Time

It's amazing how unforgiving time is. Viewed as an enemy, more often than not, that thing called time adds stress to us in such an unrelenting way. A slave-driver, you might say. Due dates, deadlines, time crunches, overbooked, overscheduled... time, time, time, time. We are a production oriented society, so it's all about time! How much can you do in how little TIME? Heck, we've made idols out of peope that can stuff an offensive amount of food down their gullet all because they can do it in such a small amount of time. Every second that passes, is a snapshot of our lives that we will never get back. How did I get to be xx years old? Where did the TIME go? Can't think about that right now... I have a deadline at work to meet. All this and I haven't even begun to touch the infamous 'Time is money' mantra! Man, what an enemy that 'time' truly is.

But wait. Is everything so one sided? In our lives, it is a rare occurrence that something is SO one-sided and mono-chromatic. It has a definitive beginning and end, a single-sided purpose, without exception, without excuse... ONE thing and ONE thing only- end of story. Time, is not that simple. Lest we forget, 'TIME heals all wounds'?

What's prompted my mental ramblings? Well, I've been feeling the punishing afffect of time- watching my kids get bigger, older, wiser, more mature. The days of 'little' slip through my fingers. As many have said, it feels like the tighter I try to grip, the quicker it slips through my hand. But, then I got to thinking. What about the time that has passed? The time that I wouldn't revisit, but wouldn't change. The beauty in time, I suppose. Rick and I have been through so much. TIME, moving as unforgiving and hurried as it does, is probably part of what helped us over the hump. I can't help but think that if time slowed down for just a moment during those times we've been through, that we wouldn't have made it. I don't think we're engineered to endured that which we don't absolutley HAVE to. Given a choice, more often than not, we'll take the less painful or less exerting route. Caught in a thought like this, I'm thankful for all those qualities that TIME has. It's swift and commanding nature... no matter what you do, you're not going to tell TIME how to operate.

WOW, maybe time's not exactly that ill-intended evil-doer that I often feel it to be. In my life and marriage, time has been a healer. It has been a powerful thing to help bring peace and perspective when emotions are fueled, feelings are hurt, and positions must be stood firm. Although I'm sad for the aspect of time that seems to pull my children from my bossom, I'm blessed for it. Blessed for the nurturing way God uses it to mold us and remove us. Remove us from who we were, what we were, where we were, what we were doing, who we were doing it with... and gracefully uses it to get us closer to Him.

Hmmm. Feeling a bit better about time for the moment. Eh, moment's gone... now I have to rush to my 10:30 commitment, having not done what I should have in this interim because I was drawn to sound out some thoughts in cyberspace.

Thanks for sharing in my sharing...
Jenny