Anyone else struggle with time? That fleeting thing that whizzes by at breakneck speed past days, months, and years. Only by gazing at the Timeless One will we fully appreciate the capsule of time we are given and reign time into its proper perspective.
We micro-manage time with intensity. With day planners in pocket phones that never leave our sides, we organize time for work, family, and recreation. We divide our time into minutes, hours, days, months, and years. Sensing the fleeting nature of time, we pack every moment with busyness.
Moses who lived a good 120 years, much longer than I anticipate life to be, said,
“Teach us to number our days,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
Psalm 90:12
Life goes fast, too fast!
“I don’t have time!” are words that echo often throughout our culture. We postpone the things that should be done for what must be done!
Capsule of Time
If we experience even the years of Moses’ life and measure them against eternity, it would be like the tiniest capsule floating almost invisibly in an endless ocean.
Time is the most precious of all commodities. If I lose all my wealth and financial resources, there is opportunity to regain some portion. When health fails, The Healer stands close; heaven’s reality holds neither sickness nor death. If I lose even the closest ones I love, the hope of being reunited in eternity sustains me.
Time is the only commodity never to be regained! This moment replaced by the next — both instantly gone!
“He has made everything beautiful in its time.
He has also set eternity in the human heart;
yet no one can fathom what God has done
from beginning to end.”
Ecclesiastes 3:11
We stir with an awareness of more! For surely, we were created not for fleeting moments but everlasting days.
The Perspective of Time
Every part of creation is affected by time — everything! One glance in the mirror at my deep wrinkles and laugh lines and the crown of thinning grey shouts, “Time is passing, girl!” Youthful subtle skin thins, bones ache, eyesight dims, memory comes and goes.
Hide it? Ignore it? Excuse it? Nonetheless, time wears through the most resilient, defying restraint. All of creation succumbs to its influence.
Because our minds cannot fathom anything apart from what we know, it is impossible to perceive Someone, the self-existing God, beyond time.
“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends:
With the Lord a day is like a thousand years,
and a thousand years are like a day.”
2 Peter 3:8
Time is an earthly concept defined by multiple terms of measurement: decades, centuries, millennium. Time-words define our time, not God’s, because He is both within yet beyond all expanse of time.
The Timelessness of God
God has no beginning and no end. He has no past and no future living in the ever present now. In fact, He inhabits beginning and end simultaneously. Now that exceeds comprehension!
The only One expanding beyond all scope of time is God; He alone is absolute everlasting!
“Before the mountains were born
or you brought forth the whole world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”
Psalms 90:2
Because mankind was created in His image, we too were made for timelessness.
“To be made for eternity
and forced to dwell in time
is for mankind a tragedy of huge proportions.
All within us cries for life and permanence,
and everything around us
reminds us of mortality and change.”
A.W. Tozer
We live in this tension of time! Its deep significance, yet fleeting nature. Time has intrinsic value, uncontainable essence.
Making the Most of Our Time
So how do we best value time? The obvious is to not waste it. Yet, we all have “time-wasting” pursuits. Television, computers, Facebook top the list of many. Less obvious perhaps are procrastination, fear, daydreaming, and indecisiveness.
People and relationships are the most significant endeavours that should occupy our time. Because most of our days are spent in the workplace, create opportunities for deep and caring relationships with colleagues. Family will NOT always be there, as we sometimes perceive; seize moments to love and invest in close and distant relatives. Friendships take time to develop levels of trust and commitment that speaks mutually of love and value.
“Live wisely among those who are not believers,
and make the most of every opportunity.”
Colossians 4:5
People are the only “things” we can take to heaven!
What about time for the greatest relationship of all — the one between us and the Lord? Is there time for prayer, reading and silent meditation of scripture, study of God’s character and nature, or serving Him by serving others?
Between Time and Timeless
A young man told me once that he actually liked funerals. Astonished, I asked why! Early on he recognized that funerals brought him face-to-face with the shortness of his own life. A wise young man, I think!
“It is better to go to a house of mourning
than to go to a house of feasting,
for death is the destiny of everyone;
the living should take this to heart.”
Ecclesiastes 7:2
It is neither in the beginning of life nor in the fullness of busy days that we come to realize that faith in Jesus Christ is not optional. Christ is the only solution to the fleeting nature of life on earth. In Christ “God’s eternity and man’s mortality” collide.
Christ acquired the great victory for man’s dilemma with time!
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?
For sin is the sting that results in death,
and the law gives sin its power.
But thank God! He gives us victory
over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 Corinthians 15:55-57
We must all remember and view with brevity the limited time we have before we the leap from numbered days to limitless eternity. Today God extends His irresistible invitation. Death should never be “normal”. It pushes against all we are created and destined for. Thanks to Christ and the cross death never has the final word!
“For he says, “In the time of my favour I heard you,
and in the day of salvation I helped you.”
I tell you, now is the time of God’s favour,
now is the day of salvation.
2 Corinthians 6:2
Today is the day to secure your place in eternity!
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Further Reading:
Finding The Solution for Pressings Problems and Difficulties
The “gems” in this blog are deep and serious. We would do well to take heed. Well said Maryann! God Bless
Thanks Joy…. How can you tell I’ve been teaching a Theology class??? Every little thread we follow toward God is so much wider and more powerful than we can comprehend.