Your reputation says a lot about you. What would it look like if you were known we as someone who used their time wisely?
Are you a great redeemer of time?
It’s kind of an odd question, but are you somebody who makes the most of the time the Lord’s given to you?
Obviously, we could all use time better than we do, but as a general rule, are you known as someone who uses their time wisely? I think striving to have this kind of reputation is a great way to actually become the kind of person who stewards their time well.
Let’s talk about why that is, and some strategies we can use to better redeem our time.
Reputation Matters
What are you known for? That’s your reputation.
What got me thinking about this was reading Stephen Charnock’s Divine Providence. Specifically, the preface to the 1680 edition. It contains a brief biography of Charnock’s life, and at one point describes him as “a great redeemer of time.” And I thought, wow, imagine having that on your epitaph. Imagine if that was the thing people remembered about you was that you didn’t waste time, you reinvested. What a reputation!
But sometimes we can get hung up on this idea of reputation thinking, “Who cares what people think about me?” But when we look at the Scriptures, we find that reputation does matter. We’re told in Proverbs “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.” (Proverbs 22:1). And we find that both deacons and elders of churches are to be sought out on the basis of their reputations (see Acts 6:3 and 1 Timothy 3:1ff).
Reputation is important because what you are known for tends to be a good proxy who you actually are.
So what if we strove to be known as people who were great redeemers of time? People who didn’t waste a moment, who didn’t always have their heads buried in their phones just because they were waiting in line, or didn’t waste those mad moments at night when we were awake? What if we didn’t just go with the flow but instead said, “Every moment I have is a gift from God to be invested for my Master. I’m a steward of these moments; how do I redeem them well?”
What It Means to Redeem the Time
The term “redeem the time” has become common in Christianity, and sometimes people get lost in its meaning. The phrase comes from Ephesians 5:15-16 in the King James Version: “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil.” In a more modern version, the ESV, it says: “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil.”
The idea of redeeming the time is simply making the best use of it. The word translated as redeem means to buy back something, to rescue it to better purposes. We’re doing this because the days are evil; there’s a lot going on, and our work is important. We can’t just go with the flow; we need to make the best use of our moments, opportunities, days, and seasons of life because we serve a great Master.
Imagine if we did this so well that people knew us for it. What if you did this so well that people said, “He does not waste a moment. She does not waste a moment.” Imagine the testimony it would be to the unbelieving world if Christians didn’t look exactly like the unbelieving world. If it looked like we actually took seriously that there is a God who has put us on a mission, who has a wonderful eternity waiting for us, given us this trust of the Gospel message to proclaim to the nations, and given us these lives to invest for eternity. What if our lives actually looked like we believed that, and it showed up in how we treated our time?
How We Redeem the Time
So, how do you become known for redeeming the time? Here are three big ideas to take away:
1. Recognize the days are evil.
Our time is limited; we have a limited amount of time, and we don’t know when it will end. This recognition leads to wisdom. Moses talks about this in Psalm 90:12: “Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” Recognizing our time is limited leads to wisdom, and wisdom involves redeeming the time.
2. Recognize that our enemy is strong.
There is an evil one, as Peter says in 1 Peter 5:8: “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Satan is real and wants to knock you out of the fight. Paul talks about the armor of God in Ephesians so that we can stand firm against the evil one. Redeeming the time involves recognizing that you are in spiritual warfare.
3. Recognize that our task is important.
We serve a great Master, and our work is of eternal importance. How you manage your calendar, to-do list, and time is not merely about getting more stuff done; it’s about stewarding your life well in the midst of a spiritual battle.
Let’s strive to be known as people who redeem the time, making the best use of every moment for our Master.
Create Strategies to Redeem the Time
But it’s one thing to talk about all of these highfalutin spiritual terms. It’s another to actually redeem the time in practice. Here is where we need to get strategic.
Let me offer you a few suggestions for strategic ways to better redeem the time:
- Keep a to-do list
- Practice a weekly review
- Create a “Well Done” statement
- Set personal rules around things that tend to make you waste time (e.g. only one hour of TV per day, no games on the phone, etc.)
- Replace low-quality entertainment with high-quality leisure
- Look for pockets of time that can be redeemed to better use.
The broad point here is this: be practical. Put plans in place that when practiced begin to make you live like someone of whom others might say, “they really do redeem the time well.”
