Time Keeps on Slippin...Slippin...Slippin...into the Future

"Time is now fleeting, the moments are passing,
Passing from you and from me;
Shadows are gathering, deathbeds are coming,
Coming for you and for me. "
-from the hymn "Softly and Tenderly" by Will Lamartine Thompson 1847-1909

How many clichés have been written about the passage of time? Pop songs express time being like a runaway train that will never be stopped. Worn out metaphors such as time slipping like sand through one’s fingers have been expressed over and over again. And then there is the conception of time (also a cliché) being a ticking time bomb- much like the show “24”- counting down…in our case, counting down to our demise.

The answer from many people seems to be: “live life to its fullest” or “live always in the moment” but which person among us knows how to fully do these things? We are busy people. Scrambling around from one event to another and working and hanging out with friends and following our daily schedules. This is the reality of living which often does not include being thoughtfully reflective of every passing moment.

I turned 29 not too long ago and am getting closer to the number that many signify as the end of youth- 30. I’ve talked with many of my friends recently about the passage of time. We talk about quarter life crisis or that college just seemed like yesterday or I still don’t completely know what I want to do with my life and I should since some arbitrary number apparently means I should be an adult. Being an adult may imply too many- “I have it all figured out”.

Nobody has much of anything figured out, I’m convinced. God does…this I believe and I wonder what the experience must be like to sit above a timeline like God does. He created time and is not limited by it and has complete autonomous freedom from time. Peter wrote, “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (2 Peter 3:8, ESV- this being in the context of discussing the judgment of all at the end of time but also indirectly teaching that God is not bound by time). I am a created being which directly implies my point of beginning and a long period prior of eons that I did not exist. Isn’t it unfathomable to try and conceive of long periods of history that one did not exist? Then to think that I’ve only been alive for 29 years…

Time seems to go faster. This is probably because now as an adult I can remember stuff vividly that happened four or five years ago. Also, when I was growing up, I think I longed to be older especially as a teenager. When I had this mentality, I didn’t reflect on the past or prior events as much as I do now. I’m trying to think of the time that I stopped wanting to be older. Where is that line where we stop wanting to be older and actually want to stop time…if only we could?

One of the more interesting verses in the Bible about time is in Ephesians 5:15-17: “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.” The phrase “the days are evil” jumps out at me. The days are fleeting and passing by and counting down to our inevitable decline. This a result of the Fall of humanity and thereby, sin. “The days are evil” but we are to seek to understand the Lord’s will.

The Lord’s will can be mysterious but was summed up by Jesus (who was equating the whole Old Testament law to this command), “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.” This is God’s will and what a monumental task to strive to do within time. To love God with every aspect of our life in whatever we do and to love our neighbor is the purpose statement for living life in this bubble of time.

We can spend our time doing a lot of different activities, vocations, and travels. However, as time slips into the future (to use another cliché), the focus that we are to have- the one that gives a deeply personal meaning- are the words of Christ.