The Flow of Time
Justin Jones / Executive Pastor of Spiritual Formation and Strategic Development
Right in front of the house is a stream. Two of the days we were there, we took the kids down into the stream and had fun looking for little creatures, building things with rocks, and swimming around. At one point, while the kids were playing, I fell silent and just started to think and meditate. It has been an extremely busy summer filled with lots of noise and activity and I was yearning for some quiet.
While I was sitting quietly, I started to meditate on the flow of water around me. It was a gentle stream, but the items floating down the stream did not stop. They were moving forward, being dragged along incessantly in the flow. It struck me how much this paralleled time. We are in the flow of time and there is nothing we can do to stop it. God is writing His story and has positioned us in a place in the “stream” of time for a reason. We often hope that we can stop time or gain time back or waste time. But time does not stop for any reason.
For most people, including myself, I think this can feel overwhelming. We want our time to count. We want the time we have to mean something for God and for the world. We say yes to too much or too little, we try to control our time and cherish it in an unhealthy way, or we try to “balance” it all out but for the wrong reasons or in a wrong way.
As I watched the leaves and other items flowing by me in the stream, they didn’t look stressed or hurried or rushed. They were at peace in the flow of time. They rested in the stream in which they were placed. They magnified the beauty of the larger picture and the maker of creation.
In this day and age where times feel troubled and worries abound, we can feel out of control. We can either retreat in apathy or go crazy trying to make our time count. I have done both. But there is peace in understanding two different scriptures:
When we can understand the time that God has placed us in and accept it, and also rest in His plans for us on an everyday basis we can discover the rest of that quiet stream. We can let Him control our schedule instead of us. We can listen for His voice in the chaos. We can stop trying to resist the flow of time and rest in His grace in the midst of that flow!
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| Photo by Karim Sakhibgareev on Unsplash |
I was recently on a family trip at a cabin/house in the middle of Elk County, PA. It is owned by one of my wife Janelle’s family members and they were kind enough to let us stay there for a couple of days. Being that it is in a valley in the middle of nowhere it is so beautiful and serene. I have been there many times and we routinely see elk in the yard or down the road and the view of the surrounding mountains is breathtaking.
Right in front of the house is a stream. Two of the days we were there, we took the kids down into the stream and had fun looking for little creatures, building things with rocks, and swimming around. At one point, while the kids were playing, I fell silent and just started to think and meditate. It has been an extremely busy summer filled with lots of noise and activity and I was yearning for some quiet.
While I was sitting quietly, I started to meditate on the flow of water around me. It was a gentle stream, but the items floating down the stream did not stop. They were moving forward, being dragged along incessantly in the flow. It struck me how much this paralleled time. We are in the flow of time and there is nothing we can do to stop it. God is writing His story and has positioned us in a place in the “stream” of time for a reason. We often hope that we can stop time or gain time back or waste time. But time does not stop for any reason.
For most people, including myself, I think this can feel overwhelming. We want our time to count. We want the time we have to mean something for God and for the world. We say yes to too much or too little, we try to control our time and cherish it in an unhealthy way, or we try to “balance” it all out but for the wrong reasons or in a wrong way.
As I watched the leaves and other items flowing by me in the stream, they didn’t look stressed or hurried or rushed. They were at peace in the flow of time. They rested in the stream in which they were placed. They magnified the beauty of the larger picture and the maker of creation.
In this day and age where times feel troubled and worries abound, we can feel out of control. We can either retreat in apathy or go crazy trying to make our time count. I have done both. But there is peace in understanding two different scriptures:
• Romans 13:11 “And do this, understanding the present time: the hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.”
• Psalm 90:12 “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”