“There’s always time to love God later.” Have you ever said that? “Isn’t there?” But have you ever asked that? We assume we can get around to God later. When we have children. After we’ve advanced in our careers. After we retire. After we enjoy our retirement. But what if we never make it that far? Or if we forget about God. What if “later” never comes?
Sure – we’ll get around to God. Tomorrow. There’s plenty of time. Later. Life’s too short to truly love God now. That takes time. And effort.
Before I die. As long as I’m alive, it’s not too late. I’ll show that I love God later. Then I have time.
But what if …
Did you know, the Bible says:
Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.
That’s just some church threat, right? Isn’t it?
Actually, no. It’s not.
I always have time to love God later. Don’t I?
Check out the story below. And while reading it, ask yourself if it in any way describes you. Or someone you love. Someone you care about.
Summary
- The hourglass and the stopwatch: A story about a man who wasted his life on trivial things and ignored God until it was too late. He received an hourglass and a stopwatch from his grandfather as symbols of life and time, but he never paid attention to them.
- Seek the LORD while he may be found: A verse from Isaiah that warns people to turn to God before it is too late. The author applies it to people who say they will love God later, but never do.
- The crucifixion and the two criminals: A passage from Luke that describes the death of Jesus and the different responses of the two criminals who were crucified with him. One of them mocked Jesus, while the other acknowledged him as God and asked for his mercy. Jesus promised him paradise.
- Compare and contrast the man on the cross and the man with the hourglass: The author points out that the man on the cross who accepted Jesus was in a similar situation as the man with the hourglass, but he made a different choice. He did not panic, but reached out to Jesus and was saved.
- The man’s regret: He wished he had listened to his grandfather and used his time wisely. He wished he had done the things he really wanted to do, like traveling, writing, learning new skills, and showing his love for God.
- The man’s awakening: He realized that he had wasted his life on trivial things like video games, TV, and social media. He saw that the hourglass was almost empty and the stopwatch was almost buried by the sand. He panicked and tried to dig it out, but it was too late.
He had always been fascinated by the hourglass. It was a gift from his grandfather, who told him that it was a symbol of life. He said that life was like the sand in the hourglass, flowing from one moment to the next, and that he should make the most of every grain. He also gave him a stopwatch, which he said was a reminder of how precious time was. He told him to use it wisely, and to never waste it on trivial things.
But he didn’t listen to his grandfather. He was too busy playing video games, watching TV, and scrolling through social media. He thought he had plenty of time to do the things he really wanted to do, like traveling, writing, learning new skills. and showing his love for God. He thought he could always start tomorrow, or next week, or next year. He thought he had all the sand in the world.
He never looked at the stopwatch. He didn’t realize that it was ticking away, counting down the seconds of his life. He didn’t notice that the sand from the hourglass was falling on the stopwatch, covering it up little by little. He didn’t see that the hourglass was not a measure of his life, but a distraction from it.
One day, he woke up and realized that he had wasted his life. He looked at the hourglass and saw that it was almost empty. He looked at the stopwatch and saw that it was almost buried. He panicked and tried to dig it out, but it was too late. The sand had stopped the stopwatch. He had run out of time.
He wished he had listened to his grandfather. He wished he had used his time wisely. He wished he had done the things he really wanted to do. He wished he had lived his life. 1The image and the story were done by Bing Chat, based on two requests I made to it.
For the Image: There’s a large hourglass. inside the hourglass, in the bottom portion, there is a stopwatch. The hourglass is silver. The sand in the hourglass is black. the sand in the hourglass is beginning to cover up the stopwatch as it flows from the top to the bottom portion. The background in the room is a gradient color from white on the top to black on the bottom, with the gradient change matching the amount of sand that has passed from the top to the bottom of the hourglass.
For the story: can you write a few paragraphs based on the second image in the last set you generated? it’s about someone who thinks they have lots of time to accomplish their goals in life, because they are only paying attention to the hourglass. Since they think they have plenty of time, they have been spending their time on playing video games. Then they realize that there’s not much time left in their life, because the sand from the hourglass has almost completely covered the stopwatch. And the stopwatch is the real measure of how much longer they will live? So now they have to figure out how to change their life to accomplish their real goals.
The one thing I did add to the story were these words: ” showing his love for God”. Why? I found that if I try to mix Christianity and the secular world, Bing Chat/Copilot gets kind of “lost”, either going overboard on the Christianity (which was supposed to be absent, save for the latter part of the person’s life) or it mixes other religions in with Christianity to give some odd images and information.
While it wasn’t my idea, or even part of my request, it’s interesting – and too often so true – that the person in the story didn’t notice the problem until it was too late. So that gives an added level of importance to what follows. Of course, my goal is to make us all think about running out of time. But the story generated makes that quite explicit. Please check out the footnote if you’d like to see my requests for both the image and the story to go with it.
Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.
Maybe you’re familiar with the words: “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near”.
If so, then you know it’s not about people who say, “there’s always time for God later”. It was about people who already walked away from God. Instead of later, they were thinking never. Worse yet, it was for people who had known God, and then turned away. It’s from Isaiah, in the Old Testament.
However, the thought still applies to people who say something like, “I love God, but I want to live my life now, and I’ll get to God later”.
I guess the obvious choice here is to look at the prodigal son. But maybe that’s too obvious. Plus, it won’t make the point for this young man, if he’s even still young at the end. So, let’s go with something else.
It’s still relatively obvious. And I have used it before.
The Crucifixion – Luke
23:33-43 pp — Mt 27:33-44; Mk 15:22-32; Jn 19:17-24
Lk 23:26 As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. 27 A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. 28 Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ 30 Then
“ ‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!”
and to the hills, “Cover us!” ’ 31 For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
Lk 23:32 Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. 33 When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. 34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
Lk 23:35 The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.”
Lk 23:36 The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar 37 and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”
Lk 23:38 There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
Lk 23:39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”
Lk 23:40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? 41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
Lk 23:42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’”
Lk 23:43 Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
It’s right there at the end. The man on the cross with Jesus who spoke in verses 40-42:
Lk 23:40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? 41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
Lk 23:42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’”
To which Jesus replied:
“I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Compare and contrast the man on the cross and the man with the hourglass
Obviously, the man on the cross who acknowledged Jesus as God is in a different situation than the one with the hourglass. If nothing else, there’s the nearly two thousand year time difference and the physical settings.
But honestly, the differences end there. Too many people probably find themselves in a situation where they’re about to die and realize they never did anything for or even about God. Just like the man with the hourglass and stopwatch who panicked and tried to dig it out, but it was too late, they have some choices.
- panic and try to change things, although it really is too late.
- don’t panic, but reach out to Jesus and be saved.
- don’t panic, but use your last breaths to curse God
It’s tempting to say it was already too late for this man, but I don’t believe that’s the case. He did have time to panic. He did have time to:
One day, he woke up and realized that he had wasted his life. He looked at the hourglass and saw that it was almost empty. He looked at the stopwatch and saw that it was almost buried. He panicked and tried to dig it out, but it was too late. The sand had stopped the stopwatch. He had run out of time.
He wished he had listened to his grandfather. He wished he had used his time wisely. He wished he had done the things he really wanted to do. He wished he had lived his life.
It didn’t take long for the man on the cross to say what he did. And he was clearly saved. There was time.
Do we all have time to be saved at the end of our lives?
Do we all have time to be saved at the end of our lives? Unfortunately, no. Accidents. Murders. Heart attacks. All sorts of things can and do end people’s lives with no advance notice whatsoever.
However, as long as we are still alive, we do have time to be saved. If, that is, we know we need to be saved. Believe we need to be saved. And know how to be saved. And believe that we can be saved.
That’s a lot of ifs. And the list probably isn’t complete. It certainly isn’t filled out in enough detail to tell anyone what to do, let alone reach a point of believing it.
But here’s the thing about the young man who got that hourglass from his grandfather. Bing didn’t fill in the details. So, let’s add some. Details that make the difference between life and death. That is, the life or death of our soul.
He had always been fascinated by the hourglass. It was a gift from his grandfather, who told him that it was a symbol of life. He said that life was like the sand in the hourglass, flowing from one moment to the next, and that he should make the most of every grain. He also gave him a stopwatch, which he said was a reminder of how precious time was. He told him to use it wisely, and to never waste it on trivial things.
Yes, we’re going to read in the next paragraph that he didn’t listen to his grandfather. But didn’t listen doesn’t mean didn’t hear. After all, he was fascinated by it. Somewhere in him, he knew what the hourglass and the stopwatch represented. We know this, because of what we read at the end. We read that he panicked because he knew his life was about to end. If that knowledge wasn’t in him somewhere, he wouldn’t have any such reaction.
For us, maybe for you, it’s not an hourglass and a stopwatch. But sometime, somewhere, hopefully, someone gave you something or told you something that will awaken in you before it’s too late. Too late for what? Too late for the things you really want to do with your life. As this young man did. As we’ll read next.
But he didn’t listen to his grandfather. He was too busy playing video games, watching TV, and scrolling through social media. He thought he had plenty of time to do the things he really wanted to do, like traveling, writing, learning new skills. and showing his love for God. He thought he could always start tomorrow, or next week, or next year. He thought he had all the sand in the world.
Yes, there were things he wanted to do. One of those things was showing his love for God. But he got so lost in the fun things in life that he didn’t even get around to things that were far easier than following Jesus. Things like writing, traveling, learning.
He was young. He had plenty of time. Years. So he thought. And maybe he had a reasonable expectation that health problems wouldn’t bring about an early death. Although, believing that and structuring our life around an expectation of continued good health is a fool’s errand. And who can ever predict being in the wrong place at the wrong time and suffering all sorts of possible untimely methods of death?
And so, he lived his life.
He never looked at the stopwatch. He didn’t realize that it was ticking away, counting down the seconds of his life. He didn’t notice that the sand from the hourglass was falling on the stopwatch, covering it up little by little. He didn’t see that the hourglass was not a measure of his life, but a distraction from it.
Yes, he lived his life. Not recalling what his grandfather told him. He was so engrossed in his fun life that he didn’t even notice the stopwatch with the sands of time falling on it. Beginning to cover it. Even though he knew inside, somewhere, what it meant, his conscious mind and his fun activities blotted it all out.
Until …
One day, he woke up and realized that he had wasted his life. He looked at the hourglass and saw that it was almost empty. He looked at the stopwatch and saw that it was almost buried. He panicked and tried to dig it out, but it was too late. The sand had stopped the stopwatch. He had run out of time.
Until he noticed something. Until something inside woke him up to the reality of what he did. Of what he forgot.
He panicked. And he died. He never traveled. Never wrote anything, except maybe notes on how to play the games and shopping lists for junk food to keep him going while he played his life away. He certainly never got back to God. Never did anything to show that he had the tiniest interest in God. Not even any interest in all the wonderful things God put on this earth for us. He didn’t even think about all the God-given knowledge that allowed people to write the incredibly complicated software that controlled the games he played. Or the equally complex hardware required to run it.
He didn’t even think about the trust fund left by his parents. His only source of income. Or, was the trust fund from his grandfather? Oh well, too late to worry about that now.
The stopwatch stopped. Buried by the sand of time from the top of the hourglass.
He wished he had listened to his grandfather. He wished he had used his time wisely. He wished he had done the things he really wanted to do. He wished he had lived his life.
I wonder. Did the man actually wish all those things? Or was Bing trying to make him look better than he really was? I mean, the stopwatch stopped in the previous paragraph. The last breath of life was already exhaled. The time for wishing was over.
When is the time for wishing?
The time for wishing was before the sand of time covered over the times of our lives.
The time for doing the things we really want to do is before we breathe our last breath.
Yes, it takes quite some time to travel. To write. To learn a new skill.
It doesn’t take all that much time to acknowledge God. Just look at the man on the cross with him.
But at some point, this particular man wanted more. He wanted to show his love for God. That takes more time.
Will we end up like the man with the hourglass?
The question has to be coming up in some people’s minds by now. If you’re still with me here.
Will I end up like the man with the hourglass?
You don’t have to. None of us has to.
No matter whether we’re very young or very old, there’s something we can all have in common. Jesus told a parable about that.
As you read the parable below, I want you to consider something. The parable is about people working in a vineyard. For a day. Some work the entire day. Others work less than a day. Some even only work for an hour.
But consider this. A day isn’t 24 hours. A day is the length of a life. Some will work their entire lives. Some half their life. Some, only briefly. Maybe that’s because they died young. Maybe it’s because even though they didn’t die young but had a long life, they only began to work in the field at the end of their lives.
Maybe even a few minutes before they realized that the stopwatch read 00:00:00:01. No years left. No days left. No hours left. Only 1 minute left. But in that minute, they chose not to panic. They chose to reach out to the owner of the vineyard.
Well, here’s the parable of the workers in the vineyard.
The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard
Mt 20:1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
Mt 20:3 “About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.
“He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. 6 About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
Mt 20:7 “ ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.
“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
Mt 20:8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’
Mt 20:9 “The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
Mt 20:13 “But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
Mt 20:16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
Did you get it? Do you see where you fit into the parable? Or at least, where you could fit into the parable?
Here’s a hint. Well, more than a hint.
The Parable of the Laborers. 20:1–16
20:1–14. This parable reinforced Jesus’ teaching regarding true Christian service and riches. The householder is Christ Himself, the Master of the vineyard, the field of labor (service to the world through His church). Early in the morning, the first workers were hired at dawn. A penny (Gr denarion) represents a denarius, or a common day’s wage.
Others standing idle in the market place were not lazy but were in the common place of seeking employment. From this unemployed group, the householder hired additional Workers at 9 A.M., noon, 3 P.M., and 5 P.M. The pay scale will be whatsoever is right, indicating Christ’s justice to His laborers.
When even (evening) was come, i.e., at the end of the day, every man was paid the same wage. Therefore, the first hired laborers murmured against the goodman. However, he reminded them that he had been just in paying them that for which they bargained. The statement, I will give unto this last even as unto thee, is Jesus’ interpretation of the “last shall be first and the first last” (vs. 16).
There is here, perhaps, a sweeping view of church history, in which those working in the last hour are promised equal blessing to His original disciples Thus, Jesus warns against jealousy and impurity of motive in serving Him.
15–16. Verse 15 shows that, everything being of grace, God has the right to give or withhold at will. We must take care that this goodness of God does not provoke us to complaint.
The point of verse 16 is that all Christians receive the same, the reward being everlasting life given on the ground of Christ’s death for them. By earthly standards of judgment, expressed clearly in verses 11 and 12, such action is regarded as putting the last first and the first last.
For many be called, but few chosen refers to the general call of the gospel and the efficacious call of grace. He speaks of the difficulty that many experience in believing and obeying the gospel because their minds are fixed on what they can get for themselves, whether in this world or the next. 2Hindson, E. E., & Kroll, W. M., eds. (1994). KJV Bible Commentary (p. 1936). Thomas Nelson.
It’s all important, but I want to single out one thing especially:
The point of verse 16 is that all Christians receive the same, the reward being everlasting life given on the ground of Christ’s death for them.
Salvation is for all who honestly reach out for it.
Is salvation the goal?
But don’t get me wrong. There’s more to life after death than salvation. Yes, salvation is absolutely essential for eternal life with God. But …
As Paul pointed out, there is more.
On Divisions in the Church
…
1Co 3:10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. 14 If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. 15 If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.
…
Yes, there are rewards in Heaven as well.
One of the things that, if we think about it, are a natural consequence of being a believer, working for God’s kingdom, living out more of our lives for Jesus, is that in Paul’s terms, we hopefully/likely “built” more than someone who was saved at the very end of their life.
But that’s a topic for another day. This is long enough already. When it’s done, I’ll add a link here to it.
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Conclusion – There’s always time to love God later. Isn’t there?
Well, I hope you’re still reading!
I’ve started using AI images lately, since it allows me to get something to show what I really want, instead of searching to find something “good enough”.
Plus, it’s my first time using the AI-generated story. Personally, I think it turned out more useful than I ever expected.
I hope you found it interesting. I pray it helps you, someone you love, care about, know, to realize that no amount of time is ever promised to us. The time to do the things we care about is now. And one of the things we should really, really care about is what comes next.
I believe the answer is the eternal life Jesus promised. You may or may not agree.
If you don’t agree, consider this your hourglass/stopwatch moment from someone you don’t know. If/when the time comes, it’s in your mind somewhere.
If you do agree, I pray this gets you thinking, or continuing to think, about the life God has planned for us. And how are we doing at living it out?
Image by Image Creator from Designer, powered by DALL-E 3 – from my description
Footnotes
- 1The image and the story were done by Bing Chat, based on two requests I made to it.
For the Image: There’s a large hourglass. inside the hourglass, in the bottom portion, there is a stopwatch. The hourglass is silver. The sand in the hourglass is black. the sand in the hourglass is beginning to cover up the stopwatch as it flows from the top to the bottom portion. The background in the room is a gradient color from white on the top to black on the bottom, with the gradient change matching the amount of sand that has passed from the top to the bottom of the hourglass.
For the story: can you write a few paragraphs based on the second image in the last set you generated? it’s about someone who thinks they have lots of time to accomplish their goals in life, because they are only paying attention to the hourglass. Since they think they have plenty of time, they have been spending their time on playing video games. Then they realize that there’s not much time left in their life, because the sand from the hourglass has almost completely covered the stopwatch. And the stopwatch is the real measure of how much longer they will live? So now they have to figure out how to change their life to accomplish their real goals.
The one thing I did add to the story were these words: ” showing his love for God”. Why? I found that if I try to mix Christianity and the secular world, Bing Chat/Copilot gets kind of “lost”, either going overboard on the Christianity (which was supposed to be absent, save for the latter part of the person’s life) or it mixes other religions in with Christianity to give some odd images and information. - 2Hindson, E. E., & Kroll, W. M., eds. (1994). KJV Bible Commentary (p. 1936). Thomas Nelson.