Blackhall Rocks, Durham Coast
“Always we were harried by time... Not only are we harried by time, we seem unable, despite a thousand generations, even to get used to it. We are always amazed at it—how fast it goes, how slowly it goes, how much of it is gone. Where, we cry, has the time gone? We aren’t adapted to it, not at home in it. If that is so, it may appear as a proof, or at least a powerful suggestion, that eternity exists and is our home.”
Time.
Always moving, progressing, cutting short, disappointing, surprising and rushing. We were born into it, but time is not meant to be our home. It is a force of nature that we as humans never quite grow used to.
Have you ever experienced a moment in which you nearly forgot that time was moving forward? When the watch on your wrist or your phone did not demand your attention; when, for an instant, your schedule fell from its throne and you experienced real freedom in living?
As much as I relent in saying it, those moments have been few and far between in my own life. Far too often do I simply sprint through the days, too rushed and stretched thin to bother stopping, looking, breathing. Sheldon VanAuken, a close friend of C.S. Lewis and one of my favourite authors and sources of inspiration, reflected on this in his book A Severe Mercy. As I read through his memoir, my eyes were opened to time in a way that they never had been before. Our dissatisfaction with timeful existence points our seeking hearts onward to a greater, fuller life. One outside of this harrying Time.
However, on this day, we exist in time. Time is not only a thief; it is also an encourager, a reminder that these days are urgent, that our lives are not meant to be wasted away. Peter says,
“ Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and temporary residents to abstain from fleshly desires which wage war against your soul, maintaining your good conduct among the Gentiles, so that in the things in which they slander you as evildoers, by seeing your good deeds they may glorify God on the day of visitation.”
The fleshly desires that Peter speaks of here are the momentary pleasures, the fleeting fulfillments. They are distractions and hindrances, plaguing those who forget the urgency of Time. Peter compares the Church to foreigners or temporary residents. Another word that is used in other translations is "sojourners." Sojourning has become a theme that I often must remind myself of - I am only here for an instant, as a vapor in the wind. This is not our final resting place. This is a transition, a time of preparation, a time of decision and action.
We still look on to our homeland. Our hearts burn for the land that we were made for. However, we are here. We are sojourning, and there is room for many more to come along. All are made for this far-off land, but can only find it if those who know the way invite the others along.
Let's go invite.
Bram VanderMark // Summer Intern
