2 Corinthians 6:2 “Now is the acceptable time.”
It should be said that although God is the Master of time, we are not. In fact, we are pretty much the slaves of time. The clock is always ticking, and there is never quite enough time left. It seems that we are always running out of time. Time passes so quickly. Deadlines are upon us before we know it and we feel the intense pressure and stress that these fixed moments in time cause us. If only we could in some way s-t-r-e-t-c-h time. But we cannot.
Many years ago now, the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, who has amassed billions of dollars in personal wealth, was asked what was one thing that he really wanted. He replied without hesitation and said, “More time.” We would all like more time. Time is a ruthless taskmaster.
But for all of our frustrations concerning time, we must remember that time may be less real than we think. Do you suppose that God has a calendar in heaven? What kind of watch do you think God wears on His wrist? There is no time as we know it in heaven. There God lives in eternity, which is not time drawn out but timelessness. The concept of time is a convention for the benefit of man so that our lives can experience some sense of order and successiveness.
And yet, what is most remarkable is that Jesus – God incarnate – stepped into our time. The eternal, infinite One entered our temporal, finite history. He who existed outside of time chose to be born in a manger, at a specific moment in time, live in a particular generation, and die at a precise hour. The Gospel of John captures this with repeated references to “His hour.” Jesus often said, “My time has not yet come,” and then, as the Cross drew near, He said, “The hour has come.” (John 17:1). His life was not ruled by time, but it was attuned to God’s timing. What a mystery – that the timeless Son of God would submit Himself to the ticking of earthly hours in order to save us! That alone tells us something profound: if Jesus lived within time for our sake, then how we use our time must matter deeply to God.
Time certainly has a definite impact in all of our lives, and we deal differently with time in different stages of our lives. When we were young, we tended to wish time away. We were always waiting for something – for some future event to happen. It might have been a birthday, or a vacation, or Christmas. The week before Christmas is always the longest week of the year for young children as they wait to see what is inside those pretty parcels. Time seems to move incredibly slow when we are young. And when we were young the time between the present and that longed-for event was always wished away. We were always wanting to grow up more quickly.
To some degree we still do this. But this is a false dealing with time. By wishing for some future day to arrive we may miss the present reality entirely. But we still wish. We wish for the day that we will graduate from high school, then college. We wish for the day we will be married to the one we love. We wish for the day we will begin that new job. We wish for the day we can buy that new home. We wish for the day when our children will be on their own. We wish for the day when we will retire. These are all good milestones, but what about today? We can spend most of our lives thinking about the days over which we have no real control, whilst ignoring the one day we can control in a limited way: that’s today. We are exhorted to seize the day – and that day can only ever be today!
When we are always living for some future event, we are wasting today. If we never learn to live in the present we will look back on our lives and conclude that our days were wasted waiting for the next thing to happen. While time may not be real in the ultimate sense, it is certainly not an illusion. It is something with which we must deal and deal effectively. The Bible deals with it. God calls us to deal with it.
So today, as I conclude this teaching series, I want us to reflect for moment on the three most common designations of time with which you and I deal every day: yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Yesterday
In thinking about time, we must think clearly about the past. It should go without saying that the past is past. What we have done is done and there is nothing we can do about it. And people who can allow the past to be past are blessed indeed. As I dealt with in detail back in part 2 of this series, the past can bind us, it can imprison us. Some people live in the past and are therefore imprisoned by it. That is not to say that there is anything wrong with memories. In fact, good memories are exceedingly valuable. But the memories of our failures and our fears, and the times we were hurt by others; these are the things that can drag us down. In one sense, this sense, we really do need to let the past go.
You may recall a story I have shared before about a ministry colleague of mine, Dr Ken Blue. Ken’s grandfather’s farm in the USA was a place where Ken used to spend holidays when he was a child. In the paddock next to the house there was this huge pear tree which Ken used to climb and sit at the top for hours. He felt like he could see forever from up there. It was his special place. Many years later, after Ken was married with his own children and living a long way from the farm, his grandfather called him one day with some bad news. A huge storm had hit the farm and the magnificent old pear tree had been uprooted. He knew how special that tree was to Ken and so he asked him if he wanted to see it one last time before it was removed. Ken drove out to the farm, reflecting on the way about the special times he had in that tree. As soon as he arrived, Ken and his grandfather walked over to the next paddock and they both just stood there in silence next to this majestic old tree, which was totally uprooted and lying on the ground. Ken finally said, through tears, “So what do we do now grandfather?” The wise old man put his arm on Ken’s shoulder and said, “Son, we pick the fruit and burn the rest.” That one statement remained with Ken the rest of his life and became a powerful principle for living.
There’s a well-known story of Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, who was once reminded of a cruel thing someone had done to her years earlier. She seemed not to recall it. “Don’t you remember what they did to you?” her friend asked. “No,” Barton replied firmly, “I distinctly remember forgetting it.” That is the kind of spiritual wisdom we need when it comes to the past. We don’t pretend it didn’t happen – but we choose not to let it define us or control us. We choose to ‘remember forgetting it’ in order to live fully today.
As we face each new chapter in our lives and reflect on the journey which brought us to that point, we need to be able to ‘pick the fruit’ – that is, learn from the past; grow from our mistakes; cherish the memories; be thankful for the good times; but then we need to ‘burn the rest’ – all of those disappointments, failures and things we wish had happened differently. We have to move forward into the ‘new day’ God has prepared for us and not stand there beside a dead tree longing for a day which has passed. In another sense, however, the past is not dead at all. And it should not be. The past is very much alive in us. The past has shaped us. It has made us, to a certain degree, who we are. Because of our experiences in the past, our character has been formed the way it is. So in a real sense the past is present with us every moment.
How do you view your past? Is it something that still haunts you, or is it something that helps you? Are there unresolved issues in your past that you need to deal with this week as you say farewell to what is behind you? Are there people in your past you need to contact in order to make something right? Are there past sins you need to confess and lay to rest as you claim God’s forgiveness? The past is past, but it is not dead. We must deal with the past effectively if we are to live in the present happily.
Tomorrow
In thinking about time another thing we try to deal with is the future. Our yesterdays are behind us. Our tomorrows are not yet here. Indeed, tomorrow never comes. When it gets here, it is today. It should be said about the future, that it is uncertain. There is no guarantee that we will ever see any point in what we call the future. Our lives could end at any time. There is no guarantee that we will live to be ninety, or eighty, or seventy, or fifty, or even thirty. John Keats, Percy Shelley and Lord Byron were all prominent, famous 18th century romantic poets, but I wonder if you know that Keats died at twenty-five, Shelley at thirty, Byron at thirty-six. History is filled with people who met unexpected tragedy. Most of us know of someone who died unexpectedly at a very early age. None of us have a guarantee of tomorrow. Tomorrow is not even ours anyway. God holds our future in His hands.
This does not mean that we do not think about the future or plan for the future. We should certainly do both of those things. We should consider the possibilities for the future and we should also be prepared for what the future may hold. But we should think realistically about the future if we are to live effectively in the present. The future can give us hope. Today and every day, we face the beginning of a whole new chapter in our journey. What will that new chapter hold for us? We certainly hope that it holds good things. One thing it does hold is the promise that it may be better than the past. It also holds the promise that things needing change in our lives may in fact be changed. While there are no guarantees, it does hold the promise and the hope for good things.
On the other hand, the future can also give us a false hope. It can provide a false sense of security and thereby keep us from living effectively in the present. By assuming that we do have the guarantee of tomorrow we can post-pone many of the things we need to be doing today. This false hope that we will be able to accomplish something ‘tomorrow’ provides many people with the excuse they want so they can put off the very thing they need to do today. I have met so many people who attempt to live in the future. They are going to do great things when they get around to it. When they have time, they are going to become more involved in things that really matter. When this happens, or that happens, then they will begin. They will do it later, tomorrow, next week, next month, someday. The fact is that the time never comes, the situation is never right, tomorrow never arrives.
I heard a story of an Elder visiting newcomers to the community. The wife began to attend Church but this man always put the Elder off. He said that he would come to church just as soon as he got straightened out. Each time the Elder would see him, the man would make the same reply. As soon as he got straightened out, he would come to Church. Finally, the man died. The Elder was called upon to speak at the funeral. As he stood behind the pulpit in the Church sanctuary looking down at the coffin with the man inside, he thought quietly to himself, “Well, he finally kept his promise … to come to Church when he got straightened out.” Be careful not to let your promises be fulfilled the same way. Procrastination is one of the most debilitating, life-draining condition any human being can suffer from.
Today
The bottom line of the whole matter is that we only have today. Today is all we have. This is why the Scripture says that now is the acceptable time. It is an affirmation that we live in the present. The past is gone. The future may never arrive. But the present is here. Now is the only time we can accept and it is the only time acceptable to God. The question we must answer is this: What are we going to do with now? How are you spending now? Are you either living in the past or the future? Are there things you have been putting off until tomorrow – things which you should be doing today? Are you sitting back thinking that there will come that perfect situation which will enable you to be involved? It will never come. This is the message we need to hear as we enter every new chapter in our lives. Don’t wait until the calendar reaches a particular date … and after it does … don’t look to the next milestone before you take charge of the present and seize the day, because today is the only day we have. Thank God for the past. Thank God for whatever future there is awaiting us. But live now.
We must live now in terms of our personal lives and also in terms of the Church. You see, we cannot simply wait for the future to come upon us. If the next chapter of our lives is going to be lived for Jesus, it must be lived one day at a time. Every day will be today. The only time we will have to live will be now.
So, what are the issues with which you need to deal today? Are there sins you need to confess today? “Today is the day of salvation.” God forgave those sins over 2,000 years ago in the broken body of Jesus and the experience of that forgiveness awaits you today if you will come to Him.
In terms of your commitment to your local Church, what is the Lord calling you to do today? Are you involved, committed, active, alive, pressing-in, dedicated, and dependable? Are you involved in the ministry of your Church by giving of your time, talents, and resources? Without your support, your local Church might just as well close its doors – like many are every week across the world.
The late missionary Jim Elliott once wrote in his journal, “Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.” Elliott was a man who gave his life for the Gospel, but he didn’t do it in grand future dreams – he lived every single day with intentionality. He poured his time and energy into the present, because he knew that today might be all he had.
What is the Lord touching in your life today? What will you do about it? Whatever you do, you must do it now. Because, my friends, now is the only time you have and the only time you will ever have.
This is how we ‘seize the day’ and that seems to be a fitting place to end this 12-part teaching series. I would really encourage you to review all of these sermons in the coming days and allow the Spirit of God to give you the tools you need in every area of life to embrace everything which God has prepared for you – every day!