Time and money are two very familiar concepts for us all and we often hear the phrase “time is money”.

Of course, it doesn’t mean that time by itself is money (no one is going to get rich because they grew up in age and it’s been many years since they were born!) but that the proper use of time – even better, the right and wise use of the 24-hour – undoubtedly yields better profits to the worker, to the one who is working, in opposition to the inactive citizen who has not earned anything or even lost something, because they had to spend their existing stocks.

The concept of the utilization of our time is not only of commercial significance, but also of importance to the issues of active faith in the living God, elements which the first Christians had discovered and left behind in the Holy Texts of the Old and New Testaments.

In order to be executed, each project requires not only an adequate design and a good mood, but appropriate tools and means as well. Without these tools, the project can never be completed.

However, the predominant issue in every good human work is the fact that no work is reproduced; multiplied by itself. While we complete our work, it remains in the situation we left it at, and over time, our work begins to get older, begins to ruin, and in a few years it starts needing repairs, otherwise it is destroyed and disappears. Our work does not have the capacity to self-reproduce, to create new similar works.

In contrast, our Creator’s works have this feature. God’s works are self-reproducing, multiplying, and not only are not damaged by the years, but they are also given the ability to renew, with whatever this implies for our everyday life. Human works are static, they get old and death takes them over. The works of our Creator are dynamic, they do not age, they are renewed, and death cannot eliminate them, although it may temporarily seem that death is there.

Although this daily expression in the greek language has an adjective in the opposite sense (“have bad things come your way”), I chose this title because weather is a neutral factor.

Time, weather, circumstance can be both good and bad, depending on how one wants to interpret their everyday life. While it is usually up to us to focus on the positive and beneficial, we usually begin to grumble because we did not achieve what we had envisioned, and we always blame others for our failure.

Because while each case can have just as good as it can have bad sides, we usually highlight the bad sides, with the result of our mental world lacking the joy that offers even a slight success. If one accepts the golden rule that every cloud has a silver lining, that is, in the bad sides one can see positive elements, then it is obvious that the promotion of the bad and gray and the concealment of the positive ones, damages our own image.

The result? Because we do not focus and reproduce the good side but the bad one, we give ourselves the right to the enemy to fill the image of our life with denial and destructive poison, and that is a powerful element of our personal failure, that is, letting others decide in our lives and not decide for ourselves.

Like any good practitioner, the robber also has their duties, the way they work and their goals for best results.

They first locate their victim, examine their sensitive points, study their movements, and eventually, at the right time they attack, grab the sheep that has been isolated, slaughter it and take away its life.

These are the characteristics of the thief. They don’t regret, they are not ashamed, they do not appreciate life. For them, the best thing is slaughter and death, not life. Unlike the merciless thief, Christ taught with the same precision and detail, His own duties, the way He applies them, and His goals for better results.

The objective of Christ is the perpetua vitae, meaning the continuous and ongoing life without gaps and dead ends, without trauma to the lost sheep, but safely leading it to its own safe tower and, when it recovers from the discomfort that the thief had caused, to go out, find food and return to its master’s security.

This is the work of Christ and the work of the thief.

The word “cultivation” expresses the good work someone does in the garden, in their field or in any good or bad object. So if you decide to increase evil and doubt in your life then you need compassion, compromise, ignorance, and ultimately waiving of any claim.

But if you decide to increase the fruit of your labor, to cultivate your field better, to increase your level of faith, then you need agility, wisdom for everyday life, and eventually claiming every good that someone wants to deprive you of, or its conquest requires competition; hard struggle that you personally have to start and finish.

No one will fight and will not claim something for you! No one can replace you in the race of the competition. Even if someone wants to, it is explicitly forbidden by law. No one can give an exam on your behalf. It is a personal matter, and that is beyond question.

The same applies to the issues of living faith. Growth and conquering is a completely personal affair, and the idea that others will care for you is deceitful illusion and ill imagination.