One Friday night, the leader of our youth group asked me to give a small talk to the teens. At first, I didn't have a clue about what I was going to say, or how to make it effective without turning it into a lecture. I needed a simple topic that would challenge the youth to see their lives differently.
Thankfully, I stumbled upon a picture online which gave me the inspiration I needed. I won't bore you with the details, but rather tell you about the speech I gave to the youth as a consequence. I challenged the teens with this question:
"Imagine there is a bank account that credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day, and every evening the bank deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day – what would you do with the money?"
The young people shouted out the usual answers: buy a car, and withdraw the money so it can all be used and not deleted at the end of the day! From there I revealed that there is indeed a bank similar to the one in the question, called 'Time'.
Each morning, God credits you with 86,400 seconds to spend however you please, and each night God writes off as a loss whatever of this you failed to put to good use.
I then spoke to them about using time wisely, and the fact that you can't draw against 'tomorrow' – you must live in the present, on today's resources. Invest it to get the utmost of faith, health, happiness and success. The clock is ticking – so make the most of every day!
That's where I ended my speech. I'm not sure about other people, but when I speak in public I generally get a rough sense of how it went.
When I said it 86,400 worth of seconds not money, everyone in the crowd had an 'aha!' moment. I know this because after the youth group session had finished, I saw a few guys calculating to make sure there are – in fact – 86,400 seconds in a day... and it's true: (60 secs x 60 mins) x 24 hours = 86,400 seconds.
I made a joke during my speech that "I don't want to get all 'Dead Poets Society' and go 'Carpe Diem', but I am defiantly encouraging you all to not take time for granted".
As I finish this article, I encourage the readers to remember the clock is ticking – so make the most of every second!
Christopher Archibald lives in Sydney and is a Youth Leader at New Life Christian Church in Blacktown. A voracious reader, he ploughs through many books in a calendar year, with a bookcase that is constantly being rearranged to accommodate new additions.
Christopher Archibald's previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/christopher-archibald.html