A while back I finished reading ‘Reach for the Sky’, the biography of Douglas Bader, and now I am reading Henry Fielding's ‘Tom Jones’. Linda and I read more than many, but still I find there’s not enough time to read all that I would like to. For example, I’ve not read Milton’s Paradise Lost or Paradise Regained, nor have I read anything of William Wordsworth.
Meanwhile, my sister travels to many places around the globe, she has walked on every continent – yet there remain many places even she has not yet seen.
Now I don’t know about you, but I find that sometimes I wish I had more time to do all those things I’ve not yet been able to do (like read Milton).
But my cousin’s husband directed me in a helpful line of thinking a few years back, when he and the family came for Christmas. Yes, we can get frustrated by not being able to do all we’d like to do, but this frustration stems from the fact that we live in a fallen world separated from the Lord and his perfect ways. If I were not subject to death and the advancement of time, if I were able to live forever, I would not be frustrated by not having visited ever county in England nor read every work of classic literature. I wouldn’t be frustrated because I would be able to say, and rightly so ‘there will be time for that.’ However, because I am bound by time and a finite number of days, frustration arises, because I cannot do all I want to do.
The Bible alludes to these frustrations, particularly in Ecclesiastes.
Eccl. 3:10 I have seen the business that God has given to the sons of men to be busy with. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time; also he has put eternity into man’s mind, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
Eccl. 12:11 The sayings of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings which are given by one Shepherd. 12 My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
The Bible tells us that God has set eternity in our hearts, and that of making books there is no end. It is impossible in this life to do all we would like to do, the world is too bountiful, the opportunities too many for us to do them all.
So should I be disillusioned? No, not as a Christian. Because the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. This means that one day I will enter God’s kingdom where I’ll be able not just to read the books I haven’t time for now, I’ll actually be able to meet many of the authors who wrote the books I never had time to read (those who were Christians anyway).
There is a kingdom coming where time will not be an issue. It’s only an issue now because our world has been cursed, because we are conscious that time is passing, that we are like flowers of the field, and the sun is moving overhead…
Part of the peace of Christ therefore, is the knowledge that one day there will be time to do everything.
Phil. 4:7 And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Phil. 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
That’s worth thinking about, isn’t it?
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