15 Jun A New Reason Why Time Seems to Fly By

When I was very young, someone shared a theory with me on the perception of time. You may have heard it. As you age months and years are a smaller fraction of your life, so your perspective changes and they pass by faster. For example. When you were five years old, a year was 1/5^th or 20% of your life. That made a year feel like a long time. If your 70, a year is 1/70^th of your life. I have long accepted this theory. I also believe there are two 21^st century innovations that also skew our perception of the passage of time: The smart phone and the 15-day forecast. Allow me to explain.

As I write this, it’s June 8^th. My phone shows me weather forecasts up to June 23^rd. As of today, the forecast for Monday, June 23^rd, is partly cloudy with a high of 78. Without realizing it, I start thinking about that day. Suddenly, my mind is two weeks ahead of the calendar, and the month feels as though it’s almost gone. Spoiler alert: it isn’t! These otherwise helpful tools put on steroids something Jesus warned against in His sermon on the mount:

31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:31-24 (NIV)

Human nature in a broken world has long resisted Jesus’ advice. God wired us to yearn for eternity, but we short circuit that wiring by worrying about the future. The Information Age has made this even worse. The more information we have about what might or might not happen, the more we can worry about the future. Soon, we’re living 15 days or more in the future (and worrying about it), that we miss the day God has for us today!

The key is to focus on living in today. Most of my life this has been a challenge for me. I am blessed and thankful that as I grow closer to God, I focus more on each day with which He has blessed me. That doesn’t mean we don’t plan. I’m further ahead on sermon planning than I have ever been. But I have accomplished that by focus on the time God gives me each day to accomplish what He calls me to.

What about you? Does information overload have you living in the future and missing the present? If so, lock in on Matthew 6:34: “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Plan: yes. Anticipate: yes. Maybe even dream? Yes. But trust God and learn to live without the 15-day weather app (which invariably changes as the day grows closer) and a bunch of other gadgets on your smart phone. Instead, trust God with today. Let Him use you to make it the day He wants it to be!

Pastor Jerry Bader