Make the most of your time

The life of John Wesley is a great example of the scriptural principle “making the most of your time.” He averaged three sermons a day for fifty-four years, preaching a total of more than 44,000 times in his life. In doing this, he travelled by horseback and carriage more than 200,000 miles—about 5,000 miles a year. Even for a very productive man, that would seem to be a full-time effort. Still, Wesley found time to write and edit. His published works include a four-volume commentary on the entire Bible, a five-volume work on natural philosophy, a four-volume work on church history, and a dictionary of the English language. He also wrote histories of England and Rome; grammars on the Hebrew, Latin, Greek, French, and English languages; three works on medicine; six volumes of church music; and seven volumes of sermons; and he edited a library of fifty volumes known as the “Christian Library.” Each day he rose at 4 a.m. and didn’t go to bed until 10 p.m., allowing only brief periods for meals. Yet he declared, “I have more hours of private retirement than any man in England.” Our days are like identical suitcases—all the same size. But some pack more into them than others. These are purpose-driven, goal-oriented people—unlike the man whose tombstone read, “When it came time to die, I discovered I had not lived.” So heed this scripture: “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity” (vv. 15-16 NIV).