There was a dream I had a few years ago that continues to leave me pondering. I don’t think I’ve scratched the surface of understanding, but it came to my mind when thinking about the topic of time and timing.
The Dream:
I was walking through, what was to me, a Nepali village in a beautiful mountain landscape. With snowcapped mountains towering over me and the village, I felt a sense of smallness and wonder. As I walked up the hill, there was a monk. A child, young and full of life wearing his orange robe with his beads and a red dot in the middle of his forehead. He, a ten or twelve-year-old, stood in front of a small wooden platform with posts and a roof, but no walls. There were a few stairs to get up on this humble abode just barely large enough to lay down on. As he looked me in the eye and I stopped my walking, we shared a moment of silence. I looked into his eyes and it was as though I saw his soul and the universe inside him. Galaxies and stars captivated my imagination as I peered into his being. Something was changing though. As we stood there he began to age.
This now teenager, still looking at me was maturing into his mid-twenties. He turned around, walked up the steps to the platform in his forties, and went to sit down, facing away from the rocky dirt road and toward the stunning mountains an old man. As I walked around the platform to look at his captivating eyes once again, I found him, a blind, feeble man whose life was nearing its end. Meanwhile, I had not changed, my youthfulness had remained with me. I looked curiously at the transformation time had had on him while not affecting me, and I woke up baffled by what I had dreamt and the depth of which I felt it.
The Gift:
I revisit this dream in my thoughts regularly, and it gets me thinking about the gift of time and how it affects all things and people. Time is given, taken, consecrated, wasted, used, cheated, productive, finite, infinite, and constructive. It can be lost, there can be not enough of it, or it can be in abundance and one may not know what to do with it. It can be consciously ignored, but it can't be irrelevant. Time can be redeemed and time can stand still. It is an essential aspect of our physical dimension that needs to be recognized and engaged with.
Another thing to address with time is relativity. There is a whole physics and quantum mechanics side to that, but for the purpose of this article, we'll look at it simply. I, right now, am writing this in a time of solitude where my time is slowed. The time globally is the same for me as for you (that is seconds and minutes are the same), but I am aware of my time and the ability to engage with it for the best use it. That is not the case for everyone. Somewhere in the world, someone’s time is moving quickly as they are racing from place to place doing the next best thing on their list of things to do and there isn't enough time for them. One's state of time is happy right now, while another's is sad. One's is trying and the world is against them, while another’s is profiting and exhilarating and nothing can stop them. One is escaping time, and moving on into a dimension not bound to time (death), while another is entering a human lifecycle and their existence within time is just beginning (birth). Our times are different. They are relative. We are all on our own timeline whilst a part of the corporate, universal timeline that had a finite, physical beginning and, eventually, will have a definite physical end. It’s fascinating and beautiful!
The Implications:
Now, with all of that in mind, we can talk about timing; more specifically, God's perfect timing. Time is linear, each new second presents a new world, a new moment, a new existence in your timeline, for the present has never happened before. Each second is that exact second. Each moment, that exact moment, and it will never return to you. Once it is gone, it remains gone. In our personal timelines, we exist and interact with the timelines of other people. Sometimes people stay in our timelines are tied for a while, other times we encounter someone for three seconds, never to experience time with them again. That is the timing of things. They go how they go.
Timing, therefore, is crucial. The time you are in currently is your time. The existence you are living out is what it is for whatever reason. God has you in that time and place for you to learn and grow from. Is your time good or bad? It's perfect. Is your state of existence happy, depressed, stuck, foggy, motivated, stressed, inspiring, disciplined, driven? Is it in awe, trying to be better, working hard, fighting for dreams, fighting for life, or thankful? It's perfect whatever that state of existence is. You are right there for a reason and what is coming into your life or leaving it are doing what they're doing for a reason. God's timing in your timeline is perfect. When you recognize that, let go to trust his guidance. When you know your times are bad because of your choices, don't hesitate to fight to make a change for better times. Work on yourself with God. Look for the things in his timing that are good, noble, pure and right. Remember that even in pain and disillusionment, his guidance is perfect and his love is unshaken and unchanging. His view of you is unscathed and untainted because he views from outside of your timeline and knows you from beginning to end. In no way is he making truly bad things that happen to you. That does not jive with his character and nature.
So, now the challenge to you is to engage in the timing you’ve been given. When it is time to be upset, be upset, deal with it and move to the next thing. When it is time to celebrate, go hard! Your time could flash before your eyes like the boy monk who turned an old man never leaving the familiarity of his own village and hut. Your time could be up now or it could be just beginning. Trust God with your timing. Work with him to make it how it’s supposed to be.