How do you "spend" your time? Do you spend your time earning an income to in turn spend your income on material possessions? Or do you spend your time chasing worldly pleasures and treasures? I'm not completely convinced that I've figured this one out at this point in my life, how about you? If I make the decision to purchase a brand new 2026 Ford Bronco, I will "spend" a number of years paying for that vehicle. Maybe I really "need" a new vehicle, or maybe I just want that new Bronco because they look really cool and I'd love to have one? The point here is, I am making an investment of more than my resources to make this purchase. I am committing to "spending" my time, which is finite not infinite, on a vehicle that may or may not be worthy of that investment. The question I have to ask myself is whether the time I will spend paying for something like a new vehicle is going to be a worthy investment of my energy and time.
Let's just say for our purpose today that you purchase that new Bronco, vacation condo, or whatever it is you might be contemplating making an investment in and the payback covers the next 5, 10, or even up to 50 years (if lenders are allowed to offer 50 year mortgages as recently rumored) of your life. You will "spend" those years paying off the loan you made. That is a major investment of your time. Now let's throw an unexpected emergency expense into the equation and suddenly you may be taking on a side or part time job to maintain your quality of life. That means you are going to be making an adjustment to how you "spend" your time. Time that was formerly spent with family or supporting others suddenly is being "spent" on paying for your investments. Again the common denominator is found in the idea of, is what you are investing your time in worth the time you will be spending. An applicable verse here is found in the teachings of Jesus as He exhorted,"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal." (Matthew 6:19)
Keep in mind as I mentioned earlier, time is finite. We do not know how long our lives on this third rock from the sun will be. We can bank on the averages that an adult male in the United States lives to be around 75 years and for females that number sits at approximately 80 years of age. Those are averages which basically means some will live well beyond those averages, but on the flip side some of us will not live out the full three quarters of a century. Based on this knowledge, shouldn't we make sound investments of our resources which ultimately have a huge impact on how we "spend" our time? The accompanying verse in Matthew 6:20 provides a better investment of our resources and time, "But store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal."
Investments are for the most part a choice. I will choose to purchase a 2026 Ford Bronco, (as much as I like those, I won't be purchasing one), or I can choose to keep the dependable Toyota Rav4 I have or possibly purchase a well maintained used vehicle, reducing the investment and the time that will be spent paying for my investment. Something that needs to be thrown into the mix on the decision making process of how we spend our time is the return on our investment or the ROI. This is critically important, regardless of the cost of the item being purchased, what will that investment bring back to the investor. In our vehicle illustration, it is well documented that a brand new vehicle drops in value as soon as you drive it off the lot. Is that a good investment? I'll leave that one up to you to decide. With material purchases you can do the same ROI analysis, but the investment of where and how we spend our time has a different ROI analysis formula. For us to "spend" our time on an investment it needs to pay back an eternal return on that time spent. Investing in your family spending time sharing, playing, learning, teaching, serving, giving, and training them to be leaders is an investment that we will never regret spending the time we invest. The ROI here is eternal, what we value and invest in will flourish because we care about the future of our investment. That is time well spent. Jesus completed the lesson above with this investor's gem, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:21).
At the end of the day, when the rubber hits the road, each person has to evaluate their time and how they will spend it. My request is that in that evaluation consider the investment of your time and the return on your time spent. What do you value? What do you want to receive in return for the time you will spend obtaining your investment? Those are critical to making a sound investment. Do you want a garage full of things that eventually will rot and rust, or do you want to "spend" your time investing on things that will impact the world eternally? "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." (Matthew 6:24)
Invest well, the dividends are eternal!
Coach Carter
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