Our time will tell

Back in 1748, Benjamin Franklin wrote to a young tradesman about the nature of money and how his friend could assuredly earn more. From this letter came one of his famous quotes, “Remember that time is money.”

His admonition to the young man was to be frugal with his time, urging him to be a diligent steward of his time in order to optimize his earnings – wasted time meant the loss of potential income.

In our modern times, the advice Benjamin Franklin provided to the young entrepreneur is often times quoted but not with the fatherly wisdom as originally delivered, but rather with a cynical sneer similar to Gordon Gecko’s “Greed is good” line from the movie Wall Street.

People hold up their personal time as a sacrosanct commodity which should not be trivialized or wasted. Time has become a modern day currency that holds as much sway over people as the almighty dollar. And the value of one’s time seems to be proportionate to the holder’s ego and inflated sense of importance. The follow up line to “Time is money” are the unspoken words, “and you’re wasting mine…”

Time is our modern day mammon. It is the new idol we serve, perhaps even more than money. And no place is it more evident than in our work.

There are two primary schools of thought when it comes to time and work and they can be summed up as:

Live to work – which is exemplified by type A, overachieving workaholics
Work to live – doing just enough to get by so as to maximize your leisure time

But of course, neither of these philosophies seeks to glorify God. The only philosophy that we should hold in our hearts is to “live to work for God.” Jesus was clear in the Sermon on the Mount – we cannot serve two masters. Our time must be God’s time.

Do you work to live or live to work? Comment here.

“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. “
Matt 6:24 (NIV)