The Gift of Time

Is time something that belongs to us? We certainly seem to believe so. How often do we say things like “I gave her a hour of my time” or “Sunday afternoons are my time”?

We forget that time is not something we own—rather, it is part and parcel with the gift of life. St. Peter said, “As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace” (1 Peter 4: 10). The primary way we use the gift of time to serve one another is to “be hospitable to one another without complaining” (1 Peter 4: 9). When we give up “our” time to be hospitable—to graciously listen and be present to others—God’s varied grace has space to unfold. Who knows? We may even entertain angels unawares! (Hebrews 13:12).

Attending to our own needs for rest, prayer, exercise, and re-creation is also a way of being good stewards of God’s gift of time, because we are no good to anyone else when we are exhausted. Jesus himself modeled a balance of responding to the needs of others and slipping away for prayer and rest. Remembering that time is a gift and not our possession can help us make wise choices about our use of it.

A curious aspect of the gift of time is that we don’t know how much of it we have been given. Not knowing when “our time” will run out makes it all the more precious. As Eckhart Tolle says, “The Now is the most precious thing there is.”

All gifts of God are holy. May you wholly enjoy every moment that God gives you today!