Reflecting On Time

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven - Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NRSV)

With all that’s been happening in my life recently there is one constant that echoes through it all – the meaning and significance of time. My Dad’s death reminded me that we only have a few years of life (average life expectancy in the USA is just under 80 years). Having my youngest turn 21 reminded me that we have only a short time to enjoy each phase of life. Amy and I beginning to talk about retirement in the not too distant future (10-15 years from now) put a marker in the time of my life. And each day that is full of activities, work, chores, etc brings home the reality that what I want to do with my time almost always exceeds the time I have.

Time is such a fickle thing. It is measured and its practical limits known:

• There are 60 seconds in a minute
• 60 minutes in an hour
• 24 hours in a day
• 365 days a year (except in a Leap Year – once every four years – then there are 366 days)

But when you begin to talk about the beginning of time and how much time there is things get much less specific:

• The universe is about 13.5 billion years old – every so often this figure gets pushed back as we find new ways to look to the edges of our universe
• Our Sun will last another 5 billion years
• Humanity will become extinct in either 100 years or 1 billion years
• Average life expectancy is only an average, each person could die at any moment

So what is time and how do I make it make sense in my life?

Time is defined as: a measure in which events can be ordered from the past through the present into the future, and also the measure of durations of events and the intervals between them. But you and I both know that time is more than this. It is a commodity – “How you spend your time matters.” It is a resource – “How much time do you have to spend on this?” It is never-ending: “To infinity and beyond!” It is fleeting – “Time flies when you’re having fun.” It slows down – “Time seems to crawl by.” It is able to be stockpiled – “This can save you time.”

There are countless songs about time. There are untold stories that involve time. There are movies that center upon time. All of these are trying to make sense of it, help us understand it, or make the reality of it perceivable. They want to help us find a way to live with its relentless march or to fantasize about ways to circumvent it, overcome it, extent it or they hope to give us hope about ways to use it. But there is one simple truth about time – it marches on and nothing we can say or do can stop it – at least not in the universe we have and what we know of how it works.

So it seems critical to me that we use our time wisely; that we make sure and divide it up in ways that bring the most benefit to our lives, the lives of others and to the world. Time needs to be spent thoughtfully and it needs to be seen as an important part of the decisions we make. One thing I know for sure is that deciding how to use my time is a constant balancing act between what I need to do, what I want to do, what I would like to do, what I should do and what I can actually do. And I know that sometimes I do nothing which is an ok use of time too.

I know this is an incomplete Musing but time moves on and at another time I will return to this subject. Until next time I encourage you to use your time wisely.

Dear God thank you for the gift of time. Help me find the balance in my life where I use my time wisely. Amen.