Time is a blessing to humanity
Time keeps us in check. It helps us number our days. It helps us know when we are supposed to work and when we are supposed to rest. Ecclesiastes 3 captures it perfectly for us. It starts by saying, “To everything there is a season, and a time for every matter and purpose under heaven” (v1). It went ahead to list some examples. “A time to be born, a time to die: a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted. A time to kill and a time to heal: a time to break down, and a time to build. A Time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance…” (v2-4).
Because of time, we know when it is best to send kids to school. Time helps us know when to allow the teenager start that career in sports. Time helps us realize that at a certain age that teenager will be a full-blown adult in her thirties, and might not be able to chase that football career anymore. It is also time that makes the adult know he is ready to start a romantic relationship, and that thinking about marriage isn’t such a taboo, as it was when he turned thirteen. So, time is actually a blessing. We can say it is our friend.
Time can also be a curse to humanity
We can be so attached to time and how it works for us that the friendship we share with time can become a problem. We can so fix our gaze on all that time is and represent that we fail to see how time has a unique relationship with everyone. And we can’t blame ourselves, entirely. We can’t. We can’t because while growing up, time gave us mates. It gave us age mates, classmates and gender mates. We moved with these “mates” and we achieved a lot with them, at or almost at the same time. Then, we get to a particular stage in our lives and we begin to feel that time isn’t our friend anymore because we are no longer dancing to the same rhythm with our “mates.” However, what is happening is that the unique relationship time has with everyone is becoming more visible, but we fail to see and understand this.
Therefore, when we get to a season where we expect to be doing this or that but aren’t doing it, we feel the pressure. If we aren’t doing what we and people all around think we should be doing, we get anxious, nervous and may I add frustrated. It is at this point that so many of us make mistakes in our lives. When we believe it is time for “it”, but we are not “it” yet or “doing it” yet, we do everything we can to be “it” and “do it” because we believe it is now or it will be too late. At this point, time that is supposed to be a blessing becomes a curse because time is now the same force that inspires our wrong decisions and choices. As I write this, I am smiling, because I remember telling God, “Even if You answer my prayers now, it is too late because I am passed the age I needed answers to my prayers.” Yep, I told the Creator of the universe that. The One that lives out of time, yet controls time. The same God that makes sure my life don’t slip away from me when I am unconscious in my sleep. The same God that leads me out safely and brings me back home. I told Him He missed the perfect timing for my life.
Why the talk about Time?
I am writing about time because of recent experiences. Like never before, I am meeting people who made wrong choices and wrong decisions because they felt time wasn’t their ally anymore. Their wrong choices and wrong decisions were made because of time.
Don’t settle with choices and decisions that aren’t true to who you are just because you are afraid time is running far away from you, and you need to catch up with it. Don’t settle because you think time is taking too long to show up. If we take the “time factor” out would you choose that? Would you do that? Would you feel that way? If no, then…don’t choose it, don’t do it, don’t let that feeling consume you.
Abraham was obedient to God. At God’s command, he left his father’s house and idols to journey down a path that wasn’t even known to him yet. His heart was already towards God. In John 14:15, Jesus said, “If you love me, obey my commandments.” So, we can say Abraham loved God, because he obeyed God. Then why…why did God leave him childless “for so long a time?” When the promise of the son finally came, why the “long time” between promise and fulfillment? If Abraham and Sarah weren’t afraid of time, Ishmael wouldn’t have been in the picture. Then there was Saul, who was waiting for Samuel but Samuel didn’t show up. Why did God allow Samuel to run “late?” It was already passed the time Samuel said he was going to come, and the Israelite soldiers were ready to flee instead of fight. If Saul wasn’t afraid of time he wouldn’t have offered the burnt offering that led to his fall (SEE 1 Samuel 13).
Pay close attention to the two examples above. Abraham, Sarah and Saul weren’t the cause of the delay in their situations, God was. So yes, you might not be the cause of the delay in your life. Time has a unique relationship with everyone. That uniqueness is from God and it is connected to your personal purpose and calling in life. You just have to trust God.
When Time seem too early
While the major focus of this post is about the fear of time being too late, it is also important to, briefly, talk about time being too early. Recently, I did an intense study of the book of Esther and I really wondered how Esther was able to pull of all she did at a very young age. Then, there was Joash who became king at age 7. How can we forget the teenage David who confronted and killed Goliath or Jeremiah who felt he was too young to be used by God? Again, time has a unique relationship with everyone. That uniqueness is from God and it is connected to your personal purpose and calling in life. Don’t refuse to choose it or do it because you think that time is too early. You too need to just trust God.
My Prayer for you and me:
May our focus never be on time, may it be on Jesus and the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Get in the Gym.
Stay Spiritually Fit.
