Its not bad to be passive

I remember reading “Wealth Without Risk” by Charles J. Givens when I was 12 or so. Also, read Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kuyasaki a little later. They both touted the importance of investing. Both of them spoke of the importance of investing as early as you could so you would have more years to compound the interest. I remember seeing the graphs showing the dramatic difference in an investment account projected at age 60 when you start at 18 versus starting when you are 28.

Time Well Spent (excerpt)
By R.C. Sproul

Time is the great leveler. It is one resource that is allocated in absolute egalitarian terms. Every living person has the same number of hours to use in every day. Busy people are not given a special bonus added on to the hours of the day. The clock plays no favorites.

We all have an equal measure of time in every day. Where we differ from one another is in how we redeem the time allotted. When something is redeemed it is rescued or purchased from some negative condition. The basic negative condition we are concerned with is the condition of waste. To waste time is to spend it on that which has little or no value. I am a time waster. When I think of the time I have wasted over the course of my life, I am hounded by remorse. This guilt is not a false one fostered by an overactive work ethic. The guilt is real because the time I have wasted is real time.

The late Vince Lombardi introduced the adage, “I never lost a game, I just ran out of time.”

Yes. Yes. Yes.

The entire church-in-a-brewery concept comes from my conviction that Jesus would teach, worship and train in a brewery if He were here “in the flesh.” Jesus’ actions caused many of the religious elite to slander Him. They said He was a drunk, a glutton and a friend of sinners (Matthew 11:19 and Luke 7:34). Here is what we can learn from those three accusations:

1) Jesus was not a glutton. He ate freely and enjoyed food to the glory of the Father, Son and Spirit. The religious elite had a problem with how freely He ate and with whom He ate (see #3). He did not abuse the gift of food.

I like beer. It is an organic drink that has ancient roots. I enjoy trying beers from breweries and microbreweries around the globe. I especially like Huntsville’s own, Olde Towne beer. Don Alan Hankins is quite the brew master.

So how can a pastor like beer? Well, there is a heritage of pastors and theologians who enjoyed beer, wine and other drinks. John Calvin is quoted to say, “if we study… why he has created the various kinds of food, we shall find that it was his intention not only to provide for our needs, but likewise for our pleasure and our delight… For, if this were not true, the Psalmist would not enumerate among the divine blessings, ‘the wine that makes glad the heart of man, and the oil that makes his face to shine.’”

I’m doing a wedding today in the Mountain Brook area of Birmingham. I enjoy performing them. It is hard to keep Billy Idol’s classic 80’s tune out of my head on days like this.

The chorus goes:
“It’s a nice day to start again
It’s a nice day for a white wedding
It’s a nice day to start again”

Now, I don’t want to spiritualize Billy’s song. He would probably give me that well-known sneer. But in it you see one of the main cries of mankind - “start again.” This is a common theme in the human condition. We desire to see renewal in relationships, vision, career, body and spirituality.