What is
Time?
For what is Time? Who is able easily and briefly to explain it? Who is able so much as in thought to comprehend it so as to express himself concerning it? And yet what in our usual discourse do we more familiarly and knowingly make more mention of than Time? And surely we understand it well enough when we speak of it; we understand it also when in speaking with another we hear it named. What then is Time? If nobody asks me I know; but if I were desirous to explain it to someone that should ask me, plainly I know not.
— St. Augustine
The confusion over concepts of time appears from the foregoing quotation clearly not to be of recent origin. Henry Dobson's brief lines in The Paradox of Time captured a part of it:
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Time goes, you say? Ah,
no!
Alas, Time says, we
go!1
Perhaps the concept of work as described in the preceding chapter aided Robert MacIver in directing his philosophical thrusts toward the puzzling matter of time. Whatever the reason, this world-renowned political and social scientist notes that time, like space, is a dimension rather than a force. He discerningly observes that time as measured by the clock or calendar is not adequate to many of man's needs. People may be victimized by clock time, but the real difference, according to the author, is between time measured and time lived.2
Time as measured is the enemy of time as lived. Of the various ways in which we become victims of time perhaps the most obvious is when the work we do is denuded of interest for us. How important our view of work becomes at this point. At once comes to mind the picture of the schoolboy squirming for the closing bell, the office worker with thought only for the evening's coming activities, the machine operator listlessly pursuing a prescribed routine, the lawyer dutifully preparing a dull brief for a case that is uninteresting.
Having seen how much our use of time may depend upon our view of our work, let us consider a few of the common misconceptions about time.
SOME MISCONCEPTIONS
In the lives of busy executives there is no question asked more often than "Where has the time gone?" Does it seem strange that the question most often asked, rhetorically to be sure, should so misstate the case? Does time depart the scene, as the question suggests? Or has it simply passed at the rate it always has while we accomplished
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far less than we should have? Or, perhaps, are we really asking, "How could I have planned so poorly and have left so much to be done in so little time?"
"Time is money and must be spent wisely," we have been told all our lives. But have we any choice not to spend it? Of course we do not. The hands of the clock move onward inexorably. We have no control over their speed of flight. We may "stop the clock" on a basketball court or on a football field — but never in the game of life.
The sundial's shadow and the sands in the hourglass mean something more than a commodity to be controlled or dispensed at will. So we speak of the ravages of time ... a hand that cannot be stayed... a scythe with which an old man levels all. But is time really a force to be so dreaded, or does it in fact create nothing ... destroy nothing?
Faith Baldwin called time a seamstress specializing in alterations. But we know that rocks wear down and stars grow dim, people age and empires decay, not because time works on them but because of the ebb and flow of energy systems operating within the physical laws of the universe established by God. If space is the dimension in which things exist, why not accept time, as Robert MacIver suggests, as the dimension in which things change?
"Time flies!" we exclaim — when we mean that we have not accomplished the results expected within the time available.
"Time will take care of it," we say — instead of asserting that the condition will undoubtedly rectify itself, given adequate time.
"I don't have time," we protest — instead of admitting that the proposal is not sufficiently important in our priorities to warrant taking the time for it. We always make time for things that are important enough.
We talk about "the tyranny of time," ascribing to it a
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capability of acting instead of recognizing it as a measurement of too large a number of tasks to be performed within the time available.
After all, time isn't money or even a commodity; it's not going anywhere... can't be speeded up or slowed down; it can't be bought or bartered; it's not a ravaging force of evil or an inscrutable judge or an omniscient healer. It is, as Webster put it simply, "the period during which action or process continues." Like sands in the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.
RESPONSIBLE STEWARDSHIP
Surprised by our lack of perception as to the true nature of time, we may well be startled as we contemplate the significance of its equal distribution. When God chose to create us, along with life itself came His gift to all the world. We have the same amount of time in every day as everyone else has. Whether paperboy or president...author or housewife... farmer or financier... the clocks we buy run at the same rate. We have ... whoever we are and wherever we be... the same number of minutes in our hours as everyone everywhere has. No one has any more time than you!
With a clear philosophy of work as a foundation, and a view of time and its management that is closely related to our view of work, our focus on the "stewardship of time" sharpens. We are here to work within God's divine purpose. Among the resources granted for the task, whatever it be, is a fixed amount of time. A biblical injunction regarding its use is found in Colossians 4:5: "Make the best possible use of your time" (Phillips).
Much is said regarding the stewardship of wealth and possessions. Less is said about stewardship of talent. Little is said concerning stewardship of time. Perhaps even less
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is understood. What do we mean by being "stewards of our time"? Is it really our time we're talking about, or is it God's time? Has it been granted to us, along with the gift of life itself, to be disposed according to our own purposes ... with only a portion of our own determining going back to Him from whence it came? Or, as Charles Shedd suggests, since God fashioned the world and all that is in it, does all our time belong to Him?
Shedd proposes "Ten Affirmations for Christian Use of Time."3 Appropriately, he begins with purpose: "Life's Single Holy Assignment." From Luke 10:41-42 he draws the parallel of Christ's gentle reminder to Martha that "but one thing is needful." Rather than all her lavish attentions, a simple, quiet talk on heavenly things would have been preferred. A truly effective life, according to Shedd, does not result from getting God to help us. Our lives assume maximum worth when we "turn our wills over to Him and ask that we might be of assistance to His purposes."
Management of time thus becomes, for the Christian, management of His time. And this brings us to what may appear to be a slightly revolutionary thought. When times get out of joint... when tasks pile up ... and when things go wrong ... how often do we stop to ask God if we're doing what He wants us to do? It is His time we're managing; isn't this where we should begin?
Colleen Townsend Evans has described how this works for her. When life gets just too harried she tries to stop the merry-go-round with the question "Have I pushed Christ out of the center of my life?"4
Bruce Larson suggests that "getting our marching orders" can make the difference.5 Settling the question of whether what we are doing is what God wants us to be doing could be the greatest single key to our management of time!
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And isn't this scriptural from yet another perspective — God's promise to supply our every need (Philippians 4:19)? Surely this must include time to do the things we ought. Thus the quest for a solution to the problem of better management of time becomes a simple query — "Am I in the center of God's will for my life?" since He has promised to provide the time to do the things I must for Him!
IS TIME THE PROBLEM ... OR ARE YOU?
Stripped of high-sounding phrases — "a measured piece of eternity" — and common misconceptions — "I had some time on my hands" — we arrive at the conclusion that time is but a measurement ... a dimension. Hence, it can scarcely be our problem. In any query into the matter of time and its management, all roads ultimately lead back to management of ourselves. The entire science of management deals with the way executives allocate their time.
Should this be so startling? Not the similarity in the complaints about time. There just doesn't seem to be enough of it. More precisely, of course, we try to do too much in the time we have available. Remember ... we have, and always have had, all the time there is!
So the problem is, has been, and will be, not time ... but ourselves. And, fortunately, we can do something about this.
Before we attack the matter of self-management, let us beware of stumbling over the first hurdle — God's will. We have already observed that our most basic problem with lack of time may well be that we have pushed God out of the center of our lives. We have seen that His promise to provide for all our needs certainly must extend to his most basic element — time. Now, however, we find ourselves in the human arena where God, despite our frailties, has
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chosen to work. He has endowed us with certain talents and capabilities, each unique, then given each of us the right to choose our own path.
Out of this divinely created relationship, open to whoever would have it, comes the question, "How do I know when the path I choose is the one God would have me take?" How do we know when the resources God has placed in our care are being used as He wills them to be? Is there a danger, in matters of organized Christian endeavors, of "overspiritualizing" some problems — where common sense might seem to provide answers — and with respect to other tasks, of somehow "depending on God to get them done" or saying to oneself, "He hasn't told me to do it yet"? Such problems may lead to a distorted sense of "fellowship" which, as we shall see in a later chapter, can render the Lord's work ineffectual and inefficient. Since this cannot be His will, it must not be ours. We approach the matter of managing ourselves, then, the perspective of being in God's perfect will for our lives... of committing our wills to Him .. of harnessing all our faculties and all the resources He has entrusted to our care to the ultimate purpose He may have for our lives.
REFERENCES:
1. Dobson, Henry Austin, The Paradox of Time.
2. MacIver, Robert M., The Challenge of the Passing Years — My Encounter with Time, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1962 (Lieber Professor of Political Philosophy and Sociology, Columbia University, 1927-1950).
3. Shedd, Charles W., Time For All Things, Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1962
4. Evans, Colleen T., "My Family Comes First," Guideposts, November, 1965.
5. Larson, Bruce, Dare to Live Now!, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, 1965.
