Imagine living just 53 years ago in Valentine NE where the time zone change went down the middle of Main Street. Businesses or homes located off the west curb were expected to live one hour later than those living off the east curb. When clocks were to fall back one hour for daylight saving time, their post office split the difference and turned back its clock by only half an hour. This difference was strong a catalyst in the wild west culture providing excuses for physical fights back in the day! It wasn’t until 1967 that proper authorities finally resolved that issue, but the residual effects are still being felt.
We’ve learned to adapt to the different time zones today, but it is hard for us to adapt to the difference in the time zone between God and humans. God lives outside of time, in eternity, while we live within the restrictions of time. The Psalmist wrote for a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night (Psalm 90:4, ESV). And Peter wrote, don’t overlook the obvious here, friends. With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day (2 Peter 3:8, MSG).
Consider this: God inspired the prophet Isaiah to declare the thriving city of Tyre would be destroyed and that the Messiah would come. However, it took about 400 years before Tyre was destroyed and maybe 750 years before Jesus was born. It may have been all in one of God’s days but no one who heard these prophesies were alive when either was fulfilled. How might that work when you consider God’s promise to you? From God’s perspective there was no hurry in Isaiah’s situation. On the other hand, over and over in our day we see God is careful to make sure His grace arrives at precisely the right time in our lives. It is total foolishness to think we can limit God to our mental capacities. He is God and we are not! A wise man keeps such differences in mind when planning his day or future.
The Bible says, And now I have a word for you who brashly announce, “Today—at the latest, tomorrow—we’re off to such and such a city for the year. We’re going to start a business and make a lot of money.” You don’t know the first thing about tomorrow. You’re nothing but a wisp of fog, catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing. Instead, make it a habit to say, “If the Master wills it and we’re still alive, we’ll do this or that” (James 4:13-15, MSG)
One of our younger extended California family members was recently killed in a car accident. What a vivid reminder that life is only a wisp of fog. While there is NOTHING wrong with making plans or scheduling for the future, one must never forget, we can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps (Proverbs 16:9, NLT2). The future is only fantasy which is not reality. It is the present that is real, dynamic and important. To miss God’s purpose designed for our TODAY is to cripple our future as well as neutralize the beneficial lessons of the past.
With this enlightenment I must be sure I have God’s reason, not a fleshly one, for interrupting a time schedule as being most critical. Although I have not always exemplified that, yet my goal is to be like Jesus who said, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing” (John 5:19, NLT2). He did the works of Him who sent [Him] as long as it [was] day” (Jn 9:4). That is the path to the greatest joy and fruitfulness possible. Have you been living the highest level of joy and fruitfulness possible? If not, could it have anything to do with who or what you allow to govern your daily activities?