When a baby wants to be fed, he wants it NOW.
When a toddler races for a toy, obstacles that delay him frustrate him.
When a child is put in time out, a moment can feel like a month.
But children grow, and so does their concept of time. While “next year” seems impossibly far away, “tomorrow” eventually becomes acceptable, and then “next week,” “next month,” etc.
As adults, we can excitedly anticipate a vacation six months from now while understanding that we have things to do in the meantime. Depending on what those things are, we may walk through the days so busy that suddenly we look up to see that The Day has arrived. On the other hand, when life is in the process of throwing everything and the kitchen sink at us, we may be back to feeling like the clock has slowed and every moment is a month. Either way, we know that a special day is approaching, and the promise of tomorrow’s vacation empowers us to take each day as it comes.
Second Corinthians 4:17-18 reminds us that this life, even if it’s a life filled with trials and heartache, is nothing compared to eternity. First Peter 1:6 assures us that those “momentary trials” are helping us become the people of faith we are called to be. The more we’re in the Word, meditating on verses like these, and the more we are in fellowship with Him, the greater we understand this truth. Like the growing child who develops an increasingly accurate time sense, so do we who are children of God, as we grow spiritually, develop an increasingly accurate eternal time sense. It is this that makes life bearable even during the bad days (weeks, months, years…).
I explained in my Surviving Narcissism series that this one revelation was what made the difference in my ability to stay with and care for my disabled, narcissistic husband. I realized one day that, when compared to the eternity in which I’ll live, my life here isn’t even ten minutes. While thinking about it like that, I decided I can do anything for ten minutes.
And that’s what I told God. It went something like, “I can do anything for ten minutes, so if You want me here with him until the day I die, I can do it. With You helping me, I can.” If you know my story, you are aware that I outlived him, but with a true revelation of eternity I was able to say those words and mean what I said. Bible teacher TeDese Ross expresses it beautifully:
Hope for the future gives us strength for the present.
So, if you’re living in a world where a moment seems like a month, where hope is hard to come by, I advise you to turn to God and ask Him to give you that same revelation, to help you fully grasp the fact that while your problems and trials seem endless, they – and this life – really are “but for a moment.”
One revelation can change everything!
Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C