What time is it? Where does the time go? Time flies when you are having fun. I simply don't have the time for that. It seemed like only yesterday. . .or, That seems such a long time ago. Time is running out.
Retired people in Michigan and Ohio would get their RVs packed, ready to escape the winter of the cold north and head to their winter homes in Florida. There is nothing wrong with that. There were many a winter I spent in Michigan and Ohio that I wished I could have hitched a ride with them. Something, though, was very telling when I watched older people who were unprepared for eternity try to squeeze as many activities, traveling, and recreation as they possibly could in their waning remaining years. For them, this life was it, and time was about to run out, so naturally, they had to get in as much as possible before the last grain of sand slipped through their own hourglass.
Our obsession with time only demonstrates that we were made more than just for time. This argument from time is an inescapable conclusion from the boundaries that are placed upon every member of the human race. The mortality rate is the same the world over--one death per person. From a human perspective we might be able to extend the quantity of the years of our lives and the quality of our lives if we do certain things to improve our health and well-being. Botox and plastic surgeries can only hide the inevitable. For every one of us, time is running out.
The Preacher of Ecclesiastes said there is a time for everything under the sun, including a time to be born and a time to die. On nearly every headstone at every cemetery, there are two prominent dates. One is the date of one's birth, and the other is the date of one's death. In between those two dates is a dash. That about sums up our lives--a dash. It all goes by so quickly. Maybe it is more like a mad dash. As the great theologian Lily Tomlin was fond of saying, "The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat." Or as someone else was quoted as saying, "What a tragedy it would be if you were to climb the ladder of success in this life all the way to the top only to discover too late that the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall."
That is why we find the apostle Paul in Ephesians telling us that we must redeem the time. We need to snatch up every possible moment in this life, because time is passing us all by. I think about some Christians that are wasting some precious time they may never recapture. They have so drifted from the Lord, they are out of fellowship with other believers, and their children at home are not being trained in the Lord as they should. More than just time will catch up with them, if they keep squandering the time given to them. I can't count the number of times when a Joe and Flo Doe came to me about all the problems they were having with their teenage son Bo, and they wanted a quick fix from me to make up for a lifetime of neglect and regrets.
In grief counseling we often hear that "time heals all wounds." To the grief caused by our own waywardness, these self-imposed wounds are only exposed more and more as time goes by. "Behold now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation." You heard about the guy who bought a book on procrastination, but he never got around to read it. Tomorrow truly never comes, especially if we spend time like the U.S. Congress spends our tax dollars.
From the workaholics to the pleasure-seekers to the busybodies to the party-goers to the lazy to the drifters, every man has a fixation with time, in one way or another. Everything man does with his time only screams at us that we are more than just animals who wear a Rolex. Why is that man has to try to pack in as much work or fun as possible in as little time as possible? Why does life resemble for so many people a mad dash rather than a pleasant walk? Why do we all sadly complain that we don't have enough time to do all the things that "have to be done"?
Man was made for more than just time. "He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end." (Eccl. 3:11) God always shows up on time. He will not allow us to take a peek into His daily or eternal planner. What He has done, though, is program within every beating heart a longing to have more than time in this life can provide. Eternity is stamped into our very being. Depraved man can deny it only for so long and try to cover it up with a lifetime of this worldly pursuits, but it can not be deprogrammed by any of man's clever ploys. We were made to live forever. There is something beyond that last date on the headstone.
Larry King was once asked when he faced near death due to his heart problems and surgeries if he ever gave any thought to matters of eternity, his soul and the afterlife. His reply was a cool and resolute, "No." I do not doubt Larry King's words, but in the quiet recesses of his mind when the camera and the microphone are nowhere present, I have to wonder if there are not many moments when Larry King, like everyone else, has that awful realization that time is quickly running out for him. Then what?
People really believe in heaven, and they really believe in hell, even when they say they don't. Time will only tell that to be true.
Yours in Christ,
Chris
