the deceptiveness of time…

Time is just so weird. I’m discovering that even when I think it is no longer possible to do so time inevitably keeps moving by faster and faster, like a sprinter accelerating off the line. High school was gone with the quickness. I blinked a few times and college was over. And now it seems as though “real life” is moving even faster. And when I think about the future, like in 3 years when I am 25, it seems like that is almost no time. It feels like it will be here just a few days from now when I wake up one morning…

But then when I look back, its a completely different story. One year ago today, I had been engaged for 10 days and was starting to plan a honeymoon. I was finishing up my senior year of college, probably fresh off of spring break.

One year ago? That seems like forever ago! Another example…my wife Kristi and I realized tonight at 11 pm that today is our 5 month anniversary. Five months? That’s only like 20 weeks. It literally feels like we have been married for years, that we are like an old married couple(or maybe that’s just because she goes to bed at 10 every night!)

When I look ahead three years it seems like that is so short, that things will be exactly the same as they are now and its just not enough time to accomplish anything. Yet when I look back just one year, it just astounds me how much things have changed. Isn’t that crazy?

It makes me think about the value of a day. In the grand scheme one day seems very insignificant. But, when you add 365 of them together you get one year that could be responsible for so much change, growth, and wisdom. So maybe I should really focus on each day as it comes when I wake up in the morning. I should realize that the decisions I make every day either push me closer to Jesus or farther away from Him. C.S. Lewis says that every decision one makes turns him a little more into a creature of heaven or a creature of hell. I don’t want to take any days for granted, and I want to realize the potential for growth that each new dawn brings.

Scientifically, time is the measure of change. That means that when I go to bed tonight I am inevitably different than I was when I woke up this morning, simply because of the decisions and changes that time has thrust upon me. To remain the same is not even an option, because every second takes me either forward or backward. And if I must change anyway, I may as well discipline myself in the obedience of faith, so that when I lay my head down at night I will have changed for the better and will look more like my King Jesus.

So hopefully, in 3 short but long years, I will look back and be delightedly thankful at how God has grown me in time, and also humbly realize with new depths what a long, long way I have to go.