I recently returned from visiting family in New England. I absolutely love my family, both immediate and extended. We’ve been very blessed generationally to have stayed closely connected over the years. But one thing that is always a guaranteed aspect of visiting with family, and one that I find particularly challenging, is the inevitable “goodbyes.” Regardless of how much fun we’ve had, or how many tears we’ve shed together as we talk through the past year’s struggles and heartaches, no matter how much relaxation time I’m able to squeeze in, or how many precious moments of joy I get to experience with my very lively and always “getting bigger” nieces and nephews, the one thing that I can always count on is that I will, in just a matter of days, again have to say goodbye.
As I’ve brought my saddened heart to the Lord, I’ve discovered another reason to trust Him. It seems the Lord has directed me to the issue of time itself. For it is time that passes and time that ends that causes us to arrive at moments of heartache due to the loss of something or someone we love and hold dear. And so it seems that time is a culprit, if you will, and is the cause of a fair share of our suffering. And though we live in it, every second of every day of our lives, we are nevertheless often surprised, or feel at odds with, or even at times grow resentful toward the passing of time.
But this brings up some very interesting questions. If time is such a fact of reality, why don’t we accept it as such? Why do we react to it as if it is some kind of foreign invader? My suggestion here is that our conflict with time is actually an indicator that we were not ultimately made for time; rather we were created for eternity.
Our discomfort with time proves that we were made for another world
Why aren’t we more comfortable with time? Why do we feel so rushed? Or when we are bored, why do we utter things like, “I’m just killing time”? We either want it to speed up, or we demand that it must slow down. We are not at peace with time. Things we dread come too soon. Things we relish cannot come soon enough. And we all know that the loss of a loved one to death seems very much like an affront to life in all of its forms. And, in fact, it is an affront. The Scriptures even rightly call death our enemy (1 Cor. 15:26).
Once, I heard a great teacher comment that our keen awareness of time and its seemingly endless constraints on us is most certainly strange, given that time is an inextricable part of life. He likened our awareness of time to a fish being aware of water. And what if the fish was not only aware, but even felt at odds with its liquidy surroundings? That most certainly would be strange. Unless, of course, the fish was meant to be a land animal. The parallel simply makes the point that our battle with time seems to point to the very real fact that we were not ultimately created to live within it as we currently do.
Goodbyes and death and hurriedness and the fear of running out of time and the angst we feel when unwanted tasks are closing in upon us, all of these things feel so uncomfortable. But why? Aren’t they just part of life? I don’t think so. Not in the ultimate sense. Not in the sense that we humans were made for something else. Somewhere else, in fact. As the Scriptures teach us, “He (God) has also set eternity in the human heart …” (Eccles. 3:11). In other words, it is quite natural for us to long to be released from the shackles of time, because we were never meant to stay here. We desire eternity in our heart of hearts because that is what and where we were built for it. And this biblical claim rings true universally. All people are aware of an instinctual knowledge that there must be something more than what we can see.
The death of time proves that we were made for another world
This issue of being so uncomfortable with our life in time here is not something only the Christian feels. Death, for example, is foreign to us all. Even those who claim to hold no religious beliefs, suddenly at the death of a loved one speak out of their hearts things such as, “Oh, how I hope to see them again someday on the other side.” How curious this is. But is it? Not according to the Christian worldview. In fact, such an admission is the most natural thing to assert at the moment of death, precisely because each one of us has been created for heaven — a place where time will no longer be a constraint. A place where there will be no goodbyes. A place where time never runs out. A place without human hurriedness and the anxiety that time produces in us when we don’t have enough of it.
In a letter of consolation following the death of a dear friend’s wife, C.S. Lewis remarked, “Notice how we are perpetually surprised at Time. (“How time flies! Fancy John being grown up & married! I can hardly believe it!”) In heaven’s name, why? Unless, indeed, there is something in us which is not temporal” (A Severe Mercy, Sheldon Vanauken).
Times of waiting prove we were made for another world
I listened to a sermon recently that extrapolated some very practical lessons from the life of Joseph. The pastor pointed out how Joseph at times was forced to wait. During one season, he was even unjustly sentenced to years of imprisonment in an Egyptian dungeon! We can learn from Joseph that it is possible to continue to trust God even when we find ourselves waiting. But why is waiting so hard? Isn’t this yet another example of the conflict that time poses? If we are not meant to have something until later, why aren’t we more comfortable doing without it for now? Isn’t it time alone that separates us from those feelings of happiness and contentment that accompany whatever unmet desire we are currently so anguished without?
The waiting that we all have to deal with at one time or another is a temporary pain that God can use for our good. He can use it to mold our character and help us to become more like Christ. Of course the Lord is able to use all of these difficult aspects of time to shape us. And the trial that is called “waiting” is yet another aspect of temporal time that should remind us of eternity. We struggle to wait because we have unmet desires.
Christ wants us to come to Him and be fulfilled. Waiting is a temporary reality while we are here on earth that is used by God for our sanctification and acts as a powerful reminder of heaven.
The implications of accepting an eternal view of time
If we allow ourselves to recognize that there is, in fact, something quite disruptive about time, maybe we can start seeing it through the lens of eternity. The Apostle Paul talks about how followers of Christ shouldn’t get themselves entangled in affairs and circumstances on earth that distract us from our mission.
Time is such a powerful reality for us that it is tempting to get “caught up” in the conflicts that it creates. But what if we were to take a moment and remember that this earth is not our permanent home. Perhaps if we did, some of our angst concerning time might be alleviated.
If we stop expecting things to go a certain way, a way in which they will never be able to go as long as we are here on earth, perhaps we can gain a bit more peace about how things are operating right now. Saying goodbye to my dearest loved ones could cause me to cultivate a heart that is resentful, sad or even angry. But what if I were to remember that it won’t always be this way. And, in fact, the Lord is preparing a place for us right now where togetherness will be our forever reality.
Learning to trust the Lord more is always our aim as Christ followers. Maybe if we let go of expecting time to suit us, we could make more room for trusting Him. God is eternal. He is not constrained by time in the way that we are. And He knows how we feel about it. He knows everything about us. He is the one who has given us time, for the time being, so can we trust Him to use it to work for our good, even if and when our flesh might feel otherwise.
Rather than continue to be an enemy that we find ourselves battling with daily, might we consider time rather as a sign post, or even a friend, pointing us to the Lord and His eternality?
Rather than focus on the frustration we feel when time is not going our way, might we lift our eyes instead to Christ and remember that He is up to something good. Yes, the best is yet to come for everyone who turns to Jesus and is reconciled to God. For heaven is to come. And this is true regardless of the pain of the present.
“This too shall pass” is a comforting retort when we are dealing with time that hurts. Though once we take that step into eternity, where we will at last and finally discover that we are truly home, it (time) will never pass and our joy will be complete.
— Faith Thompson earned her M.A. degree in Christian Apologetics from Veritas Evangelical Seminary. She serves as a director with Ratio Christi, an apologetics ministry serving high school and university students. Thompson is passionate about helping believers learn how to offer an intellectually robust defense for Christ. She also leads evangelism trainings that address the most common roadblocks for believers today.