Thanksgiving 2015
We do not think enough about time.
Yes, it imprisons us, cages us, keeps us in its grip. We clock time on our watch, and we watch time on our clock. We know our lives by what we have done, what we are doing, and what we might do. All in time. I may not ever do what I might do, what I want to do, what I need to do but haven't yet done.
But I also know my life by what I have not done, some of which I may never have the opportunity to do again and some of which I may yet do. And, to close the full loop, I know my life also by what I am not doing right now. So I live my life with and without regret. And one day, I will die. Expire. Cease breathing. In time.
To us, to me, in time, Jesus entered. And though, in time, he experienced all I described before, he kept saying, over and over again in time:
Don't fear.
Don't be afraid.
Don't worry about tomorrow.
Let tomorrow take care of itself.
Don't worry about your past failures, sins, commissions, omissions.
Follow me in the present.
Don 't worry about the future,
Your boat sinking,
the water rising,
the job failing,
the uncertain nature of the future in time.
But, in time,
Rise and walk,
Give and serve,
Live and respect,
Love
Eat the living manna
Drink from living water
Trust and rest
For Your Father loves you
from outside of time.
From our perspective, inside time, we are far away
Unable to see Him
Unable to know He's there.
From his perspective, outside time, we are with him now
Already, even as we struggle
Even as we wait
And Our Father, who is in heaven,
The One who is outside of time
The uncreated and Holy One -- yes,
The Father knows when the sparrow will fall
And he knew also when I would fail
And when I will die
He knows when I sin inside time
"Here's your inheritance, boy,
Take it, make your choices, and go see what it's like to
Squander it, abuse it, throw it away, lose it all.
For in doing just that in time, you will learn,
You will come to your senses
And when you have absorbed it all and have given up,
Have turned your head ever so little
To think of home,
I will run to you, boy, from outside of time,
Where you were never apart from me at all,
But you needed to be free to learn what you will need to know
When time is no more."
"And when I run to you,
From outside of time,
I will wrap my arms around you, love you,
And throw the biggest feast you've ever seen."
"If you think reconciliation in time is good,
You can't even begin to imagine
What it will be like
When you wake up outside of time,
With a new perspective to you,
Which was the full and true story all along:
That you are my beloved child,
And the sorrow you knew,
And the pain that you felt,
And the love that you failed,
And the joys that you shared
In time --"
"It was all for a reason, to prepare you for this"
"When your blinders fall off,
and you experience with me,
The blessing and joy of eternity."