Clocks are progressive … they only go forward … well maybe sometimes they stand still when they run down or have no power left in them … depending on whether they are wind up or electronic gadgets. Like odometers they can be reset, and thereby made to effectively go backwards .. but that is cheating … whether you are male or female.
Okay so lets get more specific … time is progressive … it only advances, never retreats.
The courtiers of King Canute of England believed he could command the waves of the sea to retreat, but though he sat in his throne on a beach, the waves ignored him and the tide came in anyway. Kings cannot command the waves, any more than we can. Though engineers, like Dutch dyke builders succeeded in restraining the tides, they never stopped them.
And, no one, not even those who have used cosmetics, vitamins and oxygen tents to extend their lives have succeeded … not even old Methuselah who lived for about 970 years.
Okay, so much for the science lesson … so what now. Well actually you just aged by 2 minutes that’s what … if my “timeous” message has not yet added value to your life … well then you also just wasted 2 minutes of your short life.
A wise man put pebbles in a jar, with a pebble for each year of his expected 3 score and 10 year life. And then on each birthday he removed one, accepting that he might have some left when he eventually died … which would be unfortunate … or he might be able to put some pebbles back for each year he overshot his expected sell-by date. Then he made goals to ensure that each moment was well spent.
A less wise man was told by the doctor that he was going to die in 10 …. The patient appealed. “10 what?” he cried “Years, months ….” : “9, 8, 7 …..”
Generally we never see the time go by and we often wish it away. When my youngest was too young to be in grade 1, he yearned to be in grade 1, so he could do homework just like his brother, whilst his brother had actually moved on to the stage of wishing he could just reach the age where he could be allowed to watch Lord of the Rings. Both could not wait for their next birthdays … just the way I did as I ticked off the time to that moment when I would become a teen or an adult and then not have to do homework anymore. But when I arrived I just needed to wait for a car, a wife or something else.
I remember waiting 9 months, then 9 hours, then 9 minutes and finally 9 seconds for the triumphal shout “it’s a boy”.But whilst I was willing time on … I lost so many precious moments where I should have paused, slowed down and drunk in every experience. Now, I am trying to hold back time … but that seems to make it go faster … when we were kids it was too slow, now its too fast.
Recently I met someone I had worked with years before. We reminisced and commented on ageing … and we compared our time in the organization. 15 years for her. “If only that were my age” was her closing remark. But I closed by saying “its only a problem that you were once 15, if you also one day regret the loss of this very moment which you can still spend” (sounds like a pick up line – it wasn’t it was a put down line).
When I was at school, a teacher, wanting to teach a lesson about paying attention, gave us a little test … it said at the top “read all the questions before answering” – so we answered all the questions before reading.
The second last question, had we read it first, said, “only answer the last question”. Life is like that … we fail to get the point and then get presented with the only critical requirement at the end of life, when we will hear the words “the journey is more important than the destination”.
So for me I do find myself pushing back the one thing I can still manage … the invasion of my life priorities. Everyone demands my time … my job, my community, my club, my church … and all have merit. But I redraw my boundaries often to ensure that I do not miss moments of laughter and pleasure with my wife and children. And I also jealously guard my private moments, when I seek to be alone with God restoring my priorities. These are important.
As for my money … well bills must be paid, but I never regret “investing” money in memories and time with those I love. I can’t take it with me, so rather than let the taxman have it, why not buy some eternal memories … that I can take with me.
Well, now I have added another five minutes to your age …. I only hope you spent these moments well.
I leave you with a challenge from Confucius and I hope you will use it well, to add meaning to the times you have left: "What surprises you most about mankind?" Confucius answered, "They lose their health to make money and then lose their money to restore their health. By thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live neither for the present nor the future and they live as if they will never die, and they die as if they had never lived..... "
(c) Peter Eleazar at http://www.bethelstone.com/
Okay so lets get more specific … time is progressive … it only advances, never retreats.
The courtiers of King Canute of England believed he could command the waves of the sea to retreat, but though he sat in his throne on a beach, the waves ignored him and the tide came in anyway. Kings cannot command the waves, any more than we can. Though engineers, like Dutch dyke builders succeeded in restraining the tides, they never stopped them.
And, no one, not even those who have used cosmetics, vitamins and oxygen tents to extend their lives have succeeded … not even old Methuselah who lived for about 970 years.
Okay, so much for the science lesson … so what now. Well actually you just aged by 2 minutes that’s what … if my “timeous” message has not yet added value to your life … well then you also just wasted 2 minutes of your short life.
A wise man put pebbles in a jar, with a pebble for each year of his expected 3 score and 10 year life. And then on each birthday he removed one, accepting that he might have some left when he eventually died … which would be unfortunate … or he might be able to put some pebbles back for each year he overshot his expected sell-by date. Then he made goals to ensure that each moment was well spent.
A less wise man was told by the doctor that he was going to die in 10 …. The patient appealed. “10 what?” he cried “Years, months ….” : “9, 8, 7 …..”
Generally we never see the time go by and we often wish it away. When my youngest was too young to be in grade 1, he yearned to be in grade 1, so he could do homework just like his brother, whilst his brother had actually moved on to the stage of wishing he could just reach the age where he could be allowed to watch Lord of the Rings. Both could not wait for their next birthdays … just the way I did as I ticked off the time to that moment when I would become a teen or an adult and then not have to do homework anymore. But when I arrived I just needed to wait for a car, a wife or something else.
I remember waiting 9 months, then 9 hours, then 9 minutes and finally 9 seconds for the triumphal shout “it’s a boy”.But whilst I was willing time on … I lost so many precious moments where I should have paused, slowed down and drunk in every experience. Now, I am trying to hold back time … but that seems to make it go faster … when we were kids it was too slow, now its too fast.
Recently I met someone I had worked with years before. We reminisced and commented on ageing … and we compared our time in the organization. 15 years for her. “If only that were my age” was her closing remark. But I closed by saying “its only a problem that you were once 15, if you also one day regret the loss of this very moment which you can still spend” (sounds like a pick up line – it wasn’t it was a put down line).
When I was at school, a teacher, wanting to teach a lesson about paying attention, gave us a little test … it said at the top “read all the questions before answering” – so we answered all the questions before reading.
The second last question, had we read it first, said, “only answer the last question”. Life is like that … we fail to get the point and then get presented with the only critical requirement at the end of life, when we will hear the words “the journey is more important than the destination”.
So for me I do find myself pushing back the one thing I can still manage … the invasion of my life priorities. Everyone demands my time … my job, my community, my club, my church … and all have merit. But I redraw my boundaries often to ensure that I do not miss moments of laughter and pleasure with my wife and children. And I also jealously guard my private moments, when I seek to be alone with God restoring my priorities. These are important.
As for my money … well bills must be paid, but I never regret “investing” money in memories and time with those I love. I can’t take it with me, so rather than let the taxman have it, why not buy some eternal memories … that I can take with me.
Well, now I have added another five minutes to your age …. I only hope you spent these moments well.
I leave you with a challenge from Confucius and I hope you will use it well, to add meaning to the times you have left: "What surprises you most about mankind?" Confucius answered, "They lose their health to make money and then lose their money to restore their health. By thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live neither for the present nor the future and they live as if they will never die, and they die as if they had never lived..... "
(c) Peter Eleazar at http://www.bethelstone.com/
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