Pause for Thought

Chris Bryer, ReBorne Community Church

How can it be November already? Where has this year gone? It doesn’t seem five minutes (a slight exaggeration) since we were thinking about Christmas 2021.

Time remains constant, but our perception of it can vary enormously. When we are in the middle of difficult or trying circumstances time can seem to go so slowly. On other occasions time seems to fly by; ask anyone about their wedding day and the reply will often be that it went by too quickly.

In the past century, we have benefitted from the creation of many devices that have been invented to save us time. We have automatic washing machines, vacuum cleaners, tumble driers, microwave ovens and mobile phones, all of which leave us time to do other things. So what do we do with all the time we’ve gained?

We can watch programmes on our televisions that we can pause, rewind or fast forward. Some of us get so used to doing this that we wish that we could do this in our daily lives, pausing at precious moments, rewinding happy events or memories to experience them again or fast-forwarding through uncomfortable or difficult times.

The truth of the matter is that we all have 24 hours in a day, whether we are a Head of State or a newborn baby. Whatever we do, we can’t change that. We expect the sun to rise tomorrow, the day to pass and evening to come as it has done for millennia. As Geoffrey Chaucer noted, ‘Time and tide wait for no man.’

Some may remember that back in 1965 The Byrds released their version of the song Turn, Turn, Turn. The lyrics for this were taken directly from the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible and are the same words that Nicola Sturgeon read out at the Service of Remembrance for the Queen, held in St. Giles Cathedral in September. The author of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon, writes that there is a time for everything under heaven, including a time to be born and a time to die. These things, in the natural course of events, are not under our control. He also writes that, ‘God has set eternity in the human heart,’ so it’s not surprising that we are not always aware that our life on earth has an end date.

When Queen Elizabeth II died, many people commented that because she had been there for all their lives, they thought that she would go on forever. It doesn’t matter who we are, our time is limited. King Charles III recognised this when he said in his first official address as King – that his rule would be ‘For the remaining time God grants me.’ As a previous King, King David said, ‘My times are in your hands.’

JRR Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings, wrote, ‘All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.’

Time is a great leveller; we all have the same number of hours in a day, days in a week, weeks in a year. What we have to decide is what to do with this time. Maybe we could start by taking William Arthur Ward’s advice – he said, ‘God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say Thank you?’ Why not try it?

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