Gone With the Wind

OK - I'll be honest - I enjoy a good movie. My wife Becky and I generally watch 1-2 movies a week, depending on how busy we are at the time. I enjoy unplugging for an hour or two, or being challenged, or made to think, or just being entertained. The beauty of the movie industry is that a well-written and well-produced movie can take you places that in reality you’ll never visit.

This morning it was reported that Gwilym Hughes had passed away. Who was Gwilym? He was the Guinness World Record holder for having viewed more films than anyone else. So how many screenplays did he watch in his lifetime? How about over 28,000! During his lifetime, that translated to two films every 3 days.

Let’s look at the math of that figure. 28,000 flicks, averaging 1.5 hours, totals 42,000 hours, or over 2.5 million minutes spent watching films. That’s a grand total of 1,750 days, or almost a full 5 years of his life spent watching motion pictures. Look at that total again – he spent an estimated 5 years of every minute and every hour of each day watching movies! I guess I have no shot at shattering that record – and I’m ok with that reality.

Let’s read a passage – John 4:31-38. Click here to read. In verse 35 Jesus proclaims that the “Fields….are already white for harvest.” He was not referring to anyone’s garden – He was referring to lives that needed only what He was able to offer. Just a few verses earlier Jesus was conversing with the woman at the well. During this conversation Jesus told her “but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

I will be the first to admit I sometimes struggle with balancing everything going on in my life. But I’ve been called to a harvesting party, and it’s a calling I cannot ignore. It’s a calling that strengthens me daily as I live in His power which He so graciously shares with me. I am not the only one called though – if you are a child of Christ, the call is also to you. We as a body of believers are to be reaching out to those who still need to have a living relationship with God our Savior.

So how good of a job are you doing balancing His work vs. your life? What kind of impact could Gwilym have had if he had spent some of that full 5 years sharing Christ with others vs. watching movies? I am all for some down time – it’s even a mandate from God – but too much time spent on me takes away from others around me who need what the Lord has to offer.

Lord may I be diligent with the time You’ve give me each day.