Time Eternal
There are few things in life that are untouchable, uncontrollable.
Human hands can do great work and produce amazing creations. Yet, there are the untouchables. We cannot influence the sun’s habitual obedience to rise and fall. We cannot manipulate the ocean waves to halt their ebb and flow. We cannot interfere or change the given routine of twenty-four hours, seven days a week.
How we wish that we could suspend time! All the good books and movies about time travel show our impending desire to manipulate it all: the past, the present, and the future. Cultural idioms like “if only,” “bad timing,” “hindsight,” “turn back time,” and “time flies” show our obsession with time. However, despite all our vivid imaginations, our scientific investigations, and our intellectual attempts, we have yet to find a way to make time pause, rewind or fast-forward.
I sit in this stillness and hear my wall clocks intensely tick-tock against each other. One clock ticks and in the space where there should be a pause, the second clock in the room ticks. It is a cacophony of irritation; bleating the reminder that time ticks on, it just doesn’t stop.
Time, itself, is neutral. It is neither evil nor valiant. It just is.
I recognize this, but I still sometimes grasp for the untouchable, wishing that manipulating time was actually an option.
For me, it is not about re-writing wrongs or living a different life. For me, in this moment, I merely want to have some control over the unknowns of time. I know, in certain seasons, you can sympathize with this, too.
I am currently leaning into a newer view about time, though. Maybe you can, too.
Our use of time is futile and negligent if we only focus on the constraints of the clock and the calendar.
Think about it, if things have to occur within the realms of the ticking seconds and minutes, don’t we find ourselves deeply disappointed? If your use of time is rooted in that which is only tangible and temporary, you will feel unfinished, unproductive, and undone.
God works outside the restraints of our human concept of time. He is not bound to the same ticking seconds that we are. He has no boss, no rival, no equal and He cannot be halted, paused, manipulated, or misguided. This is immeasurable...God is eternal and the work that He accomplishes through us has eternal benefits as well.
He [God] 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 (NIV)
We are told here in Ecclesiastes that eternity has been put into our human hearts; we were created to live and make an impact outside the restraints of twenty-four hours. Even in our current fallible form, we can choose to select grace and find fulfillment in eternal outcomes.
Feelings of failed productivity or incompleteness that tend to dance around your thoughts may be because you are focused on the wrong measuring stick. This is inevitable in our fallen state. We see through temporal eyes more often than we see through eternal eyes. We measure our success through human accolades and praise. We value ourselves based on promotions and progress. We recognize good growth by the measurement of time. Yet, even in the completion of tasks and the praise of others, we can feel unsatisfied.
For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” 1 Peter 1:24-25 (NIV)
We wilt. Our glory fades. We will not be satisfied by what we do on our own because our worth here on Earth is temporary. We will only be truly satisfied in work that is to the Lord, aligns with His Word, and answers His call because that is the work that is eternal and endures forever. It doesn’t have a 5:00 pm deadline. It may not subscribe to a five-year plan. Its work continues while you sleep, while you are vacationing, and even when you pay no attention.
He [Jesus] also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.” Mark 4:26-29 (NIV)
Jesus’ parable here reminds us that A LOT happens in the kingdom of God without our knowledge. Time is not a concern for Him and work we begin on His behalf will be completed through Him and at the right time for the best harvest.
We can fall into discouragement so quickly, but, today, be encouraged in this: your prayers are eternal. Seeds that we have planted are growing eternally. When we neglect to pray or pay close attention to those planted seeds, God is at work on our behalf and for His glory. No matter how much time you feel like you have lost or how much time you still have left, what you choose to do for Christ will have an eternal impact. It is more than what can be done between the rhythms of the ticking clock, it is what He does with the rhythm of your choices.
Remember: No one knows what God has done from beginning to end (Ecc. 3:11) ...but we can count on it being good, advancing His kingdom, and blessing His children. Will there still be unknowns? Yes. Because He is God and we are not. But there is deep assurance that in those unknowns, we will find fulfillment in His presence alone instead of in our tangible productions.
If you are wrestling with time and feel as though you need it to look differently, hold to the promise that God is eternal, what He does is for Eternity, and as His child, you get glimpses of eternity, even now in this fallible, broken world.
Until next time my friend.
