Time – the stuff life is made of – Sunday, September 08, 1957
These many years on the air turn our thoughts today to time. Millions who were listening when this broadcast first began have since left this life. Millions have since been born—have gone to school, have served at war, have families of their own and are carrying a share of the weight of the world. History is long.
The great sweep of time and eternity is long—endlessly long—but the mortal life of each of us isn’t. And whether we live short lives, or long, the years move swiftly—from the freer years of youth, through the period of preparation, to a period of performance—then on to the real and glorious opportunities of eternity. And no matter how old the aged seem to youth, and no matter how young the young seem to those who are old, the young and the old are not so far apart, and “one event happeneth to them all.”1 And now a moment about the man who says “Can I have a minute of your time?”
Usually, he doesn’t really mean a minute, and the minute he asks for is often multiplied.
We could give him money—and maybe make more. We could give him goods—and manufacture more. But as to time—it “is the [very] stuff life is made of”2—and in a very real sense we are responsible for the time we take from our own lives and from others. And when we ask a man for a moment—or much more—do we take his time for trivia, or do we add richness and meaning and understanding to his life?
Would we take his time for what would tempt him, for what would burden or enslave him, for what would fill his heart with regret, or his mind with unpleasant memories?
Or for what would build him up, and add to health and happiness and peace and progress? In a very real sense, we are responsible for what we take time for, our own and others.
In a very real sense, we are responsible for the ideas and impressions we let loose. For this reason, we are deeply aware today of the sacred trust and responsibility of entering other men’s hearts and homes and lives by any means whatsoever, for we have—all of us—a responsibility for the time we take, for the influence we have, for our total effect, on others.
1Ecclesiastes 2:14
2Benjamin Franklin, The Way to Wealth
September 08, 1957
Broadcast Number 1,464