Time Keeps on Slippin’… into the Future
Yesterday, I had a surgical procedure, and it was eye opening. What I had done isn’t important to this story, but the experience is.
I had to check in for my procedure at 6 am and it was scheduled to start at 7:30am. My wife looked it up online and found the typical surgical time was 90 minutes. I was rolled back to the operating room and had to scoot onto a narrow metal table. They asked me to take a couple of breaths of oxygen and then told me I was being put under. No counting down from 100. I just lost consciousness. Next thing I know is that I woke up in the recovery room very aware of my surroundings and asking for lip balm. That’s when I found out 5 hours had elapsed. I might write later about why it took 5 hours but what I first contemplated was how quickly I lost consciousness and how I had no recollection of any of the time between then and the 5 hours later.
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.” - Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 ESV
“But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.” - 2 Peter 3:8-10
To my wife, those five hours must have seemed like an eternity, encouraging her to think of and worry about all kinds of unpleasant potential outcomes. Who is strong enough in their faith not to?
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” - Philippians 4:4-7
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” - Matthew 6:25-29, 34 ESV
How quickly time goes under some circumstances (mine) and how slowly that same time period can seem to others (like my poor wife in the waiting room). Some tasks like cleaning out a closet can easily wait while other tasks like telling someone you love them may not be able to be delayed one minute. Are you wise enough to know the difference?
