We are on week three of our GROW series and still looking at
the "G". (If you missed the previous weeks you can find the sermons
here and if you want the Bible Study guides you can find them here.) I am
sitting here reading old commentaries and new blogs, contemplating the meaning
of Giving - giving time, giving tithes, giving of myself - I find myself
reflecting on the age old question of what is time... C.S. Lewis in his work
Mere Christianity puts it this way:
“Our life comes to us moment by moment. One moment
disappears before the next comes along: and there is room for very little in
each. That is what Time is like. And of course you and I tend to take it for
granted that this Time series—this arrangement of past, present, and future—is
not simply the way life comes to us but the way all things really exist. We
tend to assume that the whole universe and God Himself are always moving on
from past to future just as we do.”--p.146
Augustine puts it this way:
“In the
Eternal...nothing passes away, but the whole is simultaneously present. But no
temporal process is wholly simultaneous...all time past is forced to move on by
the incoming future...all the future follows from the past; and that all, past
and future, is created and issues out of that which is forever present. Who
will hold the heart of man that it may stand still and see how the eternity
which always stands still is itself neither future nor past but expresses
itself in the times that are future and past?”--Confessions
So how does this impact me? How does it impact you? Why is
time important? Lewis says time is fleeting, Augustine says the past is forced
on to allow for the future -
John Piper says it "better to lose your life than waste
it" Are we wasting time? How do we waste time? So many questions so little
time...
Are you living in the past? Or are you finding yourself off
dreaming of the future? I often find myself thinking of days past, whether
wishing I could with present knowledge make a better past decision - or to stop
an injustice, right a wrong, or even just to savor a moment missed. But am I
wasting my time? I can't change the past, I can learn from past mistakes though
and when I use those moments to lean on the Eternal promises of God I find that instead of living
in the past I am looking towards the future, the promise of spending Eternity
in His presence. I don't believe God desires us to live in the past or in the
future but in there here and now.
Isaiah 43:18-19 says:
“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of
old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive
it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert."
Matthew 6:31-34 says:
"Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we
eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek
after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things
will be added to you. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow
will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."
Psalm 118:24 says: "This is the day that the Lord has
made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."
The word of God tells us to not dwell in the past, nor to be
anxious about tomorrow but to live for Christ today, to seek first the Kingdom
of God and let him take care of the rest.
As with Augustine I am still left wondering what time is,
but while I am wondering I am resting in the assurance that in my ignorance is
God's wisdom, in my weakness is God's strength, in my brokenness is God's
redemption. I am wondering but not worried, pondering but not perspiring,
enjoying the journey that He is faithfully leading me on.
"And I confess to thee, O Lord, that I am still
ignorant as to what time is."
Augustine of Hippo
Confessions: Book XI:25