious seconds. They must be invested. They cannot be stored away. We can’t create more. We have a limited amount given to us by a kind God. He tells us what we should do with these time tokens, but the choice is up to you and me. Francis Chan gives a powerful illustration below.

Francis Chan is right when he says that at the end of our lives, every decision, every investment of time, talent, and treasure will result in regret or reward.

1 Corinthians 3:12-15: 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

The danger is I do not know how many time tokens I have left. I also have a fleshly pull to spend them on myself. The only return for a selfish life is sorrow. The return of a life in service to Christ is an abundance of joy.

I want my investment in my 38th second of life to have an eternal return. I want whatever few moments I have left on this earth to be used for the purposes of my King. By God’s grace that is how I will spend my time tokens. What about you?