Sometimes time moves in a straight line. Chronological time marches forward without looking back. Time also moves in circles. Seasons make an annual circuit, and they organize the lives of people who live off the land.
What kind of time do you keep? And does it even matter? The biblical response is an urgent “Yes!” The psalmist begged for counsel: “Teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart” (Psalm 90:12). Centuries later, Jesus echoed that same urgency as he proclaimed, “The kingdom of God has come near to you” (Luke 10:9). Here Jesus isn’t talking about the kingdom as a physical place.
Jesus alludes to a different way of marking time entirely. If Jesus brought God’s kingdom into human history, then the best way to keep God’s time is to follow God’s son. God’s time transports people to a place where earthly time melts, placing them in front of a presence for whom time doesn’t matter. Let’s number our days according to God’s time.
This message is an excerpt from “Keeping God’s time” by M.E. Stortz in the October 2020 issue of Gather magazine.
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