{"id":7685,"date":"2020-01-06T12:23:57","date_gmt":"2020-01-06T17:23:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/?p=7685"},"modified":"2020-01-02T06:29:04","modified_gmt":"2020-01-02T11:29:04","slug":"redeeming-the-time-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/?p=7685","title":{"rendered":"Redeeming the Time Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

“The Apostle Paul writes regarding time that we walk circumspectly \u201c\u2026Redeeming the time, because the days are evil\u2026\u201d Thus he concisely said\u2026 the days are evil, life is short, and that is something we need to remember, to feel to the depths of our hearts, and to understand how precious is the time allotted to us. Some people think that reflection on the swift passage of time is to contemplate something sad, something that drives us towards anguish and gloomy thoughts. But it is not at all like that. To the contrary, every minute brings us closer to eternity, and asks us, \u201cWhat have you done [to prepare] for that?\u201d
\nAfter all, we are but guests here on this earth. We are guests for a brief span of time, a very brief period that comes out of a mystery and departs into a mystery. But the Lord reveals to us that this brief life is of great significance for us, for it is the school of eternity in which our person, our conscience, all within us that is Divine, grows and becomes educated.<\/p>\n

How frightening it is for someone who has wasted his time, spent it on an abyss of trivialities, on miserable, insignificant things. He turns around only to find that his life has already passed, spent in petty concerns, empty fruitless chatter, in things perhaps not even worth contemplating. Time passes.
\nTime cannot be turned back for even a second, and that is why the Apostle implores us to redeem the time, not waste it, not spend it on idle words and needless works. Remember: every minute is precious. Any hour may cost a person life eternal. When we think about this, we treat life, our responsibilities, our efforts, and everything around us differently. We take more care, knowing that today or tomorrow we can be called to account. Just imagine: today, tomorrow, we may all perish. Half of us, bent over with serious illnesses, are already moving toward life’s end. The rest of us can die at any moment.<\/p>\n

Once again, I repeat: thinking about proper life, about responsibility, reflecting on what we bring with us when we present ourselves, what we have managed to be able to do in this life with what our conscience, our duty demanded of us – is no cause for despondency. How beautiful, how really fulfilled life becomes when you feel a sense of responsibility. Remaining mindful of what is to come for us should serve to encourage and strengthen us, keeping us from weakening, becoming undisciplined, falling into despondency, idleness, pettiness, and utter insignificance. This is why in days of old it was the custom to keep a human skull as a reminder of death, in one’s home; people would even add a sign saying \u201cMemento moir\u00e9!\u201d \u2014 \u201cReminder of death!\u201d Remember, so as to live properly, self-collectedly, cognizant of all, to live in love, in labors, in understanding that this is all given to us but for a short time.”<\/p>\n

– Parish Life, 2019 from St. John the Baptist Cathdral in Washington, DC<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

***Now and then we include a particularly thought provoking or inspiring excerpt not from one of our regular \u2018Elders\u2019***<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“The Apostle Paul writes regarding time that we walk circumspectly \u201c\u2026Redeeming the time, because the days are evil\u2026\u201d Thus he concisely said\u2026 the days are evil, life is short, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-modern-orthodox-elders","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7685"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7687,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7685\/revisions\/7687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}