TIME

Clock Time, Jamestown, NC

 “Time is not measured by clocks but by moments.  If you take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves.  Life teaches us to make good use of time, while time teaches us the value of life.”

To begin, time is a human construct.  Time doesn’t exist, clocks exist.  We must proceed cautiously or the clock will dominate our lives.  The Creator of this existence is not bound by time.  We mark the passage of our lives by how many times we circle the sun.  How old would you be if you hadn’t done this?  We mark the passages of days by how many hours pass before the sun returns to the same spot in the sky.  This passage will be different for other planets.  We can’t grow up fast enough when we’re young, but time goes too fast as we age.  Sunrise, sunset.  Time can’t go fast enough when we’re bored or in pain, but time goes too fast when we’re having a good time.  And I love the analogy that time is like a river.  You can never cross the same river twice for the flow keeps passing and is never the same again.

As we grow up, we consider that we have all the time in the world.  As we age, we understand that it is limited.  Everything on this planet has an expiration date, with one exception, our spirit.  We were given five senses to perceive the dimension we inhabit.  If there are others beyond our comprehension, it’s probably best we don’t have them.  The very nature of this physical world seems to be focused on the continual recycling of star dust into new creations that have the ability to advance our existence.

Is it wise to waste time?  Does it matter?  Any time spent with good intention would seem to be well spent.  If we want to do something we will find the time.  If not, we will find an excuse.  Solomon, perhaps the richest and wisest man that ever lived, wrote in Ecclesiastes that “Everything is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”  But he also wrote that there is a time for everything such as “a time to be born and a time to die…a time to tear down and a time to build…a time to keep and a time to throw away…a time to be silent and a time to speak” among many other sage observations.        

A good test of a life is to examine where we spend our time, for that is where the heart resides and defines our lives.  Solomon concludes the third chapter by observing “I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.  That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God…All go to the same place; all come from dust and to dust all return.” 

It’s been said that children primarily live in the present, adults also live in the future and seniors live more in the past.  I believe we should aspire to a good life so that when we begin to fall back on life’s memories, we will smile.  Especially if we follow the ways of the heart and spend our earthly time wisely.

IMMORTALITY

Immortal, Jamestown, NC

William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon, is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language. He created a cast of characters four hundred years ago and breathed life into them through his unprecedented talent. They’ve been introduced to generations of people and include Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, Othello, Romeo and Juliet. These characters are part of a select club that have come close to the elusive concept of immortality through the written word. If history holds true, however, they will inevitably be lost in the sands of time. Even the bard himself can’t create a promise of hope for life everlasting and he's written about it. It’s been said that practically everyone will be forgotten within two generations.

One of Shakespeare’s most famous quotes from Macbeth says it all:

“Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
that struts and frets his hour upon the stage
and then is heard no more. It is a tale
told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
signifying nothing.”

That’s a mantra for the existentialist in all of us. Solomon, acknowledged as the richest and wisest man who ever lived, writes in his opening chapter of Ecclesiastes that “there is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow”. Life is “a chasing after the wind”. And the apostle James writes in chapter 4, “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes”.

Fortunately, our Creator has left us with a much more positive message in the third chapter of John, proclaiming that if we believe in the redeeming power of His Son, our ultimate destiny does not perish with the short span of this mortal and sometimes difficult earthly life. We will transition into the priceless gift of a restored and eternal spiritual life where we’ll be reunited with those who remember us and our Creator who never forgot us!