TIME
There are the sayings “How time flies!” or “Where does time go?” As I age, I really do notice that time flies and there are not enough hours in the day to accomplish my tasks. As a child, I do not recall time being an issue, only when it came to doing homework or going to bed.
Physicists define time as the progression of events from the past to the present into the future. Einstein’s definition of time, in the “Special Theory of Relativity,” goes as follows, “the rate at which time passes depends on your frame of reference.” I find these statements very thought-provoking. How we pass time is up to us. Waiting for a doctor’s appointment goes by much faster if we are reading a magazine but if we are standing and watching the tea kettle boil for a much-anticipated cup of tea,time drags.
I am sure Abraham questioned God’s timing for a son and God’s promise of descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. Did time stand still as the Israelites laboured for Pharoah in Egypt or did wandering in the desert for forty years seem like eternity? What about waiting for the promised Messiah or the Second Coming of the Messiah?
King Solomon authored the following poem in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NAS)
A Time for Everything
There is an appointed time for everything.
And there is a time for every event under heaven:
A time to give birth and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
A time to kill and a time to heal;
A time to tear 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 throw stones and a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.
A time to search and a time to give up as lost;
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;
A time to be silent and a time to speak.
A time to love and a time to hate;
A time for war and a time for peace.
Martin Luther had this to say about time: “All human works and efforts have a certain and definite time of acting, of beginning and of ending, beyond human control. Thus, this is spoken in opposition to free will. It is not up to us to prescribe the time, the manner, or the effect of the things that are to be done; and so, it is obvious that here our strivings and efforts are unreliable. Everything comes and goes at the time that God has appointed. He proves this on the basis of examples of human works whose times lie outside the choice of man.”
Time. I take comfort in the knowledge that God controls our time and labours.
Annette Borchardt
VP District Administration
Central District
“Serving in His Strength” is a blog
published by the Member Development Committee of
Lutheran Women’s Missionary League–Canada, Inc.
Lutheranwomen.ca
2025