Time Moves

At seemingly differing speeds, all at the same instant.

Here it is, the 1st of October, the year 2010 is rapidly winding down, the Christmas season will be upon us before we realize it (Is someone keeping track of how many shopping days are left? It would not do to lose track of the true reason for the season after all). We will celebrate the birth of our Lord (the real season reason in case you missed the sarcasm), and move into a new year. Time moving at what seems to be ever increasing pace as I get older.

Here it is, the end of another work week. There has been vacation time, and travel and return to house, hearth and cubicle. A good week, but one that has seemed to go on longer than the 4+ days that have transpired.

Time at differing speeds at the same instant. As I ponder this, I think it is my faith walk that allows me to cope with the changing speeds of my life. It is walking with Christ that allows me to know that whatever pace life takes, I am moving at the right speed, for He is with me and I feel Him by my side. My faithfulness in Him doesn't change His attitude to me, He loves me, no matter what. But it allows me to be calm in Him but of that faithfulness.

Time moves as He wills it, and I hope to keep up the pace He wants me to.

Before Time

Before time I was. No, I am not claiming to be divine; I was before time because God made it so:

¹⁶Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.
Psalm 139:16 (NASB)

Before He created time, God ordained the days of my life. Not just me alone, He did this for all of us. Psalm 139 is a wonderful Psalm when think of the preciousness, the sanctity of life. If God would ordain each and every life to the fullness of the days we are to live on this earth even before He created time, how can we not treat it with the utmost value, respect and love?

Some may say that since the fullness of days is ordained, there is nothing we can do to change things, but I find that a fatalistic and somewhat arrogant stance. Who are we to know what the fullness of days is? Are we not to live each day as it is our last, for only God knows which one truly is our last?

It is not for us to end life, that is for God to ordain. It is not for us to determine life, God took the time to do that before He created time. It is for us to live it to His glory each day to the fullest of our ability, and let the fullness of our lives be in His hands.

Marking Time

I am amazed at how my attitude to time has changed in the past six months since my retirement. Prior to that date, I marked time in very small increments: I had an Outlook calendar on my office PC which synched up with my Blackberry, which was with me the rest of the time. Appointments and meetings were measured in minutes, often abutting in a manner that would have made the stonemasons constructing the Jerusalem temple proud with the seemingly seamless fit. As back-up, there was my trusty watch and in emergencies, there was always the cell phone clock (which resets itself after multi time zone flight in an almost spooky manner).

Upon retirement, I was severed from the Blackberry and decided not to use Outlook calendar anymore. Radical time management change just when I had a radical change in the life to be timed. I had a period of Excel based checklists and Word based to do lists, but I got over that pretty quickly. I view it now as my halfway house approach. What do I do now? I have a manual, week at a glance type calendar. My time management has become low tech, but high touch. What few appointments I have I write in pen and cross out if cancelled or after they occur. Who is this guy?

Most amazing, there are days I don't even look at it. I usually remember where I need to be when. Most days, I don't wear a watch. I told a friend that some weeks the only way I know it is Saturday is that the store I am in seems busier than usual; the only way I know it is Sunday is that my wife takes me to church. Who is this guy? I have gone from being the NIST-F-1 Cesium Fountain Atomic Clock to mighty Mississippi. Yet, although the pace has slowed, my view of time is becoming longer term. I think about what I am going to be doing several years out, planning and studying for it to be Kingdom work of some sort. I know the words of Matthew 6:34 tell us about tomorrow worrying about itself and today having enough troubles of its own. I am not worrying, I am planning activity.

All in all, I like this new approach to time. I think it fits my Christian walk better than the slicing and dicing of each micro second I was indulging in. It is less about manmade rules and regulations and more about time flowing as God intended. I do not think in eternity terms as often as I should, but I am working on it. This pace seems more about God than it does about me. More like the concept of a day being a thousand years, but a thousand years a day. I like the way it fits me. Never would have imagined this a year ago.

Who was that guy?