I’m running out of time. I’ve hit that time in my life in which I realize that I am not going to live forever. I have also reached a time in which I feel that I have clear goals to accomplish and I better get moving if I wish to reach them. How long do I have to complete my goals? Maybe thirty years, or twenty or ten or less? Thirty sounds like a lot but time is moving quickly. It was twenty years ago that I graduated college. The time between then and now has slipped away at a breathtaking speed. It was gone in a flash. And so thirty years no longer seems so long a time period. I have so much to do and I am running out of time.
God is eternal and beyond time. God created time, but is not limited by it. We are time bound beings, we are limited by time. But, we can take part in God’s eternity. Even though we will always be subject to time – with the exception of our stay in paradise – time will become less important to us as we experience more and more our existence into eternity. The Urantia Book says that as we are consecrated to God’s will our purpose will become unchanging. Time will continue to change but what motivates our existence will not change (1295.2). As we change our purpose to conform to God’s will our future potential becomes actual on the absolute and eternal levels of deity (1296.3). In other words when we make the eternal decision, to God who experiences the past, present and future, we have already achieved our finaliter destiny. Therefore, we are already living in the eternal stream. In a very real way - eternity is now. My concern with running out of time while on earth is lessened by this fact – my future has an unlimited amount of time in it.
So I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him? Ecclesiastes 3:22. The writer of this passage finds time to be a mystery. God exists in eternity - but we live for a while and end up dust in the earth. He says we should enjoy our work here and now because tomorrow we may run out of time. But God has provided us an answer to his question. We have time. We have been given all the time there is.
God Bless You,
William Whitehead
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