Skip to main content

Time Marches On


  How we measure time is a funny thing.  I’m not talking about how “ time flies when we are having fun” or the fact that “a watched pot never boils” but how we answer the simple question, what time is it?

  All you have to do is go thru daylight savings to know that the clock can be kind of arbitrary.  However, that is nothing compared to the way it used to be. In the past, the time was measured by the sun.  Whenever it was overhead it was noon.  That meant most cities had their own time.  That’s why town clocks were predominate, it told everyone the time for that town.  In fact, to stay with the sun, a watch had to be adjusted 1 minute for every 12.5 miles you traveled!

  All that changed with the train. For the first time, we could move faster than the sun.  So in order to get everyone on the same page (or clock), we moved to time zones. Today even that is harrowing since we can fly thru a couple of time zones in a morning.  You can get off a plane earlier than you got on it.

   Time is a difficult thing to keep track of but keeping track of it is important because we have a limited amount of it.

As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, Or if due to strength, eighty years, Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; For soon it is gone and we fly away.
Psalms 90:10 

  Our life is a vapor that is passing away.  No matter how we count it, by minutes, miles or moments, they slip away with such ease.  Time is a precious resource that should never be misspent. As we read in Ephesians 5:16,  “making the most of your time, because the days are evil”There are lots of ways to squander the seconds we been given but rather that waste them in worldly ways why don’t we seek spiritual thing by service?

  Time marches on. Are we moving with it or burning our daylight?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Until Midnight

    In Acts 20, there is the tragicomic event surrounding a young man by the name of Eutychus. He did what a lot of folks before and after him did, he fell asleep during a sermon. Unfortunately, he was setting in in the third story window at the time. So instead of nodding off and hitting the pew in front of him, he fell to his death. The good news was the apostle Paul was delivering the sermon and had the ability to bring him back.       I don’t know, however, if we can judge Eutychus too harshly. The sermon had gone on till midnight. Paul wouldn’t finish it up till daybreak. That’s a long lesson. I know some folks that might want to jump out of a window if I had a lesson that long, yet these Christians wanted to be there to hear Paul.   Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pushing for all night sermons but I think we might need to adopt these folks' dedication. They knew that Paul was only in town for a limited time only and they were determined to ...

The Gift You Give Yourself

    I always hated buying gifts for my Mom. If I got her something like a new set of pans, it was like saying “Here’s something you can use to go make me something to eat”. A gift for her was seemingly a gift for me.   There are however gifts you give that benefit you more than the receiver. For example, forgiveness. When you give it, you are giving it to yourself as much as you are giving it to them. Jesus said that when we forgive others it means God is forgiving us our wrongs (Matthew 6:14-15).  I once read: “ Heaven is where everyone's forgiven. Hell is where nobody's forgiven.  So, when we forgive we pull heaven down into our lives.  When we withhold forgiveness, we pull hell up into our lives ” Give yourself something nice today, Forgive.

Mysterious Ways

    William Cowper didn’t see any reason to live.   He decided that he’d jump off the bridge over the Thames. So, he called a cab to take him there.   But that night in 1763, a thick fog enveloped London. It was so thick the cab driver couldn’t find the bridge and couldn’t even find the way to take William home. In frustration, he ordered the driver to stop and get out to get his bearings. He walked up to the nearest house to read the number and it was William's house. Gone now were William’s thoughts of suicide and instead a new idea came into his head. So, he went in and wrote these words: God moves in mysterious ways His wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the sea And rides upon the storm.  You fearful saints, fresh courage take; The clouds you so much dread Are big with mercy and shall break In blessings on your head.     I sometimes wish we could see all the ways God watches over us when need it. There are...