This chapter is titled “Gather the Fragments That Remain” and claims true wisdom is taking advantage of small drops of time. When I read that I get the idea of being always busy and cramming too much into a day. The author even says that is not his goal. “Busyness and workaholism” are not acceptable outcomes.
The story of Christ feeding the five thousand ends with the gathering of 12 baskets of leftovers (one for each apostle’s family) and demonstrates how Christ provides exceedingly and abundantly beyond we could ask or need. The concept follows from how we treat dollar bills. We may have twenties, fifties, and hundreds, but we keep track of the tens, and fives, and ones because they too are money and add up. Not everyone does the same with time.
One of the major concepts in this small chapter that I liked was using spare moments to memorize scripture. I have never been good at memorization, but I can see how this works. And I hear it has a great impact on how people think and how they speak once they have spent time memorizing verses.
As I told the finance class I am leading the other night, I am studying nine versions of the Bible during my Job study. I am not sure how I could ever keep one version straight again, but I am pretty sure I can understand each of the verses I have studied so far and that they are changing how I think and how I speak.
Other ideas I saw include hugging loved ones, writing thank you notes, saying a prayer, smiling at strangers, resting your eyes, conceiving an idea, or my new goal: reach out to someone. This week I finally sent an email to all my friends I have email addresses for to tell them about my blog. I heard from a few people who I had not in a while. It felt good. It took a lot of planning and experimenting to get it done, but in the end, it was pretty simple.
My life is not my own. It has been paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ. I can never earn my salvation, but I can offer my life up on His behalf. How can I not offer up the spare minutes in my day to serve His purpose. I call it winning in the minute. Maybe it will catch on.