Does anybody really know what time it is?

Have you ever thought about the impact that time has on our lives?  What I find strange is that we’ll talk about physical laws like gravity or inertia and note how they are categorical facts and properties by which our daily life is constrained.  I propose, however, that we don’t give the same consideration to the equally categorical fact of the property of time.  Despite the fact that gravity seems to work more on me as I get older (by virtue of my weight … haha) I would argue that one of our biggest wrestling matches in life can often be time.

Time causes us stress when it seems to be in short supply … like when a critical deadline is approaching.   It can equally strain life when there is a surplus … like when we have to wait for a life-altering diagnosis from a doctor.  There are even times when not knowing whether we have enough or too much time can be equally as deleterious. 

This week as I read through the Old Testament in concert with my reading plan, I read through Exodus 40, Leviticus 1 – 6, Psalms 90 – 96, and 2 Samuel 10 – 16.  In Psalm 90 Moses allows us insights into the God-created property of time that I believe help us to deal with how pervasive and uncontrollable time is in our temporal lives.  Verses 1 – 10 (and the rest of the Psalm) are rich in principles, but equally as well on the point at hand …

Lord, through all the generations
you have been our home!  Before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to the earth and the world, from beginning to end, you are God.  You turn people back to dust, saying, “Return to dust, you mortals!”  For you, a thousand years are as a passing day, as brief as a few night hours.  You sweep people away like dreams that disappear.  They are like grass that springs up in the morning.  In the morning it blooms and flourishes, but by evening it is dry and withered.  We wither beneath your anger; we are overwhelmed by your fury.  You spread out our sins before you—our secret sins—and you see them all.  We live our lives beneath your wrath, ending our years with a groan.  Seventy years are given to us!  Some even live to eighty.  But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble; soon they disappear, and we fly away.

The first thing we notice from these passages is how God is “from beginning to end” … residing outside of time.  In fact, the Bible makes it clear that God created time.  The first assurance that we can draw from this is the comfort of knowing that while time weighs on us in myriad ways, most often in negative ways (too little when we want more, too much when we want little), it doesn’t weigh on God.  His plans for us are not affected by time.  When we trust Him and rely on Him, we can do so knowing that time for Him is irrelevant.  It doesn’t change the fact that time is a reality with which we must contend, but we can (as with all things) give our cares to Him knowing that time is something over which God’s providence presides.

In the same manner, for God, the Psalm says, “a thousand years are as a passing day, as brief as a few night hours.”  I think it’s safe to say that there are many times in our life when it feels quite the opposite … as if a day goes by as slowly as a thousand years.  Times when we have a loved one in the hospital, a child lost among a crowd, waiting in rush hour traffic when we need to be somewhere urgently, etc.

Finally, we’re reminded that, “Seventy years are given to us!  Some even live to eighty.  But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble; soon they disappear, and we fly away.”  In the grand scheme of things, our lives are brief.  Yes, I understand that while this may be the case, the times noted above feel like anything but.  Yet when you get to my age, for instance, and you look back upon the nearly 47 years God’s granted me privilege to be on His earth, that time literally feels as though it was a couple minutes.  I can only imagine in 23 years from now (if He grants that many to me) it’ll feel all the more so.

What’s the point?  Simply that God created time, controls it, governs it and uses it to accomplish His purposes.  As a result, our grip on it must lighten … because it’s not ours by definition.  When we’re confronted with struggles that relate to time we should give them to the Lord, as we should with all matters.  It isn’t the case that God will slow time down or speed time up for us, but He can help us to fret less about it, by the reassurance of His command of it.  We can rely on Him to carry us through regardless of the time constraints we face.  He can remind us that the shortage or glut of time we face is precisely His will.  Either way, we can gain peace and comfort knowing He sits on the throne … even the throne of time.

The other aspect that is resounding for me on this is our inherent inability to govern time.  We stress out about having not enough and yet cannot create more.  We complain when we experience the tedium and arduousness of time seeming to slow to a crawl when we want it to pass by all the quicker, yet we haven’t a way to hasten its pace.  All the more reason to remind ourselves of the futility of making time the determinant to what makes life livable or intolerable.  Of all things about which we should “let go and let God,” I can think of no better candidate than the most basic element … time.

The last thing I want to seem I’m suggesting here is that the reality that confronts us near-daily is anything but reality.  There is no escaping time’s impact on the day-to-day life we live.  As with many things in life, though, it isn’t the reality that we must modify, it’s the way that we face the reality.

This week, let’s ask God to adjust our perspective on time … to remind us that it, along with all else that exists, is under His divine care and subject to His divine plan.  By virtue of that, let’s ask Him to grant us comfort wherever the impact of time (in any direction) may detract from it.  Let’s seek from Him wisdom in the manner in which allow time to impact our response to reality.  And … it’s okay to ask Him to allow time to feel like more when we need it and less when we seek less … He knows our needs and in time will address them all.

Praising Jesus at all times,

MR