About a week ago, our media team at church lost a dear wonderful friend, Archie, from heart attack.

We went to see him at the hospital 2 Sundays ago and he was at coma.  I don’t know about most of you, but going through ICU with all those device is not exactly a welcomed sight to see.  Somehow, I want to hope to get him back.  I remember talking to him and urging him to come back.  My wife and I prayed to God for His will on his life.

We left him after his sister came by to check on him.  Last Tuesday, Arthur gave me a cell call and told me that he’s at code blue stage.  Couple of minutes later, he was gone.

Archie is at what most of us would call mid life.  He’s 39 years old and left behind a family of three.  Archie served in the media ministry with the video team.  He’s one of the camera crew.  His family served the church.  Josh, his son, with the projection during worship and Queenie, his wife, at the worship team.

The first time I met Archie was after church service.  Queenie introduced me to him as he wanted to help out in the video ministry.  His demeanor struck me as qualities you would strive to look from anyone who want to work in a church ministry.  A committed, will do, servant attitude.

He want to learn whatever he can in the video ministry.  We don’t have much actually as far as video facilities but to him, it meant that he is one of the forefront in serving God.  I remember clearly how we talked about sharing God’s gifts and offering it back to Him by serving Him.

I have my regrets on not being able to deliver certain goals we want to achieve as far as the video ministry is concerned.  We talked about producing DVDs, and uploading worship footage to video sites, etc.  I felt bad for not being able to let him see the outcome of his vision.

This took me to a realization upon deep contemplation.  There are gifts that God gave us to serve other people – Christians or not.  Our life mesh with other person’s life.  The life that we have at this moment reflects but a minute instance of God’s overall purpose.  However, with the capabilities that He have empowered us, how are we doing with the stewardship of that talent.  Talent that should be used to serve His children.

If there’s anything that is common to all of us that we have right now that God has given us, it is time.  A simple but complex attribute of life that is at most, taken for granted.

Life, mathematically, is nothing but a quantitative amount of time between birth and death.

The true meaning of life extends that to a complex interaction of time between each other.  No matter what we do, our time affects another person’s time, one way or the other.

I don’t mean to confuse but rather to emphasize a simple point.  Our life is dictated by time.

How we take care of that is up to us.  The life that we have is a miracle, a gift from God.

We will never have the knowledge of when our life would be punctuated, as in a sentence.  But how are we taking care of that ability to use time?

Do we plan to serve someone or God at a later time?  Do we plan to forgive later?  Does the time that we ‘spend’ give meaning to our life?

I could go on, and on, and on with this kind of questioning.

Bottom line – the time that we have in our earthly life, we have no control.  But the things that we can do with that time, we have some control.

I don’t mean to over extend that control but rather to enjoy each moment that we have, to do what we must for God’s glory, to serve Him, for the peace of our mind, heart, and soul.

When was the last time you said ‘I love you’ to your loved ones – parents, children, spouse, etc.  Have you forgiven someone who has give you pain or hurt?

Love and forgiveness are just two of the simple things that anyone can give that will bring you peace.  Which God has willingly given and shown to us by Christ death on the cross.

All things come together in God’s time, but what have you been doing with the time that He’s given you?