FOLLOW THE LEADERour calendars. Because time is linear, it is described by words like past,
present and future. As a result, time marches relentlessly onward! It will not
stand still or turn back for anyone. By nature, time is always one-way.
There are no quick detours from the present to the future – just as there
are no turn-arounds back to the past. All that time allows us is this present
moment. Time does not permit any of us the luxury of re-runs. There are
no “time machines” that allow us a reversal to the past, or a fast-forward
to the future, except in the movies! We can only go back to the past in
our minds through memory – or move into the future through our fantasy.
Even though there is a great element of mystery about time, there are some
important principles of time that we can and need to understand – and
then live and lead by.
Like all of creation, time was created by God. It is not self-existent, or
eternal. Neither is time cyclical or repetitive, as believed in Eastern
mysticism. Since time was created by an omnipotent God, there was a time
when time did not exist. But God – Who exists outside of time – spoke into
the void of timeless, empty space – and time began. That was the alpha point
of time. Since He created time “...in the beginning” (Gen. 1:1) – one day
He will bring it to an end. As the Eternal “I Am,” (Ex. 3:14: Jn. 8:58),
God is sovereign over time, and totally unaffected by its progression.
Until then, Jesus Christ is the Eternal Word (Jn. 1:1), Who is Sovereign
Lord over all time. He alone is the “Alpha and Omega...the Beginning
and End...the First and Last” (Rev. 1:8; 21:6; 22:13). Everything else in
creation has had a beginning, and will have an ending.
The Bible describes this kind of created time by the word chronos, from
which we obviously get the English word chronology. In the Bible, chronos
generally means the “space of time” or the “duration of time” – whether
that time is short or long (Mtt. 2:7; Lk. 4:5; 8:27; 20:9, etc). It is by
this kind of time that we mark the passing of our lives – in increments of
seconds...minutes...hours...days...weeks...month...years...decades...
centuries...millennia. It is the events that have happened in chronological
time that historians record in their annals. Futurologists, on the other
hand, try and predict things to come. The tick of the clock measures the
passing of one’s life. Like the beating of one’s heart, the ticking of the
clock is not infinite! All of us have a finite number of heartbeats – and a
finite number of ticks of the clock!