“Real friends are the ones you can count on no matter what. The ones who go into the forest to find you and bring you home. And real friends never have to tell you that they’re your friends.”
–Morgan Matson, American novelist

Ask an economist what our most precious and limited resource is, and you’ll probably get the educated answer: gold. Until the practice was abandoned in the 1930s, gold was the standard against which most, if not all, countries valued their currencies. The finite amount of gold, and our inability to produce more, limited the risk of the inflationary measure of printing money willy-nilly–a practice we see today.

At the risk of exposing my embarrassingly weak understanding of economics, I’ll stop there!

But I, who am definitely not an economist, would have a different answer. Actually, two answers. First, I’d say “time” is one of our two most precious and limited resources.

Each of us has a finite amount of time on this earth. The amount is an unknown. Even tomorrow is not promised. This fact substantiates the importance of making the most of our time . . . and how sad it is that often we fail to do so.

We’ve all said it. “I’ll do it tomorrow.” “I really need to call___.” “I should drop a note to___.” Then, tomorrow comes, and we don’t do it, we don’t call, or we don’t write. The implicit assumption is we’ve got all the time in the world, when our remaining time in this world is numbered in years, weeks, hours, or even minutes.

Two weeks ago, I quoted the first verse of Ecclesiastes, Chapter Three. After recording the litany of purposes and actions we have time for, the author goes on to say, “(God) has made everything beautiful in its time … I know there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live (Ecclesiastes 3: 11a, 12 NIV).”

The simple message, I believe, is we should value the time gifted to us, enjoy it, and do good. This requires effort. A simple definition of love is “willing the good of the other.” Because we love them, we want nothing more than the good for our spouse, children, grandchildren, and close friends. Isn’t that something worth striving for?

But, how many times have we sat through a memorial service for someone we thought we knew well, only to learn quite a bit more about that person? We never took the time to fully know them. And now, it’s too late.

Our other limited resource is “friends.” Not casual friends, mind you, but true friends . . . people you could call in the middle of the night or when they’re terribly busy, and they would get out of bed or drop everything they’re doing to be there for you. My father-in-law, who I considered my best friend, used to say, “we’re lucky if we have five true friends.” I’m afraid he was right. If you have more, you’re blessed. If you come up short, it’s as much your responsibility as the other person’s to establish a true friendship.

Finally, look how “time” and “true friends” are intertwined. It doesn’t just take effort to establish true friends, it takes time–time you choose to spend on that relationship rather than doing something easier or perhaps more self-serving. Investing in that time is how we learn more about the person and what makes them “tick.”

When we focus on doing that, our lives are enriched, no matter how much or how little time on this earth we have left.