On time

We might be the most time-conscious people ever. Perhaps the biggest factor in our acute awareness of time is the omnipresent clock. Everywhere we turn there are a variety of time-keeping devices (cell phones, watches, computers, bank marquees, etc.) that precisely measure away the day. Time tumbles on and we often navigate our day like Jack Bauer feeling the punch of each second gone.

Yet for all our fretting over time (or a lack of it) we have never had more ways to waste it. We have a plethora of time-saving technologies that provide opportunity to use even more time-wasting technologies. Our time is often absorbed by temporal pursuits rather than eternal ones. Time is too precious and the world throbs too intensely for us to watch the sands of time sink.

Not only can we waste away the present with frivolous pursuits, but there is also the temptation to live in times past. Nostalgia adds a satin finish to reality. Our mind, fueled with reminders of the past (music and scent being the most potent), busily reconstructs the past, churning out glistening gold memories. It is a temptation to bask in these memories, forgetting the needs of the moment.

There is the opposite temptation that exists as well. Instead of living in the past, we might long for the future, always chasing the next dream. Perhaps it is pursuing the next degree or job. Maybe we long for the next place of residence. Our hearts reside in what lies ahead, failing to recognize the needs of the moment.

So what are the needs of the moment?

Jesus has entered this world and dragged heaven down with him. Eternity has pierced the present with the coming of Christ's kingdom. Time needs to be redeemed because there is only so much of it; time had a beginning and it will have an end. Not only is time limited, but we don't even know how limited it is! In the meantime, what needs to be done with whatever time is left is the building up of Christ's kingdom.