What time is it?

I beat the clock.

Time is on my side.

I’m just killing time.

I did it just in the nick of time.

I need to turn back the hands of time.

Time is a funny thing. We have all kinds of statements and imagery to capture how finicky it is. Sometimes it seems to happen at the speed of light. Other times it feels like trudging through mud at a snail’s pace.

In the midst of one of my own therapy sessions, my therapist randomly commented, “Since we’ve known each for like 10 years…” I quickly did the math on my head. To be precise, we had been working together for exactly 5 ½ years, nearly half of the time he had stated. I wasn’t quite sure how to take this comment. It’s kinda like when a spouse says they’ve been married for 10 years, but it’s felt like 20 years. Is that a good thing? A bad thing?

One interpretation of my therapist’s statement is, “I’ve done so much work, made so much progress, and had such tremendous growth in our time together, surely a decade has passed.” Or, it could also be interpreted as, “Geesh, we’re still here working and spending countless hours together, surely it’s been a decade because it’s totally felt that long.” Let’s pretend it was the first interpretation. (I didn’t ask him for clarification—ha!)

We tend to view time as our friend or foe. We have 24 hours in a day and 365 days in a year. But still, we feel that we don’t have enough of it. We just want one more summer with our kiddos. One more day on vacation with family. One more hour with a loved one who is no longer with us. One extra work day within the week. One more chance to finally get the house picked up. We constantly want what we don’t think we have.

Our days are numbered. True. But they are perfectly numbered and perfectly written by our Creator, “…all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be,” (Psalm 139:16).  

Our humanness may incline us to scramble in an attempt to “find” more time. The hard truth? We make time for what’s important to us. Plain and simple. Start by looking at your calendar. Our calendars reveal what is truly important to us, regardless of what we say or believe. Calendars don’t lie.

Sister, do you need to take inventory of your time? What do you wish were different about how you’re using your time?

Be free,

Lani