Proverbs 21:20 There are precious treasures and oil in the dwelling of the wise, but a self-confident and foolish man swallows it up and wastes it.

Critics of Jesus’ ministry could have said that He was wasting His time on the likes of one woman caught in adultery, or the Samaritan woman, Blind Bartimaeus, Zachaeus, or the Gadarene Demoniac. In fact, any thoughtful observer of Jesus’ twelve disciples may have been tempted to advise Jesus to invest His time elsewhere. For that matter, any casual reader of the gospels will note that it does appear He wasted His time, and ultimately His life. Judas betrayed Him, Peter denied knowing Him, and all but one ran away from Him in His hour of greatest need. These 12 were mentally and spiritually dull falling asleep on Him while He was sweating drops of blood in prayer. Truth be known, critics of you and I could say the same. Just like the aforementioned, not including the countless masses of humanity throughout the ages, we have all begrudgingly yielded our precious time – to God. Some have stated, I’ve got to go to church, pray, read the Bible, spend time listening to this person, etc. The list goes on and on. Yet, we have no problem with being entertained with things that waste our time. Ultimately we are betrayed by the wealth we have surrounded ourselves by neglecting the true heavenly treasures – the people around us.

Thank Jesus, truly, and reverently with a gratitude that comes from the depths of your soul knowing that Jesus never saw you or me as a waste of time. Although many so-called followers of Jesus are very proud of the lack of investments they’ve made in others those whom He has met in the dust of their own disgust know better. The wealthy are often blindly, and ignorantly proud of their spiritual nakedness and poverty. But the truly poor in Spirit are hungry for more of Him, and hungry to see more of Him in others. Ephesians 5:15-17 states: Look carefully then how you walk! Live purposefully and worthily and accurately, not as the unwise and witless, but as wise (sensible, intelligent people),¹⁶ Making the very most of the time [buying up each opportunity], because the days are evil.¹⁷ Therefore do not be vague and thoughtless and foolish, but understanding and firmly grasping what the will of the Lord is.

Once a man was walking along a beach. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. Off in the distance he could see a person going back and forth between the surf’s edge and and the beach. Back and forth this person went. As the man approached he could see that there were hundreds of starfish stranded on the sand as the result of the natural action of the tide. The man was stuck by the the apparent futility of the task. There were far too many starfish. Many of them were sure to die.  As he approached the person continued the task of picking up starfish one by one and throwing them into the ocean.As he came up to the person he said, “You must be crazy. There are thousands of miles of beach covered with starfish. You can’t possibly make a difference.” The person looked at the man. He then stooped down and pick up one more starfish and threw it back into the ocean. He turned back to the man and said, “It sure made a difference to that one!”