Colossians 4:5

Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time.

One of the most shocking things about time is the discovery that we really do have only limited supplies of it.  A thousand years now stretches out before us like a boundless ocean, but the previous thousand years just ended, reminding us that this too will end one day.  Looking forward, we can form the fixed illusion that we have “all the time in the world.”  But looking back three days, we can remember that even this ocean has a shore and that no matter how long it takes, the life of the earth, indeed the universe itself, has an expiration date.  We may comfort ourselves that we will not be around to see that, but that only reminds us that the amount of time we have is — barring a heart attack, brain aneurysm, plane crash, or grape lodged in the trachea — a little longer than that of a housefly.  Given that, there are only two responses: pagan or Christian.  The pagan response is, “Party till the ship goes down and we are all swallowed up in the cold and the dark.”  It is the slipping mask of joy on the gigantic face of despair.  The Christian response is found in today’s verse.  It is the sober face of love and sacrifice in the present in preparation for departure from this tormented and fallen world and entry into a universe of everlasting joy.  “Joy,” said Chesterton, “which was the small publicity of the pagan is the gigantic secret of the Christian.”