A new year’s challenge for 2011
Dr Bruce Manners
Senior minister
Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church
Days of Our Lives, the daytime television soap, has been around since November 1965—45 years. Any child born in November 1965 in the Central African Republic, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Mozambique or Swaziland is probably dead. The life expectancy in those nations is below 45 years (Swaziland is the worst at 39.6 years).
“Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.” That’s the introduction to every episode of Days of Our Lives. We’re fortunate to live in a place where we have more sand in our hourglass. Australians have a life expectancy of 81.2 years.
The question is, “What do we do with it?” It’s a good question for the beginning of a new year.
I recently received this email:
“Attn:
“Your ATM CARD WORTH 10 Million USD is ready for pick up, reconfirm your mailing address and your mobile no. for delivery.
“Austen Obigwe.”
I think Austen Obigwe is my new best friend. Reading the email, though, made me wonder what I would do with $10 million.
What would you do with it? After doing the obvious such as paying off the mortgage and any personal debt, what would you do with it?
Would you take the flashy route? The classy car, a new house, luxury fittings, holidays? Would you support a charity, or create one of your own to support a cause? Would you bank it and live off the interest? Invest it? Work out how to give it away?
At the beginning of a new year it’s worth asking, “What will you do with it?”
What will you do with the 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8760 hours, 525,600 minutes, or 31,536,000 seconds of 2011? Remembering, of course, that at midnight tonight (Monday, January 10), 864,000 seconds have already gone . . . like sands through the hourglass.
Tags: Bruce Manners