Maybe you’ve heard the phrase “a New York minute”, it has is origin in New York City describing the hectic pace of life in that city. Many use it to describe something that is short regarding time. “If we’re having chicken for supper, I’ll be there in a ‘New York minute.’” 

I guess we could describe life as a New York minute. Hectic and passing by extremely fast. There was a study done a few years ago that tried to explain why time seemed to pass much faster the older you got. The theory is that as a young child, you have 70 or 80 years to go. You haven’t experienced much in your short life, and it feels like there is so much still to do. As you age, there is less and less time left in this life and there isn’t much left to accomplish, therefore, time seems to swiftly pass us by, in a New York minute.

God understood this concept of the swiftness of life when through His Holy Spirit He guided James to write, “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”;whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin” (James 4:13-17). 

We don’t have much time to do the Lord’s work. By the time we reach the age of being accountable to the Lord and are baptized into Christ, the clock of service begins to tick down. We must work for the Lord while it is day, that is, while we have the time to do the work (John 9:1-3). 

Life passes like a New York minute, don’t forget to do good with the time you have and prepare for the life where there is no time! “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:34-36). 

By: Justin Odom