In Permission Marketing, Seth Godin makes the point that in the future, as options become more plentiful, time will be the common currency, not money. There will be so many options, at such low prices, that people will be able to afford to buy whatever they want, but they will not be able to afford the time to consider all the options. This is one of the basic principles of permission marketing. Well, along those lines, I've been thinking about time as currency.
There is a principle in the Bible, where your treasure is, that is where your heart is. So, the idea goes, if your heart is on Heavenly things, that's where you'll be investing your treasure. I've been noticing a lot of no-shows at things that ought to be important.
We had a big conference at our assembly over the weekend. We heard two great speakers. One lived for 21 years in Senegal and is something of an expert on Islam. The other was a Raleigh police officer for 21 years, and is an expert on presenting the Gospel to kids. Very powerful stuff all the way around. Too bad so many people missed it.
If you ask them why they missed it, they would say that they had other time commitments. If you asked whether they considered the information important, they would probably say yes. If you asked if the souls of children and Muslims were at least as important as the computer installations, house painting, ball games, and other things that comprised their time commitments, they would probably say, absolutely. If you presented the credentials of the two men who spoke, many of the people who weren't there would be impressed and want to hear what these men had to say. Yet, their treasure was elsewhere.
There are times when I have schedule conflicts. I end up wishing I could be two places at once. And as often as not, the commitment that went onto the schedule first wins. But I hope the Lord helps me to have my priorities right. I hope that, all things being equal, I will chose to invest my time in things that have eternal value.
While I'm here, here's a little homework. Please, somebody show my "family values" in the Bible. Please, somebody show me where Scripture says, "family first."
