Time is Money? Maybe Not!

An unusual traffic incident took place years ago in a small city in Kansas. The local news reported that an elderly lady driving a big, new expensive car was preparing to back into a parallel parking space when a young man in a small sports car suddenly zoomed into her space ahead of her.

The lady angrily asked why he had done this when he could see that she was trying to park there. His response was simply: “Because I’m young and I’m quick.”

The young man then entered the store. A few minutes later as he came back out, he found the elderly lady using her big new car as a battering ram, backing up and then ramming it into his car. He very angrily asked her why she was wrecking his car. Her response was: “Because I’m old and I’m rich!”

“There is a harassed, knife-edged quality to daily life,” says the author of THE THIRD WAVE, Alvin Toffler, about our society. I would add, especially when it comes to living in a bad economy and facing difficult financial problems. Few of us, regardless of age, can use our cars as battering rams and nonchalantly claim, “No matter, I’m rich!” Financial woes hurt, evoking extreme frustration, anger, and resentment. We’d like to lash out and hit someone; but who is that someone? Whether we call it Big Business, Wall Street, The Government, how do we strike back at such an entity as THAT?

Time is money. So it is said. And MONEY, what is money? Money is the new god of our lives, the almighty Taskmaster of the day. We need it, want it, must and will have it, regardless of the cost. After all, money makes the world go round, doesn’t it? When we’re told to “Make the most of your time,” we immediately think, economic efficiency and productivity; why do we not think of friendship, family, relationships, or spirituality and contemplative, meditative time with God? Is seeking greater wisdom, enlightenment, truth, love, peace, and contentment above and beyond the material things of life, a waste of time or a better use of our time?

The motto that time is money may be true in the business world. But why should the world of business and finance define Reality for us? Perhaps we need to change our Mindset, our Value system, and develop a new perspective on Time/Reality. If money makes the world go round, perhaps it’s because WE allow it. What if we countered by saying, “Time is LIFE!” or, “Time is LOVE” or, “Time is beauty”? “Time is peace, joy, friendship, family, wife, children, even creativity!” Time is money only because we place that value on time. Perhaps it’s time to give Time a different Standard of Value.

Sleep specialist tell us that we’re getting less sleep and regularly suffer from sleep deprivation. Yet, at the same time, we are feeling more demands on our time, not less. Harassed and irritable, many of us have no idea what it means to be peaceful and content. We push ourselves out of bed, edgy, pressured, under the gun, facing demanding schedules and constrained time commitments, all because we owe and must pay. Furthermore, all our so-called time saving devices and thingamajigs that promised us extra free get-away time actually seem to have enslaved us all the more; deadlines are more immediate and due dates come quicker. And we must have our electronic devices with us and turned on, even while on vacation. What an irony! Ask yourself, are you under more or less time pressure since you’ve adopted these high tech gadgets in your lifestyle?

We are not machines and were never meant to be treated as such. The “Time is Money” idea reduces human value to nothing more than individual or collective units of productivity—machines made of flesh and blood. We need to resist the dehumanizing effects of the working world that says, “You are only worth as much as you can produce and the goods and services you might provide! We are human. Therefore, relationships are at the core of who we are and what we become. If we seek only to dominate, manage, control, and manipulate our environment solely for economic exchange, only to make a buck and spend it on shallow items of pleasure and excitement, we are sad creatures indeed.

The Christian Scriptures speak of “redeeming the time for the days are evil.”^[1] How do we redeem time? First, quit selling it off to the highest bidder. Take it out of the market of trade and commodities and put it back into the realm of meaning and quality of life. Redeem time by saying that “Time is NOT money.” You could say instead that “Time is Spiritual Awakening!” Secondly, put the very meaning of Time, Money, and Life in its proper perspective. We all know that our time is limited here on earth and that we can’t take our riches with us beyond the grave. But an awakened and enlightened Spirit; well now, that’s an altogether different prospect, isn’t it? One’s spirit, spirituality, connection with God, etc, we CAN take with us beyond the grave. Wouldn’t you think?

¹Eph 5:16 [Return]