Time was Never Money

I was just listening to Switchfoot's song Gone / on the radio. One line says, "Life is more than money/ Time was never money/ Time was never cash."

I was reminded how a couple days ago our neighbor called to see if I could jump the battery on her car. She mentioned she was going to call a taxi to take her sister to the airport while she got the issue with her car taken care of. We said that we could do it (Beth didn't have to be in to work for a while, so we were available). Beth ended up driving her down; she was offered some money for the errand. Beth turned it down, of course. We didn't do it for the money.

People may say time is money. It's not. It's more than that. Time is love. We use our time for work to make money to pay our bills, sure, but we also do it because God has given us skills and passions and expects us to serve Him and others in that position--out of love. We give our time to our families because we love them. We serve others out of love. We give up our own time for others.

It's easy to get trapped into thinking that time is money. I can look at a purchase in reference as to how many hours I have to work (or my wife has to work, as the case may be) to pay for it. But that kind of thinking turns me away from helping others. I don't stop to help the person with the flat tire on their car because I don't have the time to do that (translate: it's not worth it to me).

How would my little corner of the world change if I started thinking of my time being an opportunity to love? And I followed Jesus example in giving love away?