Church Family,
About 20 years ago there was a hit Broadway musical called Rent that popularized a song entitled “Seasons of Love” (Note: this is likely the first and last Broadway musical you will find me referencing due to my very limited knowledge of musicals!).
The song begins with the catchy refrain:
Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
Five hundred twenty-five thousand moments so dear
Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?
In taking stock of how we spend the time we have been afforded in this life, there are many metrics we can use to measure ourselves and our lives. We can focus on the emotions we feel, the money we have made, the work we have done, or the growth we have experienced. What are the things you pay attention to as you reflect on a year and assess how the time has been used?
In the sermon on Sunday we went all the way back to the beginning, to Genesis chapter 1 to study how God understands our purpose in life. The book of Genesis is about why God began everything and that means that in Genesis we deal with some of the most foundational issues of human existence there are. In Genesis we get at the “why” questions and the “what for” questions that have plagued humans for centuries. (If you missed the sermon on Sunday, you can listen to it here).
The creation accounts in Genesis 1 and 2 tell us not only that in the Garden of Eden there is food and beauty, and sexuality, and relationships, and spirituality – the humans walk with God in the cool of the garden – there is also work in paradise. Work is not a punishment. It is what we were designed to do. It’s at the core of being human.
In verse 15 of Genesis chapter 2, there is a grounding about the nature of our work when we read: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”
Not to just work it. Not to just use it. But to work it and take care of it.
What has happened here is that God has entrusted the creation to one of his created ones. He has given the humans a mission. They have been entrusted with time, and abilities and opportunity and they have been commissioned to work within the context of the creation and to care for what has been entrusted to them.
We are studying in this series what it means to be entrusted by God with the things of this world and to view those things through the lens of not only this life, but also of the life to come.
And when we think deeply about this subject we come to realize that being entrusted with things is not just a way to live when it comes to our material stuff, it’s also a way to live when it comes to everything in life.
We all have to make decisions about how we understand our purposes for existing. We all have to decide how to spend the next 525,600 minutes. Genesis teaches us that we can live purposeful and abundant lives by seeing ourselves as being created to work and to steward what has been entrusted to us for God’s glory.
Grateful to be learning alongside you how to manage well what has been entrusted to us by God,
Chris
