When the Clock Starts Running Faster

[bdavidc]

You do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. ~ James 4:14

Ever notice when your team is playing and ahead by a lot of points, time seems to go real slow? And the same clock you just can’t wait to see flip on when you are hanging onto a 1-point lead. Now when your team is getting blown out, that clock starts running real fast as if it is just trying to hurry up and quit torturing you. Life is like that. The older you get the faster that clock starts running. You wake up one day and realize those many years you always thought you had all the time in the world are now dwindling away much quicker than you could ever imagine.

It’s not an optical illusion. It’s a change of perspective. When we are young, we think we have all the time in the world. So much time we waste it or never even think about it. We have all the time in the world to get life figured out. Time to chase dreams. Time to make a difference. Time to clean up our messes. Time to make things right with God. But after a while you start to count in years instead of days and you start to see what the Psalmist was talking about in Psalm 90:12. “Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” God does not give us this charge to number our days so that we will sit around in fear and panic. He gives us this charge so we will know to number our days so that we may be about His business with all the wisdom He provides.

God’s speed of time is His way of waking us up. When we are young, we always think that we have all the time in the world. But time is never a luxury. Time is always a test. Each and every day is an opportunity. An opportunity to be right with God. An opportunity to love well. An opportunity to serve hard. An opportunity to finish well. We don’t get to choose the time on the clock. We get to choose what we do with the time that we have left on the clock. James said it this way: “For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away” ~James 4:14.