As a boy, my father taught me the importance of being on time. It was ingrained in our family that we were to be at least fifteen minutes ahead of schedule. To be late, I was told, was disrespectful. It wastes other peoples time and shows little respect for them or their schedule. In fact, my father often said he would rather not show up than be late. He felt that not showing up was less disrespectful than being late if it was a non-obligatory situation.
Now, I know that sometimes we cannot help being a bit late, but often we see that lateness is a character trait, not just a coincidence. Does this matter? Is it really this big of an issue?
Well, let's take a look at what the Bible says about being late. There is no verse that states, "Thou shalt be on time"; however, we do find something that can be applied quite well to the situation.
In Matthew 5:37 and James 5:12 we find that we are to let our yes be yes, and our no be no. In other words, we are to be consistent. We are to be trustworthy; and being on time is one form of trustworthiness. Indeed, we could say, let your "12:00 be 12:00, and your 1:00 be 1:00."
If our word has no meaning when we say 5:30, how do people know that we are serious when we talk about other things? If 3:00 can be 4:30, what does it mean when we say, yes or no? Or more than that, what trust can be given to us in situations where people cannot observe us? If we visibly disregard our own words is things like being on time, why should we expect people to trust us when they cannot see what we are doing?
In the end, we are to be respectful and honest with both our time, and with other people's time. We are to do all things decently and in the proper order.
Is this a requisite in Christianity? No, but it is one of the things we do need to work on as Christians. All of us have items that need improving, and we are to strive to do so. As Jesus said, "be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect."
No comments:
Post a Comment