Twenty Minutes

"But I trust in you, O LORD; I say, 'You are my God.'My times are in your hands;"
- Psalm 31:14 (NIV)

Twenty minutes...an eternity in football and cooking time, especially when you're hungry. That same twenty minutes can seem to fly by when you're running late,
or when you're on your ten minute break or your lunch hour. I used to have a bad
habit of leaving late to go to work, and then leaving late again to go home. It's amazing what a difference twenty minutes can make.

Twenty minutes can be the difference between being on time or being late to your destination. Twenty minutes can be the difference between winning or losing a football game. Twenty minutes can make all the difference in the world in light of eternity.

Let me ask you a question: If you only had twenty minutes left on this earth to live
(and you knew it), what would you do with them? Who would you talk to? Where would you go? It's kind of a morbid thought perhaps, but it does help you to see what your priorities are.

I had a friend (I won't mention his name in respect of the family) who was killed in a one car accident several years ago. He was on his way to church (twenty minutes away) on a Sunday morning, when he came upon a pot-hole in the road. He swerved to avoid it, lost control of the car and went through a guard-rail and was killed instantly. He was only twenty-six years old. He was on his way to teach a Sunday School class. He only had twenty minutes left to live (although he didn't know it) and used it by going to tell others about Jesus. This was a young man who definitely had his priorities straight.

You know, we often take life for granted. We assume we're going to have all the time in the world (this world) to do whatever we want or need to do, when in reality, we may only have twenty minutes.

My challenge for you today (and I'm joining you in this challenge) is to take twenty minutes each day, and do something that will impact your family, your community, or your world.

Tell that family member that you love them and then ask them how their day was.


Get to know your neighbors. Ask them if they need anything, what they like to do, what they like to eat, etc.


Pray for your president, your congressman (or woman) and other world leaders.

Twenty minutes: you can waste them...or you can make them count by doing something
that will count for all eternity. It's up to you.