Where Has The Time Gone? - Devotion for September 14

The art genre of surrealism, of which Salvador Dalí was a master, rejects logic, reason, and the natural order in order to get us to see—and ponder—things in a new way. And time is an interesting thing to ponder. Dalí's iconic melting watches symbolize the fluidity, elasticity, and subjective nature of time rather than a rigid or absolute constant.

Speaking of time, now that we are in the middle of September, we often ask why is it that summer seems to fly by? 

Time is strange that way. It can stretch and it can shrink. It crawls when we are waiting for something—maybe results from a test or a much-needed vacation. It speeds up when we have too much to do and schedules that are too full. When I’m in the middle of writing, hours can disappear without my noticing. But give me an unpleasant task, and suddenly every minute seems to take forever.

Once I heard the quote, “As if you can kill time without injuring eternity.” Ouch! I’ve also heard it said that the days are long but the years are fast. Agreed.

Dalí’s melting watch seems to capture something we already know: time doesn’t always feel fixed. It bends and stretches according to what is happening in our lives. But the older I get, the more I realize that perhaps the question isn’t simply, “Where has the time gone?”

Maybe the better question is, “What am I doing with the time I have?”

And when I ponder that question, I come back to something we all probably know but easily forget: the best place to live is in the present.

How much time do I spend planning and worrying about the future? Too much. How much time do I spend replaying or regretting the past? Too much. Meanwhile, the moment I actually have—the one right in front of me—can slip by unnoticed.

My new motto is to spend as much time in the “now” as I can. To notice. To pay attention. To be grateful. Because perhaps numbering our days isn’t about counting how many we have left. Perhaps it is about learning to receive the one we have been given today.

I pray you can take some time to stop, be pulled into the presence of the Almighty, and relish the moment. After all, this moment is where life is happening. And this moment is where God meets us.

“Walk in wisdom… making the best use of the time.” —Colossians 4:5

“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” —Psalm 90:12

Pr. Laurie Neill

Featured art: Salvador Dalí, Soft Watch at the Moment of First Explosion (also known as The Melting Watch), 1954