Everything In It

Often it seems like life itself is a race—a rat race that sucks away time while I grasp at minutes in desperation. I’m an endurance athlete; I train for hours to shave seconds off my race time. I’m a busy American. Another paycheck will come, but each moment, once past, is gone forever. Time is my best friend and my fiercest enemy; it is my greatest challenge. At least it was until my husband re-worded his financial motto from “It ain’t our money,” to “It ain’t our time.”

Coincidentally Psalm 24:1 has been increasingly floating around in my mind: “The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the LORD...” Everything in it is His: His earth, His mountains, His birds, His people…His money…His time. The irony strikes me that I commit the outcome of every race to Christ, whatever He wills—a win, a finish or even a DNF (Did Not Finish). I put it all in His hands and relinquish it to Him. Why do I not do that with each day, each moment, in the “race that lies before us” (Hebrews 12:1)?

Everything is the Lord’s. It ain’t my money and it ain’t my time; it’s the Lord’s. Even I and all my busyness are His. All my activities are just the “good works, which God prepared ahead of time” for me to do (Ephesians 2:10). All the results are up to Him.

These truths echo in the back of my mind. In quiet moments I drag them forward and ponder them. Then a mysterious peace and rest overwhelms the busyness. It is the promised peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7) and the rest that comes from throwing all my burdens onto Him (Matthew 11:28). Something deep within me praises God as I experience again that His promises are true! In the Psalmist’s words I’ve found a key that helps me unlock the promises: “The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the LORD...”