Time is the strangest thing. It can move at a snail’s pace or at the speed of light. Something that happened last month can feel like it occurred eons ago. And memories of our childhood may seem like only yesterday. I know that God set up the law of time and that it is an unchangeable constant, but our perception of time is another story.
For instance… When I’m making dinner, and in a hurry, why does the pasta water take forever to boil? But when I want to have a leisurely cup of tea, the water boils instantly. What about the time it takes for me to run back into the house for something I forgot before we leave? It’s only a moment for me, but it’s an hour delay for my husband. And the years, what of them? How could it be 2022? I’m still catching up 2020, let alone 2021! I often say that for any given month, it starts on the 1st and the next day is the 30th. What happens to all the days in between? I have no idea. They just seem to disappear.
Time can be our enemy or our friend depending on how we look at it.
Especially for women, time is often viewed like an unwanted houseguest. Time translates into aging, and aging into wrinkles. How often do we look in the mirror and only see those wrinkles? Why can’t we view them as gauges of the wisdom that we’ve gained over the years? We are older yes, but we’re also wiser! We may have wrinkles on our faces, and our bodies may not be as firm as they used to be. We may have aches and pains that we didn’t have before. But we can still celebrate our longevity! We can appreciate the passage of time for all the opportunities it has afforded us to grow and flourish. Have you ever said, “I wish I knew then what I know now”? Time afforded you the opportunity to know what you know now.
I think of my career. I worked for 19 years at my last job from which I retired. I liked my job, and I was good at it. I made good friends. I learned A LOT! I had many wonderful experiences – and some very difficult ones. Do you know why all those things were possible? TIME. I sought to do my job to the best of my ability. I labored to master the skills required of me. But no matter how hard I worked, and no matter how meticulously I performed, I could not have accomplished everything I did without the passage of time.
I’m proud of my career. I didn’t make any life-changing advances for mankind, but I did all my jobs with honesty and integrity, and for that I was respected. Time gave me experience and that experience gave me worth. Anyone can do a good job for one day. But someone who does a good job for an extended period of time is a valuable asset. So, I guess I can say that “time was on my side”.
Think about this… I love, love, love my children and grandchildren. Did you ever consider that time is a factor for having children? Beyond the obligatory 9 months of pregnancy, time was necessary for me to become old enough to have children. Then there was time involved for my children to become old enough to have their children. Without that time, there would be no children or grandchildren.
And the passage of time influences our relationships with our children and grandchildren. I loved having babies that I could hold and cuddle. But in time, those babies grew-up and my relationship with them changed. It’s pretty hard to hold and cuddle my teenage grandchildren. And I’m not sure that I want any of them to sit on my lap. Even the youngest ones are too big to pick up now! But their being older gives me a chance to have wonderful conversations with them and to have fun playing games with them. As for my children – they are adults now with lives of their own. How wonderful it is to communicate with them as fellow adults! TIME made these things available.
But time does have a dark side. When we are hurting, time seems to stand still. When our heart is broken or we’re in pain, a moment seems like a day and a day seems like a year. In those situations, time appears to be our enemy. But I was taught that, “time heals all wounds”. Often, the passage of time is what’s needed to facilitate our recovery.
I had a torn rotator cuff several years ago. It was a painful and debilitating condition. And the residual pain from the corrective surgery was intense. Recovery took TIME. Enduring the pain was difficult, but I reminded myself that it would pass in time. And indeed, it did. I couldn’t make the time go faster, but I could patiently pursue a positive outcome. And at the times of discouragement or set-backs, I could regroup by reminding myself that someday I’d look back on this time as a distant memory.
When we are faced with hardships, we can remember that time can change things. “Time marches on” and because of that, change is inevitable. Of course, I’m not saying that time itself is the healer, but time is often necessary for the healing process.
As I mentioned at the beginning, God set up the law of time. That law makes it impossible to go backward in time, and we can only move forward as time allows. Therefore, it behooves us to make the best of our time right now. We can’t relive the past, but we can learn from it. We can’t jump into the future, but we can prepare for it.
Why not make TIME our friend? Consider the past as a constructive contribution to who we are in the present. Do away with ideas like regret or guilt. The past cannot be changed, so those ideas are merely a waste of time. Make peace with the mistakes of the past. (We all have them!) Hold on to the learning that you gained from them. Keep the past in the past.
Consider the future to be “as bright as the promises of God”. Regardless of what is going on in our lives right now, the future is going to happen because “time waits for no man”. And for Christians, our future is guaranteed. As my teacher used to say, “We’re going to heaven and all hell can’t stop us from going!”
Time may elude us or weigh us down. It might seem like there is never enough of it, or like we’re stuck in endless tedium. We may wish we could have a do-over or yearn for future events. But that’s all in our perception. Time is a constant. When we strip away all the trappings, we have only this very moment in time to live. Let’s do our best to make this moment count!
Note to my readers: Thank you for sharing your time with me. Thanks for reading!