1000 Marbles and two and half billion seconds

Time, it's probably one of our most valuable tools, yet there never seems to be enough of it!
I heard a friend of mine recently say that if you live to be 70 years old you will have used two and a half billion seconds! That was really surprising and very thought provoking to me personally. I am 25 years old and I thought it would be interesting to see just how many seconds I have used....to my surprise almost 800 million! My next thought is, what have I done with them? Have I wasted them on frivolous activities and things that in the end won't matter?

I came across a story once that deals with this very topic; I would like to share it with you. It's entitled “1,000 marbles”. I hope it will be a blessing to you as it was to me and very eye opening.

“The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are the most enjoyable.

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the garage with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it:

I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind; he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business. He was telling whom-ever he was talking with something about “a thousand marbles.” I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say.

“Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. It's too bad you missed your daughter's 'dance recital' he continued. Let me tell you something that has helped me keep my own priorities.” And that's when he began to explain his theory of a 'thousand marbles'.

“You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years. Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now, stick with me, Tom, I'm getting to the important part. It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail”, he went on, “and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy. So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1,000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear. Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away. I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused on the really important things in life. There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help you get your priorities straight. Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure that if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time. It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band. This is a 75 year old man, K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!”

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter.

Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss. “C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast.” “What brought this on?” She asked with a smile. “Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids. And hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out? I need to buy some marbles."

I realize that I am relatively young, but I want to make the most of the time the LORD has given me. I don't know if I will live past 70 or even make it to 70. The psalmist asked the LORD to teach him to number his days in Psalms 90 verse 12 and the apostle James reminds us that our life is but a vapor. I read a saying once, “Life is like a coin. You can spend it any way you wish but you can only spend it once”.
C.T. Studd wrote a poem entitled, “Only one life, twill soon be past” which inspired the hymn, “Only one life.” I would like to close this article with the two final stanzas of this poem and this thought: I only have a short time here on earth to prepare for all eternity therefore I must be always in the center of God's will because in doing so my life will count!

Oh let my love with fervor burn,
And from the world now let me turn;
Living for Thee, and Thee alone,
Bringing Thee pleasure on Thy throne;
Only one life, 'twill soon be past,
Only what's done for Christ will last.

Only one life, yes only one,
Now let me say,"Thy will be done”;
And when at last I'll hear the call,
I know I'll say “twas worth it all”;
Only one life,'twill soon be past,
Only what's done for Christ will last.