Time is significant because it is so rare. It is completely irretrievable. You can never repeat it or relive it. There is no such thing as a literal instant replay. That appears only on film. It travels alongside us every day, yet is has eternity wrapped up in it.
– Charles R. Swindoll (Living on the Ragged Edge (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1985), page 68)
What a difference fifteen years make. In 2010, my daughter and I attended our first Father-Daughter dance. She was just 2½ years old. Yesterday, she attended her high school prom as a young woman approaching her 18th birthday. We have cherished these milestones throughout her life. As she grows older, I become increasingly aware that these special moments will eventually cease. Like my own mortality, I cannot know when that final moment will arrive; yet this reality doesn’t sadden me. Instead, it deepens my gratitude for the present—pure and uncomplicated. With each passing day and year, I simply thank God for the gift of time with her.
God created humans to be plain and simple, but we have complicated our existence immeasurably. In this complexity, we lose sight of time’s precious scarcity. How did we stray so far? By succumbing to the oldest temptation in the Good Book—a deception as effective today as it was millennia ago. Rather than appreciating what we possess, we grow jealous and covetous of what others have, convinced we deserve the same. Our egos drive us through endless schemes to claim what we believe is rightfully ours. We fall prey to the illusion that we’re missing something essential. We presume to know better.
This pursuit only serves to overcomplicate and confuse our lives. Before we realize it, time has slipped away, impossible to reclaim.
I invite you to join me in returning to our fundamental nature—plain and simple. Two practices can guide us on this journey: forbearance and forgiveness.
Merriam-Webster defines forbearance as “refraining from enforcing something (such as a debt, right, or obligation) that is due.” At its core, forbearance requires patient self-control, restraint, and tolerance. Importantly, the “something” remains due. Many daily situations call for forbearance—it should be a frequently used tool in your human toolkit when dealing with others. The only path to developing the awareness, calmness, and kindness needed for forbearance is to allow God’s Spirit to tend to your soul like a gardener caring for a vine. He prunes every unfruitful branch and cultivates the fruitful ones so they might bear more abundantly.
Alongside forbearance stands forgiveness—the act of pardoning the debt, right, or obligation entirely. While related to forbearance, forgiveness asks something more profound: relinquishing the right to retaliation. As challenging as forbearance can be to master, forgiveness proves exponentially more difficult. Yet this practice is essential if we truly wish to honor time’s significance in our lives.
One of my mentors, Mister Fred Rogers, eloquently captured the spirit of forbearance and forgiveness in a song, What do you do with the Mad that you Feel. Here are the lyrics.
What do you do with the mad that you feel
When you feel so mad you could bite?
When the whole wide world seems oh, so wrong…
And nothing you do seems very right?What do you do? Do you punch a bag?
Do you pound some clay or some dough?
Do you round up friends for a game of tag?
Or see how fast you go?It’s great to be able to stop
When you’ve planned a thing that’s wrong,
And be able to do something else instead
And think this song:I can stop when I want to
Can stop when I wish
I can stop, stop, stop any time.
And what a good feeling to feel like this
And know that the feeling is really mine.
Know that there’s something deep inside
That helps us become what we can.
For a girl can be someday a woman
And a boy can be someday a man.– Music and Lyrics by Fred M. Rogers. © McFeely-Rogers Foundation. All Rights Reserved. (“What do you do with the Mad that you Feel” (1997) | Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood)
This post was originally published on June 6, 2021, as “Time, the Finite Resource,” and is refreshed and republished today with a new title, significant updates, and meaningful enhancements.
MindWolves 