Someone said that one of the easiest ways to experience dissatisfaction with life is to overdose on good things and miss the best things. 

Choose the best over the good. That’s what the biblical character Mary did in the gospel story (Luke 10:38-42). While Martha, Mary’s sister, chose the good, Mary chose the best, which was to spend time with Jesus. And Jesus concurred.

The greatest power we possess is the power to choose. Think about that for a moment. We make choices every day that effect our lives. We can choose to be lazy or ambitious, friendly or unfriendly, cooperative or stubborn, exciting or dull, positive or negative. We can choose the bad, the good or the best. The choice is ours.

But our choices usually have to do with our understanding of life, of time. Is my life my own, or is it a sacred trust from God? If we understand it as a sacred trust from God, we will affirm the words of Luke when he said, “In him we live and move and have our being.” Therefore, we will understand that time does not belong to us. It belongs to God. Consequently, every day is sacred. Every day is time entrusted to us by God. Every moment is a gift.

The notable Eric Liddell was a person who understood life as a gift from God. He was favored to be win the 100-meter dash in the 1924 Olympics and the hosts of the British Isles were riding him. But when a qualifying heat for the event was scheduled for Sunday, Liddell respectfully withdrew from the race. Sunday was “the Lord’s day” for him, and that day was to be kept holy. No work, no reports. His country was counting on him to run, and he desperately wanted to win, but in his view, faith and compromise could not co-exists.

To be sure, Eric Liddell suffered much criticism because of his stand. Some of his other countrymen even suggested he was disloyal to the king and country. But in the film, “Chariots of Fire,” an official at the Olympics says, “You see, him being loyal to his God is simply an extension of who he is. I’m glad there’s still somebody that still lives that way.”

I repeat, every moment is a gift from God and should characterize not only the good but the best. James Moore, minister and author, shared something I hope you will hear and take to heart. 

He said, “Life is not measured by the number of things we accumulate or the number of awards we win or the number of successes we achieve or the number of honors we receive or the wealth we pile up or the number of years we put in. No, in the final analysis, the bottom line is this: ‘It’s not the number of breaths we take. It’s the number of moments that take our breath away.’”