What’s the difference between a single moment and a single minute? If you were watching Wheel of Fortune last Thursday night, you know the answer—a trip to the Dominican Republic. A contestant shouted “minute,” and the correct answer was “moment.” His error cost him a trip to what some travel enthusiasts would describe as a trip to paradise.

When you read the New Testament, you will find Paul using the concept of time to impart some spiritual truth:

• Live life, then, with a due sense of responsibility, not as men who do not know the meaning and purpose of life but as those who do. Make the best use of your time, despite all the difficulties of these days. Don’t be vague but firmly grasp what you know to be the will of God. Don’t get your stimulus from wine (for there is always the danger of excessive drinking), but let the Spirit stimulate your souls. Express your joy in singing among yourselves psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making music in your hearts for the ears of God! Thank God at all times for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And “fit in with” each other, because of your common reverence for Christ (Ephesians 5:15-21).”

• Therefore we do not despair, but even if our physical body is wearing away, our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary, light suffering is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison because we are not looking at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen. For what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

• Listen, and I will tell you a secret. We shall not all die, but in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, every one of us will be changed as the trumpet sounds! The trumpet will sound and the dead shall be raised beyond the reach of corruption, and we who are still alive shall suddenly be utterly changed. For this perishable nature of ours must be wrapped in imperishability, these bodies which are mortal must be wrapped in immortality. (I Corinthians 15:51-53).

The three verses above can be summarized by saying you are to live life with a sense of responsibility that is seen in the wise use of time; the momentary trials of your life are to be seen through an eternal perspective that compares them to the glory that is waiting for you in heaven; and, you are to look to the future with hope because your frail mortal body will be wrapped in immortality.

The difference between a minute and moment is so minute it doesn’t really matter. What does matter is what you do with the moments of your life today. The moment you take to consider your relationship with Jesus might just change the minutes of your eternity.