A couple of thoughts related to time

Technically, it is not even summer yet, but today I found myself longing for fall. However, I quickly stopped. You see, I have learned, especially since becoming a parent, not to wish life away. If one is wishing for a future moment to hurry and get here, one tends to miss the blessings of the "now moment".

For example, say one has a child in the diaper stage of life. Changing diapers gets old fast and it is tempting to yearn for that stage to be over with. The problem is that it will go by all too quickly. Once it is gone one can never get it back. To further the illustration, even though I love my boys now, sometimes I miss what it was like when they were babies. Its not that I have regrets from those days, I just want to hold one of them again as a newborn. But I cannot--ever.

Therefore, do not wish too zealously for the future. It will be here soon enough. Enjoy this season.

In Poems and Prayers and Promises, John Denver wrote,
"The days they pass so quickly now,
The nights are seldom long.
Time around me whispers when its cold.
The changes somehow frighten me,
But still I have to smile.
It turns me on to think of growing old."

When I was younger I agreed. I thought that growing old sounded cool. I envisioned myself as successful and wise and enjoying the fruits of a good life. I think I have come to disagree with myself. I see so many people in my life struggling with the problems of "the golden years"; some physical and some otherwise. It is kind of a welcome to reality show.

The Teacher understood this. He wrote in Ecclesiastes 12:
...3 when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men stoop, when the grinders cease because they are few, and those looking through the windows grow dim; 4 when the doors to the street are closed and the sound of grinding fades; when men rise up at the sound of birds, but all their songs grow faint; 5 when men are afraid of heights and of dangers in the streets; when the almond tree blossoms and the grasshopper drags himself along and desire no longer is stirred. Then man goes to his eternal home and mourners go about the streets. 6 Remember him—before the silver cord is severed, or the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, or the wheel broken at the well, 7 and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. 8 "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Everything is meaningless!"

Sounds bleak. However, he also knew the solution. He wrote in verse one, "Remember your Creator in the days of your youth. Before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, 'I find no pleasure in them.'..." We should not long for the future or the past. Neither should we fear the future or the past. We should seize the moment, not in a sense of self gratification or personal fulfillment. Rather, we should seize the moment by "remembering our Creator", that is, living for the glory of God right now, building the Kingdom, right now.