#101 WASTED DAYS AND WASTED NIGHTS 9-7-26

Oh what sadness is found in the words wasted days and wasted nights. They sound like the title of an old song playing somewhere in a room after midnight, when the lights are low and a man has too much time to remember.

Freddy Fender made those words famous in his 1975 hit “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights,” a song he had originally recorded years earlier and then revived during his remarkable comeback. The recording became a major country and pop success, reaching number one on the country chart and number eight on the Billboard Hot 100.

But behind the melody is a thought that reaches far beyond music. There are days that disappear without purpose. There are nights that become nothing more than hours we survived. There are pages on the calendar that turn, never to return.

But it does not have to be that way. Not when you know Jesus. With Christ, even an ordinary Tuesday can become sacred ground. A lonely night can become a night of prayer. A failure can become a lesson in grace. A sorrow can become a place where we discover that He is near. Jesus does not promise that every day will be easy, but He gives every day meaning. He does not promise that every night will be peaceful, but He promises to remain with us through the darkness. “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).

The Christian does not have to look backward at a graveyard of wasted time. We can look forward, because every morning is another opportunity to walk with Christ, love someone, serve someone, forgive someone, tell someone about Jesus, and become a little more like Him.

One day there will be a final night. The clock will move for the last time. The calendar will turn to a page we will never see. And when that moment comes, the question will not be how many hours we possessed, but what we did with the hours God gave us. We do not have to live with wasted days and wasted nights. We can give our days to Jesus and let Him fill our nights with His presence. We can redeem the time because the days are passing (Ephesians 5:15–16).

And when this life is over, we will discover that the days surrendered to Christ were never wasted at all. They were being invested in eternity.

BDD