Shelf Life

Food has a shelf life, and some food has a very short shelf life and needs to be used in a timely manner or it goes bad. There have been times I've put a beautiful head of leaf lettuce in my fridge and when I finally got around to using it, it was no longer beautiful. The leaves had lost their crispness, had wilted and some had even turned black. Sounds appetizing doesn't it? Sure, sometimes I can salvage part of the head if I do it right when I pull it out of the bag and strip off the spoiled leaves and carefully wash the rest. There are even times when I completely miss it and the lettuce totally ruins—there's no salvaging to be done, it all goes into the compost.

God puts things in our lives to be used for His glory and some of those things have a shelf life. If we don't use them in a timely manner they 'go bad' and may no longer be available for our use. God may bring a person into our lives so we can be a witness to them, but if we delay, we may loose our window of opportunity. When that window closes, we miss out on the blessing we would receive from using that opportunity and others miss out because we didn't make something of the opportunity, the ingredient, God gave us.

I don't think there's many of us that like seeing food spoil in our fridge, but do we even stop and think about things in our lives that are going to waste? Gifts, and opportunities, and even responsibilities God has given to us to use, not waste—are we using those ingredients and making the most of them? Are we using them for God or just forgetting about them after we tuck them away in our lives?

Therefore be careful how you walk,
not as unwise men but as wise,
making the most of your time, because the days are evil.
So then do not be foolish,
but understand what the will of the Lord is.
~Ephesians 5:15-17

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