By Cynthia Johnson
One morning, while on vacation, I was walking and enjoying being outdoors, when suddenly a question popped into my mind: was man created for time or was time created for man… what was the original or true relationship between man and time? It developed into an interesting conversation in my mind that demanded more study and more meditation. After I returned home, I didn’t give it any more thought. But it did cause my perception of time to shift and change, and I gained a new respect for time as something to be embraced. Recently, the questions and thoughts came back stronger. Suppose, just suppose, that time was given to man for his benefit, not as his opponent, servant, or master. By befriending time, working within what’s been allotted, and not against the 24 hours in each day, the 60 minutes in each hour, the 1,440 minutes in each day, the 60 seconds in each minute and the 86,400 seconds in each day, we come to grips with the true reality, that it is more than adequate enough to accomplish what needs to be done without borrowing from the next day (like staying up past midnight and losing the sleep/rest that was intended for that particular day). Somehow we have managed to evolve from realizing time as a gift or servant of man, to man being its servant, and now it has become our master. How did that happen? As a creationist, I hold the belief that time had a beginning and has a fixed ending point, that Time exists inside of eternity. It is a fixed part of eternity. It was given as a gift to man for his use. How did we get so far away from time’s original intent, and, more importantly, can we go back? The evolution or transition away from time as a gift or servant to man began when men felt the “need” to regulate time because of a combination of things, which began to happen almost at the same time. Scholars and academics introduced and succeeded in complicating a new perception of time, while in everyday life, a new reality of time was also being created and conceived. As merchants and businesses began to expand around the world, new issues emerged. What had not presented a problem before—weather, climate, delays in commerce, distance between trade routes, merchandise storage, and loss of money—was all taken into consideration in the effort to modify time. In the process of expanding the known world, the issue of time in travel was no longer a concern restricted to business. Governments, who were responsible for the expansion of the world, had similar problems. Community clocks, which were used to mark work times of laborers, introduced a new time system which was forced on the Gift of Time, and time suffered in the transformation. It began to be rationalized, studied, measured, mechanized, and re-valued. Originally time was marked by astronomy, and measuring devices used the ebb and flow of the tide of the oceans and seas and solar quadrants. This new time was directly opposed to the Gift of Time. Slowly but surely, man began to adapt to this new concept of “measuring time” and somehow became a “servant of time.” Now we find ourselves taking time-management classes and being bound to the clock for work. And even when we should be enjoying days off, we can find ourselves stressing about when we have to return to work and other responsibilities. We have become enslaved to time. It seems as if we’re being forced towards programming our time for work and pleasure. We serve it, and the busier a person’s time is, the more socially and economically important it appears that person is. Time has become compartmentalized, divided. Digital watches only show the moment, drive-throughs are time-savers, fast food is conveniently able to be consumed at our desk or in our car while on the run. Some of us are starting to resist being bound to the clock and in total slavery to time. We’re awakening and recognizing the need to once again be the Master of our Time. The faster time appears to be moving, the more enlightened through revelation about the Gift of Time we should become. No need to lament over time that’s gone, because there’s still enough time left to accomplish everything the divine power and source of life intended as we become better stewards of the Gift of Time. We’re being enlightened and reminded that time is a gift to man. It’s time to shift to next dimension, thinking and operating in time by faith! For a sobering reality check, visit Howmanysecondsoldami.com. The song “Time” by Pink Floyd reminds us pointedly: Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way… Waiting for someone or something to show you the way.
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today. And then one day you find ten years have got behind you. No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.
So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it’s sinking Racing around to come up behind you again. The sun is the same in a relative way but you’re older, shorter of breath and one day closer to death. Every year is getting shorter; never seem to find the time. Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines Hanging on in quiet desperation…The time is gone…
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