“Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’ into the future!” Are you singing along? When I saw this prompt, that line from the Steve Miller Band’s classic song, Fly Like an Eagle, was the first thing that jumped to mind.
Oh, what truth that simple line holds—an ode to the preciousness of time. When we are young, we long for time to hasten as we anxiously look forward to all that is “next.” As a young girl, it was simple things like pierced ears, wearing makeup, or getting to walk home from school. As I got a bit older, the passage of time seemed to crawl toward bigger things like getting a driver’s license, going on a first date, leaving for college, launching a career, getting married, or having children.
But as we move past the flurry of “firsts” during those formative years, the steady beat of the clock leads us to different emotions. Suddenly, we feel the rush of time, along with the desire for it to slow its pace. As new wrinkles form across our face, our children leave home, our earthly bodies begin to fail us, or in the pursuit of deeper purpose, time often marches us to places both good and bad. Mixed among moments of tender reflection and thankfulness for God’s hand of protection and guidance also fall memories of regret, missed opportunities, and failures.
While the past year brought many things to light, this simple truth continues to resonate with me: The time is now.
Time for us to stop looking backward focused on what could or should have been. Time for us to move forward with God’s truth and love, to cherish the gift of a new day and the beauty in knowing our life holds purpose. And most importantly, time for believers to show an unsaved world the gift of grace and the eternal promise of Jesus.
This week’s prompt :: Time
This post is part of the Five Minute Friday blog link-up. It’s an opportunity to join up with a community of writers and bloggers of all ages and stages who gather around a single word prompt to free-write, unscripted and unedited, for five minutes.
It’s also time for us to ignore the differences in others & look for common ground!
Amen!
Agreed, we can’t live in the past. We really only have today and what we make of today impacts our future!
I love that you see each new day as a gift
Boy, isn’t that the truth!
I for one as a child didn’t want to grow up and didn’t want time to speed up, because I was taught from an early age that with growing up comes increased responsibility and I knew I wasn’t ready for that. However, this makes me even more acutely aware of how the time to look forward is now. FMF #38
Interesting that you say that about not wanting to grow up. My children (now both college graduates) have made comments before about the responsibilities of “adulting.” I think their responses might be similar to yours regarding growing up. Often, I think we find ourselves in that middle space of enjoying the carefree while also anxiously waiting for the “next” thing to arrive. The older I get, though, the more precious that time left feels. Blessings to you!