“Silver and gold, have I not, but such as I have, I give to you…( see Acts 3:1-10)”  Those were the words of Peter spoken to the lame man who begged at the gate of the Temple.  I don’t suppose the poor guy sitting at the Temple gate had anything against prayer, but what he wanted — what he needed — were the necessities of life like food and shelter.  Most providers of these goods require currency in exchange for them, not prayer.  As it turns out, Peter and John had something better than money.  They had faith in the healing power of Christ.  The lame beggar didn’t get a dime from the apostles, but he walked away with a whole new life before him.

Unlike the apostles, most of us do have a little silver and gold to give, and we give some of our money to meet the needs of the vulnerable, near and far.  But even the most prosperous among us have more valuable gifts to give than money.

Money’s valuable, but it’s not my most valuable possession.  If I were to give away all my money, I could get more. 

What I cannot mint, or mine, or make, is time.  I’ve got an unknown, but limited supply of time.

It’s the most precious gift I have.

And just like the faith-filled prayer of the apostles, this gift has the power to heal and transform lives.  Time given for the sake of love for another is never wasted time.

There’s a reason why the Bible is so insistent on the Sabbath, and it isn’t just for the sake of our rest and rejuvenation.  Sabbath is the consecration of time.  It’s the costliest sacrifice we can offer.  Compared to even the fattest calf or the best sheep, time is more precious.  When we set aside time for God’s purposes, we are offering a gift we cannot replace.

There are more ways to consecrate time than by setting aside an hour for worship or a day for rest.

We make time holy in our acts of service.  Our holiest Sabbath could be spent sweating and sore, shoveling out a neighbor’s driveway or swinging a hammer on a Habitat house.

We make time holy by listening to a child or an old person tell us the same story again.  In fact, that’s another way of listening to God.  We make time holy by stopping to truly see and hear the people right there in front of us, the people with whom we share our lives.  Time spent fully alive, living in the moment, is holy time too.

If keeping the Sabbath holy is really a command to consecrate time, then just avoiding work one day a week will not cut it.  The special times we mark off as time for worship or time for Sabbath rest are reminders to us that every day is a gift, and every moment can be holy.

Prayer: Where does the time go?  Keep me awake to the holiness of this time – right now.