Days of Profit
by Ellsworth Kalas
Long ago someone taught me the value of time. Perhaps it was my parents. They weren’t people committed to success or achievement, but they had this innate sense of the value of time. Perhaps some high school teacher did it: it could well have been my debate coach, F.O. Racker. I’m sure it’s a conviction that is woven all through life for me, because I came early to believe that life and time are gifts from God, and that eternity begins now, not after we die, so each day is significant in my calendar. Thus each morning when I write a brief summary of the previous day, I tend to be hard on myself. What did I do the previous day that mattered?
On one such day a year-and-a-half ago, I looked back on the day before with self-reproach. What had I really done? I had written several hundred words on a coming book, had taught a class, and had been part of several thoughtful conversations. Just then, a sentence came to my soul. I wrote it down. More than that I put it in the back cover of my Daily Suggester, the little appointment book that has been my annual companion for nearly sixty years.
It’s now there for the third year. It’s the only phrase from my own life; the others are from the Bible, John Wesley, Blaise Pascal, and Samuel Johnson. There’s nothing profound about my sentence, nothing that merits the company it now keeps except that it came at one of those special moments in life: No day is lost in which I grow in Christ.
That day that simple fact came to full conviction in my life. I suspect I had long known this in some inchoate fashion, but that morning it took lodging. What does my life amount to? What is there about me that matters? I teach a class, sometimes I preach a sermon, I write some letters (and now, some email), I try to treat everyone with grace, and almost always I’m working on a book, a privilege that still astonishes me even though roughly fifty such books are now in circulation. But so what? Which of these matters, really matters?
Then it struck me with full force. The purpose of my life is that I should know Christ, that in some way each day I should come to know Jesus better and to reflect Him more distinctly in my own life and person. The only question at day’s end is this: am I more like our Lord at day’s end than I was at that day’s beginning?
If so, it has been a day of holy achievement, because all the rest depends on this, that I grow in Him. Our Lord said that it’s possible we would come to the end of our journey testifying that we cast out demons in his name, but he will answer, “I never knew you.” I want to know Him, in the power of His resurrection and in the fellowship of His sufferings. If I am more like Him tonight when I retire than I was this morning when I awakened, it has been a day of supreme, eternal significance. All else will flow from that.
I cherish such a day today for you, and for me. Amen.
My wife and I were in Wilmore from 1974-77. We had moved there from the mountains of CO where I worked for the state. In CO stores were open 7 days/week. In KY in those days they all closed on Sunday which led to a more stately pace of life.
Each Christmas in those days Walter Cronkite would sit down with Eric Sevareid for a fireside chat. One year Walter asked Eric what he thought might be some unnoticed stories of the time. Eric said, “I think this is felt by all but noted by few. The American people have more leisure than ever yet have never been more worn out.” Buster Brown shoes knew Kinneys was closed, etc. so no one was getting ahead of another and workers were able to rest. Taking time, as KY did then, for rest, reflection and worship kept us in the rhythms of life as God intended. And kept this life in the perspective of eternity. No days are then lost. Thank you, Dr. Kalas
JL Penfold, Greeley, CO ATS Class of 1977
I look forward to reading your thoughts each time I receive the e-link! It brings me joy! I remember you speaking at our graduation luncheon, and your sincerity and genuineness struck me. I wouldn’t miss something you wrote!! I often print it and share it with others!! God bless you!! With much gratefulness! Kim
Always enjoy reading Kalas