I Wasted A Day

I wasted a day.

I am not proud of this.

It was perfect and untouched, rife with potential, a gift from God, and I squandered it away.

On the surface this doesn't sound like such a big deal. I have done so before with no perceived major consequences and so have you. And by wasting a day, I do not mean simply taking a day off. We all need a day here and there to rest and recharge. God even commands that we rest one day of every seven.

What I am speaking of is actually wasting a day, neither accomplishing anything worthwhile, nor finding rest or contentment.

My problem with this is twofold.

Firstly, I see a disturbing pattern here. I have done it before, with alarming frequency, and since according to Sir Isaac Newton, an object in motion tends to remain in motion in the same direction and at the same velocity unless acted upon by an outside force, I see no reason why, without some intervention, this pattern will not continue indefinitely. (or at least until the end of my days, because ...)

Secondly, the number of our days is finite. We are given a limited number of days in which to live.

Doing the math, if I live to be 80 years old, that gives me slightly more than 29,000 days to live (or waste). If I waste only 1 day per month that would be 960 wasted days – over 2 1/2 wasted years – years of days that I will never see again – each beckoning to be lived.

I can picture myself at the end of my life begging God for another two years and God patiently explaining to me that I already wasted two and one half years that He did give me. Why should He trust me with another two?!?

Now I will cut myself a little slack. I am, after all, human and I live in an imperfect world where 100% efficiency is an impossibility. But still, I can't help but feel that I can do better than I have so far. And the first step, as they say, is admitting I have a problem.

Lord please help me to redeem the time. Please forgive me for every day that I have wasted and help me to live every day that I am given!