I’ve been thinking a lot about time these past few weeks. Maybe it has something to do with turning 70 in April. Maybe it has something to do with looking at the ages of people in the obituaries and saying to myself: “They were younger than I am” or “They weren’t that much older than I.” I never used to say those things; now I say them at least once a week.
As a society of consumers, it is easy to think of time as one more commodity that we can use and manipulate for our own personal benefit or gain. Think about the ways we talk about time. We speak of having time, making time, taking time, saving time, losing time, finding time. Time is something we use and manipulate for ourselves.
And yet, there are other ways of thinking about time that are captured in phrases like: “Time marches on…Time passes by…Where did the time go?” These phrases suggest that, ultimately, time is not a commodity we use; instead, time is something real that we must come to terms with and understand.
So why all this talk about time? Why is it important for us, as people of faith, to consider how we think about time?
A few years ago, I did a workshop at my local church on setting priorities. I gave it a catchy, and I think meaningful, title: You Are What You Do And You Do What You Are.
We talk a lot about living a life of faith, a life of discipleship. And yet, this life is made up of all this “stuff” we do: situations, circumstances, behaviors, actions, choices, responsibilities, and relationships. Life consists of finding ways to give some order, structure, and meaning to all of this stuff.
The Christian life involves giving some order, structure, and meaning to all of this stuff in a way that reflects an understanding of ourselves as followers of Christ. Finally, all of this stuff to which we are giving order, structure, and meaning happens in the arena of time. So maybe it is important to consider it.
Is there a spiritual way to think about time that can enrich our spiritual lives?
There are some ways we think about time; those ways impact our desire and ability to give order, structure, and meaning to our lives. We’ve already talked about seeing time as a commodity that we use and manipulate for our own good. It’s also true that how we think about time and what we do with time is influenced by our setting. Different settings have different ways of thinking about and ordering time.
Work is a good example. When we step into our work settings, we think about time in terms of the fiscal year, project deadlines, or scheduled appointments. For a teacher or student, the new year begins in August and ends in May. Time is about semesters, grading periods, and assignments. An architect or engineer thinks of projects to complete. An administrative assistant thinks of memos or emails to write and send.
Now there is nothing right or wrong with any of these ways of ordering time; they are just different. But one thing that is true for all of them: they are imposed. We didn’t come up with these ways of ordering time; they are imposed by the setting in which we work and live. Of course, we may not see them, or even experience them, as imposed because we have found a way to assimilate this view of time into our lives. It becomes part of who we are.
Other considerations. If we look more closely at these imposed ways of experiencing time, we see that we aren’t really ordering time at all. We are ordering all the tasks and activities that fill up the space of our lives. Also, the importance of any given moment may not be based on what is or is not important to us. The importance comes from beyond us, from the setting we are in.
When our used of time is imposed by the setting, the emphasis is on tasks to accomplishment in that setting. But we are using some standards to put items on that to-do list. Do those standards reflect our core sense of self, our values?
How we think about and experience time matters. It matters a lot. It determines if, and how, we find meaning in our lives. If time is nothing more than a commodity or a structure imposed by the setting we are in, we hear ourselves saying thing like: “There aren’t enough hours in the day! How can I get all of this done? Where did the time go?”
Our struggles with being busy or finding meaning are connected to how we think about and experience time.
What if time is not a commodity? What if time is not something we manage, order, and organize?
From a Christian perspective, time is the context in which we, as individuals and a community, give expression to a life of meaning. We must figure out how we will interact with time, how we will be in relationship with time.
Throughout its history, the Christian faith has been concerned with this idea of prioritizing life and developing a relationship with time. The church has lived out this concern in two ways.
First, there is the practice of the Christian year. For a large part of its history, the Christian tradition has followed this calendar: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, Ordinary Time. When we hear about the Christian calendar, we think primarily about a way to order the worship and liturgy of the church.
But what would it be like to use the Christian calendar as a way to organize and think about our own personal lives?
After all, the Christian calendar connects time to the significant events of the Christian faith. Advent is a time of preparing for the coming of Christ into the world. Christmas is a time to celebrate that coming and its implications for the world. Epiphany is the revelation of this presence of Christ into the world.
With Lent we think about what this presence means to our lives as we prepare ourselves for the ultimate expression of that presence in the crucifixion and resurrection stories. Easter is a time to explore the impact of the promise of new life found in all that is meant by resurrection.
Pentecost is a celebration of the coming of God’s spirit in new ways. Ordinary Time involves the challenge of living out the meaning of all of these faith-stories in our everyday lives.
So, what would it be like to order our lives around this understanding of time? How would it change the way we are at work, at home, in relationships? For example, how would life at work be different if, instead of asking, “What can I do differently between now and the end of the fiscal year?” we asked, “What can I do differently at work during this season of Lent?” How would life be different in our families if this calendar of the Christian year influenced family planning?
Let me share a personal example. Since college I have kept a journal. For a long time, I kept a journal from January through December. Several years ago, I decided to start a new journal with Advent, the beginning of the Christian year. After doing this for a couple of years, I looked back over my journals. I was amazed at the difference in my entries. Yes, I was still writing about personal concerns, thoughts, and feelings, but I could see how they were shaped and influenced by the season of the Christian year in which I was writing. Quite simply, there was a subtle, but radical, shift, in how I saw and understood my life when I made this change.
In a future blog post, I will consider the second way Christians can develop a different relationship with time: Sabbath. For now, consider the place of time in your life. Consider your life in the movement of time. What would it be like to develop this different relationship with time?