Invest Your Time

Recently, a friend passed along the following message to me: “Imagine that you have received notification that your bank is going to deposit $86,400 in your account today. But there’s one caveat. If you don’t find some way to either spend or invest every single cent by midnight, the money will be lost to you forever.” The message goes on to say that each of us actually receives such a gift each and every day. Every morning we are credited with 86,400 seconds, and by the end of the day we either use them or lose them forever.

Now, I’m in the investment business; I spend a lot of time searching for the best ways to invest my clients’ money, so that message really hit home. Am I investing my time as wisely as I should? I wondered. The next day’s lunch was open, so I called my old friend and mentor George Allen. Afterward, I realized there was no better way I could have spent that hour.

Later that week there was a lull after lunch. I picked up the phone and called my grandmother. She was happy to hear from me, and the sound of her voice gave me new energy for the day.

Then there were those moments I spend sitting in my office between appointments or phone calls. Instead of staring into my computer screen, I tried to invest those moments in the best way possible by talking my business over with God.

When you think about it, we’re all investors. If we fail to use the precious seconds credited to our daily account, they’re lost forever. So I’m going to make an extra effort to spend my hours in positive ways, relying on those timeless investment tips that the Bible so readily offers, such as being kind, generous and thoughtful of others. Give it a shot. It would be a shame to take a loss on those 86,400 seconds!

The above article by Brock Kidd is excerpted from Guidepost Magazine’s OurPrayer Companion.