Time and Eternity

Jen Wilkins

(God is Eternal):

He is simultaneously the God of the past, present, and future, bending time to his perfect will, unfettered by its constraints. The past holds for him no missed opportunity. The present holds for him no anxiety. The future holds for him no uncertainty. He was, and is, and is to come. 

Moreover, all of God’s actions within time happen at just the right time. He is never early nor late, never subject to the tyranny of a deadline, never in a hurry, never playing catch-up with a schedule that has careened out of control. Ecclesiastes 3 tells us that he assigns “for everything . . . a season, and a time for every matter under heaven”(v. 1). But it doesn’t feel that way from a human perspective. We look at the timing of events in our lives and think that perhaps, in at least a few instances, our timeless God has temporarily checked out. 

We can readily acknowledge that there is an appropriate time for everything, but we have fairly formed opinions on when those times should be. The time to heal is any time someone is sick. The time to be silent is when I’m done speaking my mind. The time to die is at the end of a full life, not a moment before. But we see all around us that tragedy and comedy, birth and death, mourning and dancing present themselves seemingly at whatever time they choose. Human comprehension labors to make sense of it all.

Trusting God with our time means we make good use of the time we are given. This sounds simple, but it’s not. Ephesians 5: 15– 16 tells us, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” The King James translates “making the best use of the time” as “redeeming the time.” We are commanded to be time redeemers, those who reclaim our time from useless pursuits and employ it to the glory of God. But how can we do this? I want to suggest three ways. 

1. Let Go of the Past

 Redeeming the time requires letting the past stay in the past. We can cling to the past by indulging in two different emotions: sinful nostalgia or regret.....

2. Let Go of the Future

 Redeeming the time requires letting the future stay in the future. We can cling to the future by indulging in two different emotions: sinful anticipation or anxiety.....

3. Live Today Fully 

Redeeming the time requires being fully present in the present. We can squander today by feeding two different sins: laziness or busyness. Both the lazy person and the compulsively busy person subtly reject the God-ordained boundary of time. The lazy person believes there will always be more time to get around to her responsibilities. She can spend today as she pleases. She is characterized by procrastination, missed deadlines, and excuses. Like a profligate spender of money, she spends time without considering the cost, secretly believing she has an endless credit of hours. Laziness believes that the time God has given is not precious. We must redeem the present by considering the ant, as Proverbs 6: 6 says, gathering when it is time to gather. 

The compulsively busy person believes there will never be enough time to manage her responsibilities. She, too, believes she can spend today as she pleases, packing in more than one day’s share of activity, complaining that there are not more hours in the day. She is characterized by exhaustion and overcommitment. Like a penny-pincher, she wrings every ounce of productivity out of every minute of the day, secretly believing that rest is for when we die. Busyness believes that the time God has given is not adequate. We must redeem the present by leaving time to observe the practice of stillness and the precept of Sabbath, taking on the trusting posture of one who sits at the feet of her Lord. 

When we work to redeem the time, we reflect our Creator. God is the ultimate time-redeemer: He redeems all of time, and he redeems at just the right time. We are charged with redeeming the years he has given to us as a reasonable act of worship.