1440 minutes a day

1440. that's how many minutes are in each day. that's how many there were yesterday. and the day before. and the day before that. 

1440.

that's over a thousand opportunities to make a difference. over a thousand chances to make someone smile. over a thousand moments to touch someones life.

seems overwhelming really. and unrealistic, of course. to think that we would spend all of our time today on other people. to think that we would look for ways to help others without first helping ourselves.  

after all we've got a lot to do in one day. and by the time we get done doing everything we need to do for us, there's usually nothing left for anyone else. and even worse, there's usually nothing left for God.

oh, we could throw in a couple of prayers here and there. maybe a quick thank you. a hurried hello. but there's just not enough time in the day. we reason with ourselves that He understands. He knows our heart. He knows our intentions. He knows if we had an extra minute we'd be spending it with Him.

but would we?

1440 minutes and we barely have a moment to spare?

we cram so much stuff into one day that it becomes habit to push Him to the bottom of our list. and our daily habit eventually becomes a daily way of life. before we know it, we start to feel far away from Him. we can't feel His presence. we strain to hear His voice. and when we can't hear His voice, we don't know what direction He needs us to go. 

there are things He needs us to do but we can't hear Him above the chaos we've created around us. we exhaust ourselves to the point that we have no energy to do anymore or anything for anyone or anybody. the world becomes all about us. 

and when it's all about us we miss those thousand opportunities to make a difference. to make someone smile. to touch someone's life. 

imagine at the start of each day, someone knocks on our door and hands us a gift. inside it are the 1440 minutes of the day at hand. we can do anything we want with them. from experience we know that these minutes will disappear quickly. and there's not a promise attached that we'll get to use all of them. 

we have to act fast. we have to remain focused. we have to take those minutes and spend them the best way possible. we have to remember that these exact minutes, these exact moments will never pass our way again. 

knock knock. 

God has just given us 1440 moments of a lifetime.

how will you spend yours today?