No Time Like the Present

The other day, Hanna, my not quite four-year-old granddaughter, said to me, “Nana, I stood by the window all morning. I waited for you for HOURS.” I smiled as I pictured her forehead pressed against the glass, enduring what felt like eternity before my arrival.

With age, time takes on a different perspective. When I turned 20, my sister-in-law wrote in my birthday card, “Welcome to the Twenties Club! From now on time will fly twice as fast.” At that point her words made no sense to me. Forty years later, I get it.

I’m constantly surprised at whatever day of the week it is “already!” The months flip past like kilometers between oil changes, and the seasons blur one into the next, often before I’m ready for them. And now – shocker – we’re on the threshold of another New Year and even a brand-new decade. 

I peruse journal entries from the past year and compare things I had hoped for to what actually happened. I look at photo albums and become mildly nostalgic because those days will never come again. With great joy I watch my grandchildren grow and yet there’s a tinge of sadness to see their childhood years passing so swiftly. 

Tim Challies blogs, “Is there anything more tragic than time? Is there anything that brings about deeper grief than seeing time pass us by, than acknowledging how much has already elapsed and how little remains? We who were made to live forever are now given a mere ‘threescore years and ten’ (Ps. 90: 10) before we are gone.”

Is that the problem? We were created for eternity and now we’re trying to cram as much living as possible into whatever limited time we have. We can learn from the past and plan for the future, but all we really have is today. Yesterday is gone and tomorrow may never come. No wonder the Bible tells us to redeem the time (Eph. 5: 16).

Identify the Giver
My first reaction to that verse is to get busy. Surely the Lord will be pleased with energetic productivity. Or maybe I should be more contemplative – placing less value on work and more on wonder. The snares lie in either direction really – it’s easy to stagger between frenzied busyness and mindless laziness. Maybe the issue isn’t so much what I do as why I do it – not motion, but motive that counts.

The word redeem in Ephesians 5 carries the idea of buying something out, emptying the shelves, purchasing as much as one can get, so it’s often translated as making the most of the time. We’re to treat our time as a precious commodity from God not to be squandered. Identifying the giver reveals the value of the gift. The time referred to here is not chronos (clock time), but kairos – a season, a time of life. So the idea is to make the most of the opportunities we have, to the glory of the One who sends them.

How much time do I have left? Only God knows. What he has made clear is that I should spend every moment aware of and grateful for his presence. Time will necessarily be spent one way or another. It can be wasted, but never hoarded. Most days will include work, worship, rest, relationships and a myriad of blessings and challenges. Through it all, my job is to wait with eager expectation for my Father’s return and manage whatever he gives me to do today with faithful commitment and joy.

Here’s to redeeming 2020. No time like the present!