What Time Is It?
Do you know what time it is? No, don’t look at your watch. That’s not what I mean. I am not asking for the position of Mickey’s little hand and big hand. I mean, “What time is it-in your life?”
When I was a little younger (I should say a lot younger) my parents asked it a different way. They would see me pull some dimwitted stunt and they would say, “Don’t you think it’s time to grow up?” Or, my college advisor would say something like, “Don’t you think it’s time for you to decide on a major?” Even now my wife will interrupt a perfectly good sitcom by asking, “Don’t you think it is time to take out the garbage?”
You will notice that each of these questions presuppose that we already know that the time in question has arrived, but we are just not acting on it. We need a gentle nudge. Consider this to be your gentle nudge.
The author of Hebrews didn’t exactly use these words, but the meaning was the same, when he implied, “Don’t you think you should be a little further along by now? You should be teachers of the Word but instead, you need again to be taught the fundamentals.”
God meant it when He found Elijah in the cave and asked, “What are you doing here?” Paraphrased it would sound like, “Is this the time to be hiding out on some mountain?”
God had to use a donkey to ask the question for Him when Balaam found himself in the wrong place. Peter felt it when Christ found him one morning fishing when he should have been apostling.”(Don’t bother looking it up in the dictionary-it isn’t there!)
It would be good for all of us to have someone look us straight in the eye from time to time and ask, “What time is it?” You see, there is a destiny for each of us, but destiny isn’t a place that we arrive at all at one time. There are checkpoints along the way, much like the Iditarod, except our course is much more difficult. From time to time I am forced to look at my spiritual clock and realize that I am behind. I missed something along the way and took too much time at one of the checkpoints.
Checkpoints are places where we sign in to show that we are still on course. They are also places to rest for the night. Sometimes, the spiritual path we had to navigate to get to a certain checkpoint was just too stressful, too difficult. So, we decide to “vege out” for awhile. This puts us even further behind, and someone has to barge into our comfort zone and demand, “Do you know what time it is!”
At my age, I look in the mirror from time to time and ask myself, “Shouldn’t you be a little further along than this?” I must admit I have become my own worst critic. Others tell me all the time that I should write a book, that I have a gift for writing, but I find myself preferring to read than write. It is easy to read, it takes effort to write. So a few days ago, I looked in the mirror again and I saw a gray, balding (hey, give me some slack, it’s just that I have been balding for quite some time), middle aged man (I know, I’m taking license again), and behind me was an empty bookshelf-devoid of books written by me. I have been taking too long at the checkpoint again. Wait a minute! Someone is at the door shouting, “Don’t you know what time it is?”
© Copyright 2005 by Paul Whitley. All rights reserved.
When I was a little younger (I should say a lot younger) my parents asked it a different way. They would see me pull some dimwitted stunt and they would say, “Don’t you think it’s time to grow up?” Or, my college advisor would say something like, “Don’t you think it’s time for you to decide on a major?” Even now my wife will interrupt a perfectly good sitcom by asking, “Don’t you think it is time to take out the garbage?”
You will notice that each of these questions presuppose that we already know that the time in question has arrived, but we are just not acting on it. We need a gentle nudge. Consider this to be your gentle nudge.
The author of Hebrews didn’t exactly use these words, but the meaning was the same, when he implied, “Don’t you think you should be a little further along by now? You should be teachers of the Word but instead, you need again to be taught the fundamentals.”
God meant it when He found Elijah in the cave and asked, “What are you doing here?” Paraphrased it would sound like, “Is this the time to be hiding out on some mountain?”
God had to use a donkey to ask the question for Him when Balaam found himself in the wrong place. Peter felt it when Christ found him one morning fishing when he should have been apostling.”(Don’t bother looking it up in the dictionary-it isn’t there!)
It would be good for all of us to have someone look us straight in the eye from time to time and ask, “What time is it?” You see, there is a destiny for each of us, but destiny isn’t a place that we arrive at all at one time. There are checkpoints along the way, much like the Iditarod, except our course is much more difficult. From time to time I am forced to look at my spiritual clock and realize that I am behind. I missed something along the way and took too much time at one of the checkpoints.
Checkpoints are places where we sign in to show that we are still on course. They are also places to rest for the night. Sometimes, the spiritual path we had to navigate to get to a certain checkpoint was just too stressful, too difficult. So, we decide to “vege out” for awhile. This puts us even further behind, and someone has to barge into our comfort zone and demand, “Do you know what time it is!”
At my age, I look in the mirror from time to time and ask myself, “Shouldn’t you be a little further along than this?” I must admit I have become my own worst critic. Others tell me all the time that I should write a book, that I have a gift for writing, but I find myself preferring to read than write. It is easy to read, it takes effort to write. So a few days ago, I looked in the mirror again and I saw a gray, balding (hey, give me some slack, it’s just that I have been balding for quite some time), middle aged man (I know, I’m taking license again), and behind me was an empty bookshelf-devoid of books written by me. I have been taking too long at the checkpoint again. Wait a minute! Someone is at the door shouting, “Don’t you know what time it is?”
© Copyright 2005 by Paul Whitley. All rights reserved.
posted by GrandFather at 10:26 AM
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