Time and the Demonstration of Who God Is
We don’t always think about the way that we use time as a means of demonstrating who God is. I seldom feel that I have enough time, yet I don’t often think that I will run out of time either. Time is, for me, something I tend to take for granted. Time, despite my more relatively lackadaisical attitude toward it, is an important theological category. One way in which time features in the biblical narrative is through sacred calendars incorporating events such as Sabbath, various festivals, the day of atonement and the year of Jubilee. These events created an ongoing cadence for Israel in which the people of Israel were given the opportunity to recognize God and his continued role in the community.
Sabbath, for instance, became a vehicle for Israel to remember the exodus from Egypt. As opposed to their time in Egypt, which was characterized by unceasing layer that squeezed out worship so that Pharaoh could resource his realm, under God Israel is empowered to cease their work in order to remember God and his acts of deliverance. Sabbath was a time for Israel to demonstrate that God is not dependent on human work to provide for his people. Work, while important, was not to be recognized as the sole means of securing sufficient resources to sustain the nation…God is fully capable of providing for his people.
The corporate body of Christ and the individuals within it have the opportunity to demonstrate who God is through particular practices related to time. Sabbath is certainly one option for the church though it may have a different sort of meaning in contemporary culture than it did in ancient Israel. Taking time out, both corporately and individually, for “unproductive” activities like worship and prayer demonstrates to a watching world that God calls us to relationship, not productivity.
Beyond rest, we may also attend to the manner in which we use our time. The biggest contemporary challenge is, perhaps, not unceasing labor, but unceasing consumption of information. As we consume more and more bite sized portions of information, we must take care not to mistake those bite sized portions for a full-course meal. In some ways, spending excessive time scrolling though Instagram or Facebook posts, sending and receiving snaps, or tweeting is similar to snacking on candies before we eat…we run the risk of spoiling our supper. If our “snacking” keeps us from feasting on God’s word, or if we simply incorporate God’s word into our snacking, we may inadvertently suggest that God is not worthy of sustained time, but is simply one of many short interactions we have during the day. In other words, there is a way to use our time that communicates God as mundane and not holy.
Our use of time, our cadences of life, demonstrate to the world something about the God we serve. Thinking through how our cadence of life communicates God’s character to the world can be a rather powerful way for us to offer testimony about our God.
Sabbath, for instance, became a vehicle for Israel to remember the exodus from Egypt. As opposed to their time in Egypt, which was characterized by unceasing layer that squeezed out worship so that Pharaoh could resource his realm, under God Israel is empowered to cease their work in order to remember God and his acts of deliverance. Sabbath was a time for Israel to demonstrate that God is not dependent on human work to provide for his people. Work, while important, was not to be recognized as the sole means of securing sufficient resources to sustain the nation…God is fully capable of providing for his people.
The corporate body of Christ and the individuals within it have the opportunity to demonstrate who God is through particular practices related to time. Sabbath is certainly one option for the church though it may have a different sort of meaning in contemporary culture than it did in ancient Israel. Taking time out, both corporately and individually, for “unproductive” activities like worship and prayer demonstrates to a watching world that God calls us to relationship, not productivity.
Beyond rest, we may also attend to the manner in which we use our time. The biggest contemporary challenge is, perhaps, not unceasing labor, but unceasing consumption of information. As we consume more and more bite sized portions of information, we must take care not to mistake those bite sized portions for a full-course meal. In some ways, spending excessive time scrolling though Instagram or Facebook posts, sending and receiving snaps, or tweeting is similar to snacking on candies before we eat…we run the risk of spoiling our supper. If our “snacking” keeps us from feasting on God’s word, or if we simply incorporate God’s word into our snacking, we may inadvertently suggest that God is not worthy of sustained time, but is simply one of many short interactions we have during the day. In other words, there is a way to use our time that communicates God as mundane and not holy.
Our use of time, our cadences of life, demonstrate to the world something about the God we serve. Thinking through how our cadence of life communicates God’s character to the world can be a rather powerful way for us to offer testimony about our God.
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