In my life I have been passing through time and I am running out of time here on earth. I know this and it’s a feeling of sadness and joy. The pleasure God has given me in this short time has been more than any man deserves. I have not been very good and God knows all. Yet, he loves me and I know this deep within my being. Words have always interested me even when I was kicked out of school for questioning what a word meant in school. It was funny but, my mom was not happy for me questioning any teacher. One word keeps coming into my mind as I was feeling pretty rough this week. The word was “Time”. I have always despised the word time. Because I can’t get a good grasp of what time is in the eternal meaning. Time is my writing this week. I know I have not much time compared to my 3 month old granddaughter. I was holding her and thinking all the time she has and the great times she is going to have in the future. Oh, future is time? Is the future time now, or only when we get to that point is it time? So here goes my story. Hope you understand my wonderment of time.
I have been in deep thought which is not too deep about the meaning of time. What does time mean? How does time work? Have you ever thought about having a 34 hour days and not 24 hour days? If the earth moved slower would it have been a 34 hour day? If the earth would have moved faster could we have a 21 hour day? Would I be 39 or 60 years old if the earth moved slower? Again, if it moved faster would we be 103 instead of 60 years old? Time is so invisible to us, we just accept the time in our lives. We look at everything by the time we have during a day, week, month, year, and life time. Why do we look at time as past, present, or future? There was time in the past but, is there time in the past now? Why time is even used to calculate our lives and accomplishments is a question? How many accomplishments did we have ever before we were born? In the Bible it says God knew us before time. What was happening then? He will know us after this time so, why use time? I know the answer people will give! How do we know when school starts, we have to know what time it is. I was never on time so did it matter? Just kidding: You have an assignment due with great importance at work, you will use all your time to get it done and perfect. If time was not involved would you work as hard to get the product to the customer as quickly? It’s up to the person who is doing the work.
I look at my life in the terms of the different times I lived. I lived before now it’s in the past, so is it real cause I am looking at it in the present. I believe I will live after my flesh is dead. So actually is time real? Can anyone see time, yet we gage everything by time. Can I answer any of these questions about time?
The definition of time is, “The system of those sequential relations that any event has to any other, as past, present, or future; indefinite and continuous duration regarded as that in which events succeed one another.” Time to me is from birth to death. That is time! We can divide time however we want but the only time we have is birth to death.
Time is a system. From my youngest years the Bible has been my source of reference for day and night. However day and night have nothing to do with time. It’s only a difference for having sun and no sun. When the sun shines its day and when there is no sun it is night. This has nothing to do with time. Man made up the time system from the heavens. They knew rainy seasons from the stars. They knew when to plant crops from the stars. The “Time” was calculated by the heavens. I don’t remember ever using time except for church or school. Why did man make a choice to confine himself with time? Now every little thing we do is dictated by time. Why would we do this to ourselves?
Most experts say we are trapped in time. From the moment of our birth we are stamped with a time. At the moment of our death we are stamped with a time. If we really believe in the God All Mighty we are never in time. Our lives are eternal. So we have lived before, and forever in the future. Can we even imagine this in our little brains we have. So to me we have always lived!
I have thought about time from high school. I hated being told to be somewhere at a certain time. I worked for years on a time schedule of my own. Most never get this opportunity. I worked a job which was 24 hour days. I worked sometimes 2 to 3 days at a time and never get home. I could go to work at 4 am and leave at noon. I then would take time, which was valuable to me. When I got reviewed for my yearly raise, I turned down the raises for time. Time seemed to me to be freedom. I loved to be able to work when I needed to work. I also loved my time for freedom. When this changed at the end of my career I wanted out of the system. Cancer finally gave me all the free time I wanted. I was blessed and now with time coming to an end for me, it’s sad to see all the people who are in the system.
I have to say most will not understand the true meaning of liberty and freedom. When you’re 4 years old do you care if it is 2 am or 4 pm. Life is supposed to be that way. You get up with the sun and work and then stop work when the sun goes down. Nobody looked to see if it was 2 in the afternoon. They would just work, when tired, take a break, and then when the sun was setting they would go home and eat and sit and watch the sun go down. We have trapped ourselves by the month, day, hour and minute of every day.
I learned the value of time completely when I had kids. I learned how important time with them was to me. This was when I made the choice of time over money. People at work thought I was crazy. Maybe I was and am. Now that I have all the time I want, I am not able to do what I want. That is sad to me but, freedom is better than being a slave to time.
I watched two movies about time, “Jack” and “Mr. Buttons”. Both had to do with time in people’s lives. Jack grew up four years to every one year of a normal person. Mr. Buttons was born old and his life traveled backwards towards his birth. I was amazed with the thoughts of both of these movies. We just travel through time and never ever give much thought about the real question, time. Why is there time? To me time is not about a year, month, day, hour, or second. Time is about where are we? Why are we? I have no answer to either of these questions. I want an answer! I am not sure if in the eternal I will get an answer. But, I want an answer to time.
I will say that the travel in this life from birth to death is a pleasure. No matter what anyone says to me it has been a pleasure to be in this time. I wonder if we really appreciate the time we are given from our birth to death. We are trapped in man’s made time. Man’s time to me is chaos.
Aristotle and St Augustine agreed – St Augustine had reached conclusions that time does not exist without an intelligent being that is able to think in the present about things past, present and future. However he was not really happy with his own ideas and prayed for enlightenment
St Augustine wrote the following, “What then is time? If no one asks of me, I know; if I wish to explain to him who asks, I know not.”
“… a present of things past, a present of things present, and a present of things future. … The present of things past is memory, the present of things present is sight, and the present of things future is expectation.”
“My soul yearns to know this most entangled enigma. I confess to Thee, O Lord, that I am as yet ignorant what time is.”
Time rules our lives. Time controls everything we go to do. Yet, some of the smartest men in the world could never really figure out what time was. Duh, why did I write this? Cause I want to know. The only verses in the Bible that kept running through my mind were Ecclesiastes, written by Solomon. Ecclesiastes is one of the greatest books written by the wisest men ever. In this book he searched for all the personal happiness he could find. He also wrote about time. Here is the only answer I could get.
ECCLESIASTES CHAPTER 3
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?
I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. God holds time all time. I think I just found my answer. Wow!