Time Challenged?

Scripture tells us “to everything there is a season.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1) I know this as a fact, but it’s easy for me to overlook its truth. So much so, that I’ve given it a name. I’m time challenged!

Telling Time

When I was growing up, lower school curriculum included lessons on telling time the “old-fashioned way.” We read an analog clock by the position of the clock’s hands.

Then the digital age arrived. My students no longer tried to sneak a peak at the clock on the wall behind them. They wore fancy watches that posted easy-to-read numbers. Later, people quit wearing watches and used their phone to tell time. Brightly lit numbers on the face of the device needed no interpretation to know if you were late or on-time.

Through the ages, humans created various ways of keeping up with the hour of the day or day of the month. Sundials, hourglasses, obelisks, water clocks, and more marked the time of day. Calendars marked days, months, and years. But even with all these man-made devices, what do we know about time?

Time Challenge Troubles

I learned long ago that I have major trouble with time. I can read a clock and calendar as well as anyone. But knowing what time means and adjusting my actions accordingly is hard.

For example, I’m late. Often. Not because I don’t know what time my appointment or event is to take place. And not because I can’t read a watch (clock or phone!) I simply think it won’t take as long to get ready as it actually takes. Surely, I can do just one more thing before I leave, right?!

While there are moments when I think I have more than enough time, there are just as many instances when I think there’s not enough time. This usually happens when I have a task to complete. I put the task off – again and again. When I finally force myself to do that thing I have been sure I didn’t have enough time to do, I’m shocked that it doesn’t take as long as I believed it would take!

The saddest part of this time challenge predicament is, even after years of these situations happening to me and knowing I have this warped sense of time, I don’t change my perspective. I keep seeing the hours before me as too many or too few. I stay time challenged.

The Problem With Underestimating Time

Telling time is important, but using that knowledge well is vital. Think of all the ways not knowing the correct time or knowing but not acting on correct knowledge can create trouble.

Ever have power go out and your clocks are all wrong? The alarm you set doesn’t sound at the right moment because the power is off, and you’re late to work?

Or you use your phone as an alarm and discover you set the right time but forgot to turn the alarm on, oversleeping? You’re happy for the extra sleep but frantic that you missed that important appointment?

Recently I planned to join a Zoom meeting with a ministry I love. I was going to hear from missionaries overseas. I was sorely disappointed that evening when the meet didn’t happen. Finally, it dawned on me. I was using the wrong time zone. The meeting had happened hours earlier!

What Time Is It?

Here in the deep south of the USA, summer is hot. And August is summer. Ninety-degree summer. Not just hot, but humid hot. Walks at the park became few and far between. Air conditioning was much more inviting.

Driving around town, I thought I saw a hint of red in the trees. Surely it was a figment of my imagination. Leaves change in the fall, and the weather and calendar both said it’s summer!

August 7th, I took a much-needed walk in the park. Maybe humidity was lower or maybe I just braved the heat. I don’t remember. But what I do remember is I could no longer ignore the signs. Scattered through the park, the blush of red and glimpse of gold appeared. Just a tinge of color. Not full-blown in-your-face signs of what was ahead, but enough to catch your attention if you looked. While it felt like summer, fall was coming.

Time Challenge Confronted

When I was a child, Mom kept our next season’s clothes in the attic. With seven in the family and only three bedrooms, the small closets wouldn’t hold what we needed for every season.

Mom always knew when to have us pull the boxes down from the attic. We were made to try on clothes for the upcoming season. She knew a change was coming, and we needed to be ready.

I’ve never been good at seeing what’s coming and preparing for it ahead of time. My time challenge issues have me near-sighted when it comes to looking down the road. I wake up some days surprised when I’m not ready for what has come.

Walking in the park August 7th, I was confronted with my time challenge troubles. Then it hit me. There’s much more to being time challenged than being late for an event or not being ready for fall or spring. What about being ready for whatever God has in store for my next season? Or being ready for whatever is on God’s calendar?

God’s Timetable

While we live in a world constricted by time, God’s kingdom is timeless. There will come a day when I won’t have to worry about being late or having enough time to complete a project. Time will be no more.

All of us face eternity. We have only so much time here on this earth, and then we’re released from the bondages of time.

God says, it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. (Hebrews 9:27)

None of us will be late for that appointment.

But judgement? That sounds harsh, difficult, unsettling, dreadful. Sadly, it will be for those who aren’t prepared. Being time challenged spiritually will have devastating consequences. For those who don’t see eternity coming and who don’t prepare, judgement will be eternally dreadful.

Thankfully, we don’t have to be spiritually time challenged. We can be ready for that season to come. How? By trusting our eternity to Jesus. The Lover of our souls has already paid the price we should have to pay for our rebellion towards our infinite and holy Creator. The judgement we deserve was covered when Jesus Christ, the Son of God, shed His blood for us, taking on Himself the sins of every human who would ever live.

God’s timetable is set. It doesn’t change like man’s. God’s power doesn’t go out. His watch doesn’t stop. His calendar isn’t recalibrated. Our appointment with Him will be met. And we won’t have a choice about being on time for that meeting. But we do have a choice about being ready.

Be Ready For The Final Season

The question for everyone is have we accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord of all? He is the One who offers to provide the clothing we need for the season called eternity. His robe of righteousness is all we need for a life of relationship with our Holy Father. God sees ahead what I can’t see. He has already done what my mom used to do; He prepared what we needed before we even knew we needed it.

I may always have trouble with time here on this earth, but I don’t want to be time challenged when it comes to God’s timetable. He has put the signs all around us. And He has provided what we need.

Are we able to see the blush of red on the leaves around us. Do we know that fall is coming? Are we prepared for when it arrives? Trust Jesus. By His grace, each of us can be ready for the season ahead!

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

John 3:16

(Scripture: Taken from the King James Version; Photos: Taken by Carolyn Thigpen, August 7, 2021, Tribble Mill Park)