Time

By: Amy Marcle

A couple of days ago, I was caught up with all of my work at my office and headed home about 45 minutes earlier than the usual time I leave work.   It was a gorgeous autumn afternoon with plentiful warm sunshine and just a touch of an autumn breeze.  On my way home, I thought about the things I was going to do first…take the dogs for a swing, sit on my patio and watch the birds, and just enjoy the outdoors.  But, of course, the afternoon train had other plans.

Everyone complains about the train in Milan.  It runs through the middle of town and always comes through at the most inopportune times.  Not only does it seem to take forever to make its way down the tracks, it often switches tracks causing an even greater delay for impatient motorists like myself.  Just my luck, on this gorgeous, early afternoon, the train was stalled on the tracks as I got closer.  Traffic began to back up and I knew this was going to be one those “hurry up and wait” moments that I would just have to suffer through.  The waiting game is really not my biggest concern, however.  There have been many times when emergency personnel such as ambulances or fire/rescue teams were trapped on the wrong side of the track not being able to get to the people they needed to rescue.  It’s for these reasons that the Milan train has come to be an enemy of the people passing through the town every single day.

I grumbled to myself like I always do, and I waited with the rest of the traffic on the train to clear the tracks.  So much for my free time outdoors enjoying an early afternoon.  Later that evening, I was watering my mums in the front yard when I turned towards the west and saw the most beautiful colors in the sky.  There across the field from my house was a sky illuminated with the deepest shades of orange, red, purple, and pink, a sunset you only find in someone else’s photographs.  I quickly grabbed my phone and snapped a picture, because who doesn’t love a pretty sunset??  As I put my phone back in my pocket and continued to water the flowers on my porch, I thought to myself, “if that train had not caught me this afternoon, I would have missed this sunset.”  I knew that my plans had been altered and had they not been affected by the delay in traffic, my whole timing would have been off, and I would have missed the gorgeous sky that evening.   And I understood that while I was in a hurry to get home that day, God’s timing had something else in mind.

Timing.  How often does timing play an important role in our lives?  I know, every single second.  While God does not see time the way we do, His hand is sure involved in every second of our day.  God does not look at a clock and say “Gee, it’s 7:22 am already!  Amy is going to be late to work if I cause something to happen to delay her.”  No, God does not work that way.  But, how many times have minor inconveniences saved us from circumstances in which we came close to being involved.  For example, a few Sunday mornings ago, my husband, daughter, and I were on our way to church.  We got to the end of our road when Jason noticed he had left his cell phone at home.  “Do we have time to go back,” he asked.  I looked at the clock and told him we did, but just barely.  He turned the truck around and retrieved his phone.  As we made our way to church, we topped a hill on the highway and saw traffic scattered across both lanes.  Three damaged vehicles, along with their occupants, were blocking the road where we could not get through.  The wreck had just happened moments before we got there, possibly the time we would have been passing through had we not turned around.  A minor inconvenience could have possibly saved us from being involved in that accident.   Timing.  God’s not mine.

This morning before coming to the office, the same situation happened again.  I was ready for work with several minutes to spare.  I contemplated on leaving home a little early to get a head start on the day, but decided I needed to throw the ball with my sweet dog at least twenty-seven more times before leaving her for the day.  After playing for the extra ten minutes, I grabbed my purse and headed out the door.  Ten minutes down the road, I see flashing lights and traffic moving slowly.  As I got closer, I saw the damaged vehicles, fire trucks, ambulances, and police helping people out of a car.  A car, that had I been on time, could have been me. 

I know that these may be stretches to think that God spared me from these moments of tragedy, but are they really?  See, I believe that the God I serve has control of every situation.  And His plan is a perfect plan that we cannot see at the moment, but it reveals itself to us over time.  Why then did He allow the other people to have a wreck, and not just stop it from happening?  Maybe he was delaying them from being in an even bigger accident had He not stopped them.  We don’t always see the whole picture, but God does.

While time is constant, it is not the same for everyone.  We are not all granted the same amount of time upon this earth.  Some live to be old and grey, while others may not live beyond their first birthday.  Some retire and enjoy life while some are cut short in their younger years.  Why do we not all get the same amount of time on earth?  Because God does not have a pocket watch, and when your “time” is up, it’s up, as harsh as that may sound.  He is not required to check in with us to see if it is convenient for everyone.   God does, however, give us all the same amount of time in a day.  And it’s up to us to determine how to best use our time.

We often hear people talk about “wasting time,” “spending time,” “buying time,” or “time flies,” or “time stood still.”   The speed of time is relevant to the situation we find ourselves in.  For example, to children Christmas seems to take forever to come around each year.  For adults, it seems like Christmas rolls around every two or three weeks.   We often hear the phrase, “the days are long, but the years are short” when describing raising children.  I know, as a mother, there were nights that went on and on when Haley was a baby.  I blinked twice, though, and we were attending her high school graduation.  I blinked again, and she’s almost done with college.  As the Kenny Chesney song states, “Don’t Blink.”  Time at work seems to drag on and on, while eight hours of a vacation day speeds by faster than a sneeze. 

We need to ask ourselves are we wasting time?  To some this blog may seem like a waste of time.  People may wonder why we take our time to write these entries and share this much personal information about our struggles. But, is it a waste if someone benefits from our story?  If I spend 365 hours a year writing blog posts and it takes one person five minutes to read it, and that person feels less lonely in their situation, was time really wasted?  Not to me. 

Many would argue that my addiction to dieting was a waste of time.  After all, once I began recovery, I gained weight back again and all the dieting was for nothing. All that time I spent counting calories instead of having conversations; the time I spent stepping on and off the scales instead of playing with my toddler; the time I spent avoiding eating rather than enjoying meals with my family and friends…was definitely time I will never get back again.  But what did I learn during that time?  I learned that my body is capable of taking on more than it should ever be forced to take on.  I nearly killed myself, but my body fought and fought to stay alive when my head was not so sure it could hang on.  I learned my strengths; I learned my weaknesses.  I learned who my real friends were and who was just there to watch me fall.  I learned who cared and who wanted to be entertained watching my stumble through addiction.  I learned who was fighting for me and who was fighting against me. 

During addiction, I also learned that I wanted to live even on the days I thought I could not take one more step.  I was at the edge of the cliff, dangling my toes over the rim, but God knew it was not my time to jump.  It was not my time to go.  He had a plan for me and for my recovery and that is what this blog is about….to help someone else.

The Bible teaches us in the Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8 a lesson about time

“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break 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 cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to get and a time to lose; a time to keep and a time to cast away; a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence and a time to speak; a time to love; and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.”

It seems my timing is always off.  As mentioned in the verses above, there is a time for everything.  To me, it seems that when I need to mourn, everyone else wants to dance.  When I want to weep, everyone around me may be laughing.  When I want to build someone up, they insist on breaking down.  But, our timing is not off.  Our timing is in line with God’s plan for us and we have to accept that things happen at certain times for a reason.  We also have to recognize that we never know how much time we have left on this earth.  So, I encourage you to spend your time wisely.  Spend your time with the people who care about you and support you, rather than chasing after people who do not notice you.  Spend your time doing good for others rather than carrying hate around like a backpack loaded with heaviness.  If you are battling grief, or addiction, or anxiety, now is the best time to seek the peace you so deserve.  Our time to be born has already been, now let’s make the best of the time we have left, ever how long that may be.