Are you wasting your life?
A 2022 poll taken in Britain showed that, on average, people waste almost 2 hours per day, which comes out to 26 full days per year. This includes things like waiting on hold, waiting in traffic, and in general just waiting for life. Frankly, I'm surprised that the number isn't even higher.
Business professionals also say that they waste much of their work time being interupted by co-workers and employees, attending unecessary meetings, and replying to phone calls and e-mails.
Most of us also know how much time social media and playing stupid games on our phones can waste.
A few weeks before he died, the American novelist Jack London said, “The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.”
How much of your time do you simply waste?
It’s important for us to think about how we’re living. We shouldn’t want our lives to be wasted. This is even more important for believers, since we exist for a purpose: to glorify God. But part of the good news of the gospel is that with God as our Father, Jesus as our Savior, and the Holy Spirit as our Guide, we can truly live.
He's Not From Around Here
The Christian life is a call to become a follower and imitator of Christ. No matter when or where, the faithful believer has always been counter-cultural. When we live like Jesus lived, we leave people wondering where we might be from.
"All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own." (Hebrews 11:13-14).
One Bad Apple
"One Bad Apple," a song by the Osmonds, hit the airwaves on November 14, 1970, hitting the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart on February 13, 1971.
One bad apple don't
Spoil the whole bunch, girl
Oh, give it one more try
Before you give up on love
One bad apple don't
Spoil the whole bunch, girl
Oh, I don't care what they say
I don't care what you heard
Common sense and simple observation tells us one bad apple can, indeed, spoil, the whole bunch. The Osmonds, with their naive, wishful thinking would have liked us to believe otherwise.
So, which is it? Can one bad apple spoil the whole bunch?
Scientists at McGill University had something to say about that:
You bet. Because once an apple is rotten or has physical damage, (ie a bruise), it produces ethylene, which in turn leads to a slightly increased internal temperature causing a breakdown of chlorophyll and the synthesis of other pigments. The starch in the fruit is converted to simple sugars and at the same time, pectin, a component of fiber that cements the cell walls together, begins to disintegrate thereby softening the tissue. Once this happens, it starts a chain reaction, stimulating the process in other apples.
Google's AI bot had a much simpler and to the point answer:
Yes, one bad apple can spoil a bunch of apples because rot spreads through contact.
Whether we're talking apples ...
Or organes ...
Or ...
The company we keep, the fellowship we share, the entertainment we consume, matters. It all matters ... because rot spreads.
Like the wishful thinking in that old hit song, our own wishful thinking would have us to believe that we have it within ourselves to resist the rot. But rot is, if nothing else ... compelling.
Remember that scientific explanation from McGill? "... pectin, a component of fiber that cements the cell walls together, begins to disintegrate thereby softening the tissue." It is an inevevitable process.
We must guard our hearts and minds, lest our Christian testimony, our right thinking, or moral character all begin to "disintegrate" and "soften" overtime.
Remember, "... rot spreads by contact."
"Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm" (Proverbs 13:20, ESV).
"Do not be misled: 'Bad company corrupts good character'” (1 Corinthians: 15:33, NIV).