Shownotes
Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 101 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.
Life is Like a Clock
Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 101 of our Trek. Yesterday we came to understand that life is like working in a farm field. We need to take time to look up in gratitude, look around to help others, and then to refocus on the work at hand. Today we want to understand how life is like a clock.
In celebration of passing the milestone of our 100th Day on our Wisdom-Trek, we have a special gift that we will be giving out to 7 of our fellow trekkers to show our appreciation to our faithful team members. On October 5th, we will have a drawing in which we will be giving away 7 Wisdom-Trek t-shirts. There is an entry form on the main Base Camp page of Wisdom-Trek.com, where you can enter once per day throughout the month of September. Thank you so much for coming along with us each day on our Wisdom-Trek.
We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. I was able to finish cleaning the woodwork and floors in our dining room this morning, and tomorrow morning, I should be able to start applying polyurethane to the woodwork. There is a significant amount of woodwork in the dining room, so time will determine how much I am able to accomplish.
Outside the house, our newest twin fawns and their mother spent a few moments outside of our office window this morning. Our office is on the 2nd floor with large windows. It was nice to observe them unnoticed. The fawns must be very young based on their size and the spots that are still clearly visible. The pair of hawks also graced us with some acrobatics today, which was interesting. It has been a pleasant day of work with focus both on our client work and podcasting today. We are making progress with both.
It is time, though, to break camp and head out on our Trek, and as we do, you check your clock on your phone to determine the departure time this morning. You do some quick calculations to estimate how far we will be able to travel today if everything goes according to our planned hike. It then dawns on you that life is like a clock in so many ways.
While there is a certain reality to time, the measure of time, a clock, is a man-made creation. As Albert Einstein put it, “Time is an illusion,” yet nearly every moment of our lives is controlled by the clock. The clock tells us when to get up, when to go to work, when to eat, when to go home, when to sleep, and then the cycle repeats itself each day.
As such, we need to be careful on how much we allow the clock to control us. As H. G. Wells put it, “We must not allow the clock and the calendar to blind us to the fact that each moment of life is a miracle and mystery.” We need to live a life that is rich and satisfying.
As we continue on our trail today, let us examine the different ways that life is like a clock. In our first analogy within the created limitations of time, man sets his own boundaries, defining his life in quarters just as a clock has its time measured in fourths. The first quarter of life is childhood, the second is young adulthood, the third mature adulthood, and the fourth is old age.
Paula and I wonder where the years have gone. We still feel like we are in the second quarter of life but realize that we are firmly entrenched in the 3rd quarter of a normal lifespan, even if God grants us the opportunity to live to 100 or longer.
Time, like life, does not stop for anyone. For this reason, each hour of your life is valuable. Other than to learn from it, you must not live in the past. You cannot change yesterday. You can only make the most of today and look with hope toward tomorrow. Live fully and enjoy each day, for you will never have an opportunity to live this day again. Take time to be kind, both to yourself and others. You need to make sure that you utilize your time to make the greatest impact.
The Apostle Paul put it this way in his letter to the church in Ephesus Chapter 5 verses 15-17, “So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.”
Next, let’s look at a second analogy of how life is like a clock. The measurement of time is broken down into seconds, minutes, and hours. As God’s most precious of creations, made in His image, we are made up of mind, body, and spirit. The mind is like the seconds moving at the fastest rate. We are constantly thinking and planning. The body it like the minutes, controlled by the mind to take action based on the decisions of the mind. The spirit is the reflection of the accumulation of our thoughts and actions. What is your spirit reflecting today?
There is no separation of the three. All are intertwined to make us who we really are. We scheme and plan in our minds, we take action with our bodies, and we feel we are in control of our destinies in our spirits. Our lives, to a certain extent, are the sum of our choices, but it is God who is the final time keeper.
As Jesus’s half-brother James wrote in his letter to the dispersed Hebrew nation in James [4:13]-17,
“Look here, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.’ How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog — it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, ‘If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.’ Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil. Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.”
The clock of life is wound but once,
And no man has the power
To tell just when the hands will stop
At late or early hour.
To lose one’s wealth is sad indeed,
To lose one’s health is more,
To lose one’s soul is such a loss
That no man can restore.
The present only is our own,
So live, love, toil with a will,
Place no faith in “Tomorrow,”
For the Clock may then be still.”
― Robert H. Smith
Today we are reminded that life is like a clock. Let us be mindful to spend our time wisely on our trek of life and keep moving forward each day. Join us tomorrow for another Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy, and we will learn why our life is like a river.
That will finish our podcast for today. If you missed any of our previous podcasts, please check out Wisdom-Trek on iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud, Spreaker, YouTube, or Wisdom-Trek.com.
If you enjoy our daily doses of wisdom, I encourage you to take the time to invest in yourself.
- Invest in improving Wisdom-Trek by leaving your name, email address, and a comment on our website, so we can provide you with wisdom and insights that best fit your needs.
- Invest in yourself by listening to our 7 minutes of wisdom each day.
- Invest in the lives of others by encouraging your family and friends to journey with us on our Wisdom-Trek.
Thank you!
The journal from this podcast can be found at Wisdom-Trek.com, where we also have pictures, tweetable quotes, wisdom nuggets, and free resources.
Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal each day.
As we take this Trek together, let us always:
- Live Abundantly (Fully)
- Love Unconditionally
- Listen Intentionally
- Learn Continuously
- Lend Generously
- Lead with Integrity
- Leave a Living Legacy Each Day
This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy the Journey, and Create a Great Day! See you tomorrow!