Fifteen Minutes – Daniel 3

I heard the other day that a Chinese entrepreneur paid 2 million dollars to sit down to lunch with Warren Buffet. If that were to be a two-hour lunch… you can do the math – that is a million dollars an hour, good money by anyone’s standards. Where do you suppose the world is going when our values move toward holding one person in such high regard that you are willing to gladly pay a million dollars an hour just to spend a short amount of time with them? What gain could one possibly expect from such a short time spent in the presence of another… mere money? It would be pretty cool to ask this man from China what he gained from the experience?

It is sad to think the time I have wasted on such a pursuit, not just a couple of hours but probably years would be accurate. What have I gained? Money? Not likely. Most of the time my personal books are in the double digits. Perhaps my loss has been because my time was not spent with the quality of person Warren Buffet is touted to be? Maybe that is where I went wrong?
I may be on to something there? I just need to hang with better people. I am sure that is the answer. I speculate that three guys I read about would be very excited to tell me of a fifteen minute experience they had with a person of the highest quality. You see there was this king that demanded their time and reverence but they refused to give it to him. They said their reverence belonged to only one and that they were willing to pay with their lives if necessary.

That made the king very mad. He had the men bound and tossed into an oven. After the men were in the oven, the king decided to look in to see their body’s burn in his triumph over them. When the king peered in he saw an additional person, other than the three, in the oven walking around unharmed. He quickly observed that the fourth man was of the HIGHEST QUALITY.
I wonder what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego would have to say about the fifteen minutes they spent in the furnace with Jesus? What was that worth? Fifteen minutes face to face with the Son of God…

I am pretty sure, at least from my limited knowledge perspective, they would say fifteen minutes in the oven with Jesus was worth so much more than the price the entrepreneur paid to eat with Mr. Buffet that they are not even on the same scale. I know you might be shaking your head in agreement right about now too, or at least I hope you are.

So let me ask you, “When was the last time you spent fifteen minutes with HIM?”… or are you waiting to be tossed into a furnace? I can tell you I prefer time with Him, in His word, in the solitude of the early morning but would gladly take fifteen minutes face to face with the Master in an oven anytime. What value would I put on fifteen minutes spent with someone of far more importance that Mr. Buffet?  – Only the next fifteen minutes I spend with Him can answer that one. Will I sacrifice sleep for it… Will I sacrifice time in front of the TV for it… Will I sacrifice myself for it - for HIM… Time will tell.