Transitions: Triplets of Purpose – What Time Is It?

 

Photo by Isabel Grosjean

As we have seen, God will guide our transitions through life, ordering our actions, direction and timing if we follow His lead. King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, taught that there is a proper time for everything. But he also taught that all of it is vain and meaningless (Ecclesiastes 5:10; 6:2-12) unless we honor and glorify God as we go through each of life’s seasons (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

God’s timing is always perfect, even if we wrongly experience Him as being agonizingly slow to fulfill His promises (2 Peter 3:8-9), or so sudden and swift in taking a loved one home (James 4:14) that we stagger in shock and dismay. If we follow His Word and His will for our lives, our timing will be synchronized with His rather than out of step. To rush ahead of His timing or to lag behind in disobedience is sure to propel us off the cliff into disaster.

Just as He orders our physical transitions throughout life, by the miraculous way in which He designed and created us (Psalm 139:14), so does He order the transitions to each new direction, the correct pathway at each fork in the road, if we follow Him (Proverbs 3:5-6; Psalm 37:4-6).

Waiting on His perfect timing and seeking His will (Lamentations 3:25-26) leads us to God’s best, as He delivers us from trouble (Psalm 37:7-13;34), gives us a new song of praise and testimony (Psalm 40:1-3) and prepares for us unimaginable blessings (Isaiah 64:4).

Before His ascension to Heaven, Jesus told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem “for the promise of the Father.” (Acts 1:4). Surely they were eager to start telling the world of their Saviour, and they must have felt prepared by the time He spent with them, His teachings, and their first-hand knowledge of His miracles and resurrection. Yet they waited in obedience and were rewarded by the Holy Spirit empowering them to lead many souls to Christ! (Acts 2)

One of the first acts of obedience for many Christians is baptism by immersion, which pictures the cross (as the believer sits upright in the water), Christ’s burial (as the believer is plunged beneath the water), and Christ’s resurrection to His glorified body (as the believer arises from the water). Baptism does not save us, nor does any good work (Ephesians 2:8-9), but it is a public confession of our allegiance to and identification with Him.

The sacrament of baptism represents the transitions from having our sins nailed to His cross, dying to our sin nature as He died and was buried, and rising again to walk as a new creation in Him. Solomon refers to these spiritual transitions in physical terms, all of which have an appointed time (Ecclesiastes 3:2-6). We must die to self (1 Corinthians 15:31) to be born to new life and to live for Him (Romans 8:10-11; Colossians 3:9-10; Galatians 2:20; 3:24).

Ecclesiastes 3:3 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

We must kill, break down, and cast away our bad habits (1 Corinthians 15:31) so that the Holy Spirit can heal our wounds, build up our faith, and gather us together as living stones laid on His sure foundation (1 Peter 2:4). As we recognize our inability to save ourselves or to accomplish any good work in our own flesh (Romans 7:18-23), we weep, mourn and refrain from embracing those false gods that lead us to destruction (Romans 12:2). Then we can laugh and dance for our joy in the Lord (2 Samuel 6:12-15) as His everlasting arms (Deuteronomy 33:27) firmly hold us in His loving embrace.

Before we are saved we build our lives around our own desires, goals, and abilities (Proverbs 14:12; 16:25).We get all we can, we hoard or keep it for future use (Luke 12: 16-21), and we sew ourselves garments of our own self-righteousness. But when we are saved we learn that to keep our life (Matthew 16:25; Mark 8:35; Luke 9:24; 17:33). we must lose our self-absorption, cast away our own selfish ambitions, and tear apart or rend our garments of self-righteousness, which God sees as filthy rags (Ecclesiastes 3:6-7; Isaiah 64:6).

The transitions of salvation do not stop there – we turn from apathetic silence about God to speaking boldly to and for Him (Ephesians 6:20); from hating to loving Him, and from being at war with God to being reconciled to Him (2 Corinthians 5:18-19) through the glorious Gospel of peace (Ecclesiastes 3:7-8). Ultimately, He even transforms us from being His enemies to being His ambassadors! (2 Corinthians 5:20)

© 2014 Laurie Collett

Edited and reposted from the archives

What Time Is It?

 

I recently dreamt that I was attending a large congress held at a hotel, and it is the last day of conference activities. My mother calls and says I should get home before midnight, as my father is there. I realize that the home where I grew up is a 3-hour car ride from the hotel; I still have to pack; and I have no idea what time it is.

I have to attend the last lecture, for which I’m already late. A well-known Broadway director is lecturing and gives me a dirty look as I try to sneak in unobtrusively. I look for a seat in the darker part of the auditorium, but the only empty seat there is a high chair, like a director’s chair.

Once settled in, I look around for clocks but there aren’t any. When the lecture is over I leave and look for clocks in the hallways and lobby but there are none. I’m surprised to find myself in what looks like an ICU. Seven patients are in beds with monitors and lines, each with a clock over the bed, but they all show different times. One of the clocks is like a melting Dali clock with all the numbers on the left side.

There is only one staff member present, a nurse. I ask if she knows what time it is and she yells, “Can you please keep your voice down!” She points to the clock behind her, on which the hands show 9:50, and says “It’s 10:10.” I reply “You mean 10 till 10?” She yells again, “Can’t you even tell time?”

As I realize I’m not going to make it home in time, or accomplish what I need to before time runs out, I awaken in a panic.

When contemplating the meaning of the dream, the overriding theme seemed to be not having enough time to do what needed to be done, and even worse, not knowing how much time was left.

Much of my professional life has been spent in large conference or meeting settings, first as an academic neurologist teaching, giving lectures, or as an expert witness in a courtroom. More recently, my husband and I have danced at competitions or performances held in large hotels, venues or theatres. Deadlines and time constraints always loomed large in these settings, but at least the boundaries and expectations were clear.

The dream had more of a sense of urgency, as I didn’t know when I would be called upon or how much time had already elapsed. I had to return to my parents’ home, which I believe symbolized Heaven, as both parents have passed into eternity. I didn’t know how much time I had to get there, only that there were many demands on my time before I left.

Arriving late to the lecture and not being able to sneak in suggests that I already feel like I am falling behind in the race God has set before me (1 Corinthians 9:24; Hebrews 12:1), and that my tardiness will be found out. The elevated chair may represent attention falling on my being late, or perhaps that I will unexpectedly be called on to speak or to assume more of a leadership role. We are to be ready to witness to the Gospel any time – in season or out of season (2 Timothy 4:2).

But again the nagging question – how much time do I have before the Lord calls me home, or before the Rapture (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17; 1 Corinthians 15:51-54), when no born-again Christian (John 3:3-8) will be left behind to complete the Lord’s unfinished business?

In the dream I sensed time was running out, but there were no clocks to tell me how quickly. The clocks in the ICU were all set to different times, perhaps reflecting the different numbers of days remaining that the Lord has appointed to each of us (Psalm 90:10). The surrealistic, distorted clock with all the numbers on the left side of the face may indicate how time seems to move more swiftly the older we get.

Perhaps the nurse did not want me to upset the patients by alerting them to the lateness of the hour, for her yelling at me suggested that noise levels were not her main concern. She did nothing to clarify how late it was, but chided me for being able to figure it out for myself.

Once we are saved by trusting in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) as the only Way to Heaven (John 14:6), our time is not our own, for we are bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20). The hour is coming when no man can work (John 9:4), and when we will give an account at the judgment for how we spent our time, talent and treasure when we had the opportunity (1 Corinthians 3:13-15).

We are not promised tomorrow (James 4:14), and no man knows the day or the hour of our Lord’s return (Matthew 24:36,44; 25:13). But we do know that it is one day closer today than it was yesterday, and that yesterday’s hours are gone forever.

Man has created a “Doomsday Clock,” predicting the time of Earth’s apocalyptic destruction based on the likelihood of nuclear war and other annihilating forces. The planet has never been closer to midnight than we are now – just seconds away. But man’s “wisdom” pales next to God’s infinite knowledge of eternity past and eternity future.

Although no one knows when the Rapture will occur, Jesus taught us about the signs of the times (Matthew 16:3), indicating His soon return. As He predicted (Matthew 24), these have been like labor pains, intensifying in frequency and intensity. Just browse the headlines and you’ll see it all unfolding – wars, rumors of wars, plague, famine, evil running rampant, false prophets, apostasy, family members killing one another, earthquakes, signs in the sky, with blood-red moons (Joel 2:31; Acts 2:20) and even blood-red skies, recently reported in China.

May we not be alarmed by these devastating events but rather reassured that Christ’s plan is unfolding before our eyes, and that His return is ever so near. May we redeem the time in these evil days (Ephesians 5:16), and be not weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not! (Galatians 6:9). May we look up, for our redemption draws nigh! (Luke 21:28).

© 2022 Laurie Collett