5 Minutes

Today's world demands we make the very best use of every minute of every day. Even our television shows are changing from the comfortable, predictable formats we grew up with to frenetic episodes of shows like 24 where an entire season is scripted around a 24-hour period of time. In a world like that, a 5-minute block of time becomes an incredibly valuable period during which we need to accomplish important things.



This song from Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon is a representation of different ways to consider time. Do you fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way? Do you hang on in quiet desperation? The song says it's the English way, but I think for a lot of people around the world, it’s the normal way. But one line from the song is certainly true: we are all shorter of breath and one day closer to death with each passing minute.

So the question then becomes what are we to do with the time we have left?

Which brings me back to 5 minutes.

This morning, it took me 5 minutes to read Acts chapter 3.

By the time I finished getting ready for work and left the house, I was only able to catch the last 5 minutes of David Jeremiah on 97.1 FM.

Two 5 minute blocks of precious time; and what did I gain?

Acts 3 follows the Apostles Peter and John as they heal a man who had been crippled since birth. It took them less than 5 minutes. Reading Acts 3 and listening to David Jeremiah teach on the armor of God from Ephesians 6 – and then considering what, if any, connections there were, I thought, what does it actually mean to be a Christian?

Before the crucifixion, Peter and others believed in their heads that Jesus was God. It wasn’t until after the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came upon them, that they believed in their hearts.

In 2001, I had another 5 minute period of my life to live. One night, after driving home from work, my belief, my willingness to be a follower of Christ moved from my head to my heart.

Are you frittering away the hours in an offhand way? Are you living in quiet desperation? All of us are shorter of breath and one day closer to death. Before time runs out, what will happen in your head? In the next 5 minutes, will something happen in your heart?

X