Making the Most
The older I get the more I’ve learned to appreciate some of the little things in life that as a younger man I overlooked. One of those things is dinner conversation. As a teenager I was often annoyed and bothered by the questions my dad would pepper me with when it came to my life: how was school? Or how did football practice go? Ironically I am now the one peppering my own children for the same kinds of life details, hanging on for words that don’t always come and recognizing the all too familiar looks of exasperation on their faces. Sometimes it’s like looking in a mirror.
But then there are those days when lightening strikes, a conversation unfolds, and I get a little glimpse into their lives. Now to be fair, my teenagers are way better than I ever was at humoring their old man with the details. It’s something I’m learning to appreciate all the more as we launch into my son’s senior year of high school. I need to soak up these moments, savor them, both the magical and the ordinary, because we only have a limited number of them left.
I’ve been thinking about this all the more as in our Bible classes we’ve spent the last few weeks studying Colossians. In this powerful but short letter, Paul exhorts this young church to keep Christ at the center of their lives. With thankful hearts and steadfast love, he challenges them to live their lives on purpose, with intention. In fact, as he closes the letter he offers this encouragement:
Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.
Colossians 4:5
Make the most of every opportunity. Paul’s words literally translate to ‘redeem the time’. Make it count. Live as if your life isn’t a collection of random events, but potential encounters with the living God who may just be inviting you to partner with Him!
There’s perhaps never been a season in my lifetime that these words have rung more true. It’s not just that my son is starting his last year at home before college. But given the political, social, and global unrest due to a pandemic, natural disasters, and the frailty of human institutions, we’ve never had a better chance to redeem the time, to live out the hope we have in a God whose kingdom is never teetering on the brink of disaster.
Let me be clear: Paul’s call to ‘redeem the time’ has often wrongly been used as a reason to turn any conversation or encounter into an apologetic moment. I believe it’s more rightly intended as an invitation to live with an awareness that God is always at work, in simple and complex ways, and we have the opportunity to partner with Him if we’ll stay open and aware.
In this issue of By the Way magazine, our hope is to help you discover some of the incredible ways God is at work in and through the Broadway family, and in doing so help you learn to see His work in your life. We want Broadway to be a community known for making the most of every opportunity, and we’d love to invite you to join us on this journey.