The Lost Time Episode:
(Click for Audio) You wake, glance at the clock out of habit, look at the windows to ensure light is coming in (after all, it is nearly summer and the sun is coming up around 5am), and you see that it is 6am… Normal waking time for this season of life.
It’s that kind of day. The plate is full, you must be ready for tomorrow, today. Monday and now Tuesday is already full on the calendar, so there’s not much time to waste. It’s the first day of your bride’s vacation, an important family member arrives in the afternoon, and you countdown the items you must accomplish before noon.
Your morning routine is in full swing when you happen to glance at the clock, again. Suddenly, you cannot account for the past 2 hours! Where did those 120 minutes go to? That’s over 7,000 seconds! What gives? It’s not time to panic, only you no longer have those hours to pad your schedule. You now have to get up and get super busy.
First…a quick blog….
Are we in control of time? Or does it control us? Do we actually live by timed events? Or did we create the events to give structure to life? After working a 40 year career of schedules, and time focus, are we really content to while away our retiring years aimlessly?
Back in the early 60’s, I remember waking from a Sunday afternoon nap early. I go into the kitchen where mom and dad are reading the paper. Mom tells me to go wake the other kids so we can get ready for church. I rattle their cages and tell them it’s time to get ready for school… They are not an excited group when they come dressed for the wrong event and find out supper is on the table and not breakfast!
Though scientist define time and the age of our planet through the lens of science that defines age as something longer than we can imagine, we learn of creation via the Bible and have been taught that every thing that happened in a day was a 24 hour period. Although, time was not measured into increments of day and night with heavenly lights shining on earth, nor seasons of a single rotation around the sun until the 4th day. (Genesis 1:14-19) It gives me pause to think that God must not consider time in so short of terms as our minutes, months and millennia as we do. The psalmist writes, and it is repeated by Peter,
For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it is past, And like a watch in the night. (Psalms 90:4, 2 Peter 3:8)
The eternal measurement of time is a vast number, and would take a deep understanding of math and various sciences to count the seconds back to the moment of creation, and then speculate a number to represent that time. Ask anyone how old the universe is and you will get a variety of answers. A good place to find the answer is on the internet, right? After all, it has the answers to everything! Except, no one can tell me what I want to know, “Before creation or the big bang, what was here?”
Can we ever stop time? Turn back the clock? Start a segment of life all over?
I remember a Twilight Zone type of episode, and I’m sure it was Twilight zone that told the story, where a man found a stop watch that he could use to stop time. Everyone and everything is frozen. He can enter the bank and clean out the vault and no one knows anything about his ability or deeds. Then, he drops the watch and breaks it… Everything is frozen in time and he’s all alone in the world. Only he knows the dilemma faced.
So, this morning, I will not stress over a lost 2 hour window. Nothing is burning on the stove. No scheduled event has been missed. I am in control of finishing my own self-imposed schedule and will adjust accordingly…
Still… Where did that 2 hours go to? I know… I must have seen the clock wrong. Instead of 6am, it was most probably 8am….