I’m intrigued by the mystery called time.
In elementary science we are told that matter is anything that has weight and occupies space. By this definition, time is not matter. What is the weight of one second? How much space does an hour occupy? The next five minutes on this page, could alter your life.
Commonly, we say time is money. You and I know that is the furthest thing from the truth. How much is one minute? Since we all have only 24 hours in a day, how come some people or companies are richer (financially) than others? There is a mystery about time. We can only scratch the surface, but I invite you to pay attention to these few scratches today. It could start you on a journey that will be remarkable.
There was a time when there was no time. As confusing as that seems I found it in the bible. Time as we know it came about on the fourth day of creation. When God created the sun and moon, He gave them a specific function – of times and seasons. Gen 1:14 Then God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years… and the evening and the morning were the fourth day. This in my understanding is the beginning of time.
With our scientific knowledge, we know that what constitutes a day, is the earth spinning on its axis in a complete revolution. We know that the seasons are determined by the path of the earth as it travels around the sun and as the moon revolves around the earth. So what were those first three days? Could you measure them with a clock and calendar as we do today? You may have your answer, and it does not have to agree with mine. But scientifically, those days could not have been measured in hours and minutes, not because the equipment was not available but because the equipment used to measure time depends on factors that were not in existence.
I know that theologians and scientists argue over this issue. Because what this discussion brings up all the time is whether the six days of Genesis chapter 1 were literal six (24 hour days). Time is a mystery and that mystery is compounded by our measuring equipment. There are two concepts of time in the bible – the chronos and the kairos. Perhaps if we look at them we could resolve a tiny bit of the mystery.
Let’s look at the concept of time as in chronos. When we attempt to number our days and our dreams, we approach it from a chronos perspective. Chronos is the Greek word from which we have chronology, chronicles or even chronic. It depicts a sequential ordering as epitomized by the chronometer – your wristwatch or wall clock.
Chronos tells you it is 8 am you should be at work. Chronos enslaves you and leaves you always feeling choked. It is concerned with how fast, how soon, how frequent, how old. These questions – the measures of chromos - put us under pressure.
You are 35 years old and yet not married. You are too old for men to look in your direction now. You have been married for ten years any yet you do not have a child. You are past child bearing age. You are getting too old for the job. Or the time is too short, we cannot supply the materials you need. Time – chronos – robs you and puts you under pressure.
Chronos is not matter; it occupies no space, we cannot touch it, see it or inhale it , yet we are controlled by it. You know time is there by perception and our measure of that perception. That measure can often be wrong because we are a matter-based civilization. Our best sciences can only measure things that are physical, things that conform to definition of matter- things that occupy space and have weight. So chronos forces this interpretation of perception on time. That is the challenge with numbering our days. We try to measure something that is not matter – by tools that measure matter. We are using the wrong tools for the job! You cannot measure temperature with a ruler or a barometer– no matter how sophisticated the ruler or barometer is. You must get a thermometer. And not just any thermometer will do. When you want to measure the temperature of iron ore for instance the ordinary household thermometer becomes useless. Unfortunately, this is what we try to do all the time with our calendar. We are using the wrong instrument to number our days.
Do you want to learn a better way? Join me next week.
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