"My Time is Your Time and Your Time is Mine...." (song)

Time plays an important part in our culture. We speak of it as a living, breathing object, "Time marches on" or "the march of time." We speak of it, as a possession, "I wish I had the time," "I'm out of time," "Will please give me some of your time." We use it like a trader's commodity— money, "I bought some time," "My time was spent foolishly," or "Time well spent."

Time seems to fluctuate as our need or usefulness increases. Time never changes; it is still sixty seconds in a minute, sixty minutes in an hour, twenty-four hours in a day. Although it doesn't change, our perception of it does; from the prisoner sentenced to twenty years to the father seeing his twenty year old daughter on her wedding day, that same period is an eternity for one but a short time for the other. To a person trying to beat a deadline time is fleeting, to the employee starting the last day of work before his vacation, it is an eternity. It is unyielding, timeless and as in from the dawn of time yet relentless as in, "Time will tell."

Ecclesiastes 3:1-12 tells it all for us:


"1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,

3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,

5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,

7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,

8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

9 What does the worker gain from his toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on men. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live."

K