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2018-10-05


有效地運用你的時間Using Your Time Productively

[每日靈修] 10/5/2018,  駱鴻銘編譯

當我還在上小學的時候,人們常常問我:「你最喜歡的科目是什麼?」我的回答總是和兩件事脫不了關係。我要麼說「休息」,要麼說「健身房」。我的回答披露了我最深的愛好。我更喜歡玩樂,更甚於工作。事實上,我對宇宙性的「為什麼?」的問題所作的的萌芽階段的哲學思考,發生在我沿著一條漫漫長路上,墊著腳,假裝我是馬戲團裏的鋼索特技表演者,走路到學校的想像遊戲中。

我問自己:如果我每週不得不花五天時間做我不想做的事,只是因為這樣我就可以在週末玩,那麼生命還有什麼意義?在學校開始前一整個小時,我一直都留在校園裏——並不是出於搶先學習的熱情,而是因為我在學校的鈴聲響了之前,可以在操場上享受一小時的樂趣,從而「贖回」每日的苦差。對我來說,「贖回時間」意味著從必須工作的時間中拯救出寶貴的遊戲時間。

我已經認識到,當使徒保羅勸告他的讀者要「『贖回』(和合本作:愛惜)光陰,因為現今的世代邪惡」(弗五16),我的做法和他的想法並不完全相同。他的想法是一個莊嚴的呼籲,要我們在基督國度的工作裏,有效地運用一個人的時間。

保羅是在勉勵基督徒,必須積極地把握時機行善。在這個邪惡的世代中,我們特別需要智慧(但是不要忘記,基督徒已經是屬於「來世」的人,基督的光已經照進我們原本黑暗的心靈)。因為除非我們常常默想神的聖言,並分辨祂聖潔的旨意是什麼,否則通往聖潔的道路並不總是那麼明顯。

活在神的面光中(在神面前禱告):
為了神的國度,你是否有效地運用你的時間?

進一步研讀:
弗五1516 你們要謹慎行事,不要像愚昧人,當像智慧人。要愛惜光陰,因為現今的世代邪惡。
詩卅一15 我終身的事在你手中;求你救我脫離仇敵的手和那些逼迫我的人。
林前七29 弟兄們,我對你們說,時候減少了。從此以後,那有妻子的,要像沒有妻子;
詩九十12 求你指教我們怎樣數算自己的日子,好叫我們得著智慧的心。


Using Your Time Productively

When I was a child in elementary school, people often asked me, “What is your favorite subject?” Invariably my response was one of two things. I either said, “recess” or “gym.” My answer revealed my deepest predilections. I preferred play to work. Indeed, my nascent philosophical musing regarding the cosmic “Why?” questions took place as I made a game of walking to school via tiptoeing along a long path, pretending I was a high-wire walker in a circus.

I asked myself the meaning of life wherein I had to spend five days a week doing what I didn’t want to do just so I could play on the weekends. I was always at the schoolyard a full hour before school began—not out of a zeal for getting a head start on my studies, but so I could “redeem” the daily grind by having an hour’s worth of fun on the playground before the school bell rang. For me, time redemption meant rescuing precious minutes of play from the required hours of work.

I’ve come to realize that when the apostle Paul exhorted his readers to “[redeem] the time, because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:16), my practices are not exactly what he had in mind. His was a solemn call to the productive use of one’s time in the labor of Christ’s kingdom.

Coram Deo
Do you use your time productively for the kingdom of God?

Passages for Further Study
Ephesians 5:15–16
Psalm 31:15
1 Corinthians 7:29