It is difficult to think about the concept of âTIMEâ without wandering off into enemy territory, âDistractionâ, but I will try. Imagine first, you wake up and are given $100 to spend on yourself and a child. You make breakfast first, (you still have $100).  You get in the car only to discover you need gas. After stopping to fill the tank and picking up a convenient snack, youâve spend $25 and now have $75. You head to the toy store and find the exact toy your child wants on sale! $10 well spend⊠you now have $65.
You head to the park while your child plays with the perfect toy. Hours later the ice-cream truck calls to you, you now have $60. Your child is ready to go home where you both nap, have dinner, say your prayers and go to sleep. You look at the clock, itâs midnight, âNice, I still have $60.â
Such is the commodity of money. TIME however is different. It cannot be âsavedâ⊠it is only âspentâ. With or without your approval; with or without your involvement⊠time does not wait for you.
Time was⊠time is⊠time will be⊠TIME. Beginning at midnight, we are each given 24 hour units of time to spend for the day. If you wake up at 6am, youâve already spent ÂŒ or 6 hours of your daily time allowance. (If you wake up at noon, half of that day is gone!) Depending on which source you use, the average life expectancy is roughly 85 years.  (https://www.ssa.gov/planners/lifeexpectancy.html)
That means that at 55 years, I have âspentâ over 20,000 daysâ worth of time! I can now âbudgetâ or estimate my remaining time on this planet at 30 years⊠or just over 10,000 days. Hmmm⊠about one-third left. God-willing đ Isnât that what we say? These numbers show that I have a PAST, obviously, a PRESENT, and most likely, a FUTURE.
C.S. Lewis speaks to the TIME concept in both The Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity. In the first book, Screwtape explains to his nephew that God wants man to attend to the PRESENT as the PRESENT is that point in TIME that touches ETERNITY. Darn! ETERNITY? The life expectancy calculators that I found online didnât address that. Screwtape further advises that to secure a manâs soul for Hell, it is best if the man can be influenced to live in the PAST or even better, the FUTURE. For the FUTURE inflames hope and fear, and it is the thing least like ETERNITY.  (If you do not think often about your eternity, I would suggest that Screwtape and his minions are doing their jobs well!)
In Mere Christianity, a series of radio addresses from 1943, Lewis who was once an atheist, is invited to speak about what Christians believe. After a logical argument on our innate sense of Right and Wrong, and discussing Human Nature, he concludes with the existence of God. He then addresses Christian beliefs including the difficulties a man can have with the concept of free will and a God who knows everything. He provides an example of an author writing a sentence, âMary laid down her work; next moment there was a knock at the door.â The author could have spent hours thinking about Mary between the point on that imaginary timeline where Mary laid down her work and the point where there was a knock.
Christians believe that God is the Alpha and the Omega; God is omnipresent⊠everywhere at the same time. He is outside and above what we call TIME.
Lewis further explains, âThis idea has helped me a good deal. If it does not help you, leave it alone. It is a âChristian ideaâ in the sense that great and wise Christians have held it and there is nothing in it Contrary to Christianity. But it is not in the Bible or any of the creeds. You can be a perfectly good Christian without accepting it, or indeed without thinking of the matter at all.â
Iâm good with my current grasp of the concept.
So, what does the bible say about TIME?
John 1:1 â In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 Peter 3:8 â But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
Psalm 90:12 â So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Ephesians 5:16 â Making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
Hebrews 13:8 â Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
And remember Turn, Turn, Turn from the Byrds? (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)
James 4:14 â Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
2 Timothy 3:1-5 â But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God â having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
1 Timothy 4:1 â The Spirt clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.
Luke 21:36 â Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.
Mark 13:32 â But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
Matthew 24:36 â But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
Matthew 24:42 â Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.
Clearly, before TIME began, there was Godâs WORD. No one knows when TIME will end, but it will.Â
The estimated 30,000 days we have here on earth are by no means guaranteed and they are but a drop of water in the ocean of eternity. It is our choice how to spend each day.   For me, I choose to spend time from each day in His Word.
John 5:24 â Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.