Is Time an Enemy?

Is time an enemy?

Sometimes it feels like it is.

For the kid waiting for an upcoming vacation, the high school senior waiting for graduation, the pregnant mother waiting for her child’s birth, the friend with an advanced cancer diagnosis, the employee with an insane to-do list, and the family waiting for a loved one’s return. For these and so many others, time can feel so problematic, so insurmountable, so despicable.

Weeks ago, in conversation with a friend, I semi-flippantly said, “Time is the enemy,” and then immediately regretted the claim. In one way, it felt true. I wanted more time for a conversation and yet there was no more time to be had. Yet, in another sense, I knew that it was definitively not true that time was the enemy. In fact, one of most striking parts of the Easter Vigil this year was near the beginning with the Easter candle as it was proclaimed, “Christ yesterday and today, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega, All time belongs to him and all the ages…” How can time be the enemy if it all belongs to the Lord?

I haven’t mastered this yet, but I have recently been trying to view time as a gift rather than a thief or an enemy. Only from the perspective of eternity will we be able to see all of the ways that the waiting and seeming delays were a gift. We will be able to see how good and kind God was when He said “No” to a particular prayer or desire we had, even when we prayed so fervently and clung so fiercely to hope.

Since I cannot know that now, I am trying to be grateful for what I will understand more clearly later. I attempt to be thankful for the ways I have grown over the years and how my heart has been shaped in ways which might make something possible in the future which would have been impossible in the past. Perhaps certain graces are only possible to receive during moments of particular difficulty and perhaps life without certain sufferings might be less beautiful than the life I currently have.

When I can force myself to do it, I try to pause and take in the beautiful texture of the reality which surrounds me. I bask in the delight of yellow roses slowly unfurling before me in an olive vase, eagerly anticipate the experience of reading through my growing collection of books, and savor the sight of cold brew slowly brewing on the counter. All of these things add goodness to my life and, what’s more, they require time to be appreciated. The roses needed to grow, yes, but they also increase in beauty as the petals stretch out and curl on my coffee table. Despite my desire to have read many more books than I have read, I cannot escape the fact that reading requires an investment of time and energy as I enter into another world or learn about something with which I am unfamiliar. And the glory of cold brew in the summer is generally experienced by having the foresight to let ground coffee and water mingle for nearly a day before enjoying with caffeinated abandon.

Is time an enemy here?

Only if my sole desire is to acquire something immediately.

When viewed in the correct perspective, time usually adds to the beauty, the waiting can add to the delight, and the frustration of immediacy can increase the joy of finally receiving something. That for which we are willing to labor is far more beautiful than what we receive immediately, without much investment or sacrifice.

I don’t want to view time as the enemy or the force I must fight against. Instead, I want time to be a glorious thing, something in which to delight.

It is the passage of time which makes good wine even better,
which permits the flower to grow and bloom,
which allows the yeast to craft flour into bread,
which transforms an acquaintance into a dear friend,
and by which grace fashions a fumbling soul into a saint.

—

Photo by Earl Wilcox on Unsplash