Take time to be holy

Take time to be holy,
Speak oft with thy Lord;
Abide in Him always,
And feed on His Word.
Make friends of God's children;
Help those who are weak;
Forgetting in nothing
His blessing to seek.

Take time to be holy,
The world rushes on;
Much time spend in secret
With Jesus alone;
By looking to Jesus,
Like Him thou shalt be;
Thy friends in thy conduct
His likeness shall see.

Take time to be holy,
Let Him be thy guide,
And run not before Him
Whatever betide;
In joy or in sorrow
Still follow the Lord,
And, looking to Jesus,
Still trust in His Word.

Take time to be holy,
Be calm in thy soul;
Each thought and each motive
Beneath His control;
Thus led by His spirit
To fountains of love,
Thou soon shalt be fitted
For service above.

Lyrics: William Dunn Longstaff

My top lament recently was that I had no time to live. From the time I wake up at 6.30am to 6.00pm when work ends, those 12.5 hrs are essentially dedicated to work. That’s 5 days a week. Take away travelling time to get home, dinner time, bath time, sleep time, I barely have 1.5 to 2 hrs to ‘live’. And that’s just for myself. What about time that I need to commit for loved ones?

But when this song came around, it kind of shook me up. What kind of ‘time’ have I been thinking of? I think it was the worldly time, the kind of time that we so painfully feel slipping away from our physical selves, the biological clock ticking away to eventual death, well, physically. I’ve been focusing on my life on earth, worrying for the earthly pleasures I’m missing out.

I’d forgotten that I had another clock to look at, the real clock. The one that doesn’t end for all eternity. “Take time to be holy, The world rushes on; Much time spend in secret, with Jesus alone.” That’s just saying, hello, so what if you don’t have the so-called time to watch entertainment, play games etc etc, who cares? Time spent with Jesus is way better!

I’d been drawn into worldly pleasures, and thus felt the intense need for more more more, and the constant dissatisfaction. I’d been so unsatisfied with life, simply because I hadn’t been living the right one.

Well, now the real challenge comes around, practical Christian living. We’ll see.