Time Gnaws at Your Youth

One of the reasons I love old pictures, is because they take you back to another time. The picture I posted with this blog, I love. It was taken on March 16, 1969. I vividly remember taking it. My brother and I were both wearing suits; we had just come from church and stopped at my dad’s cousin.  A camera came out and, with the thought in my head, “I’ll remember this” I stuck my tongue out at my brother and thought “right now” as the camera went “click.” 

When I was a child, I often uttered the words, “right now.” I did so with sense of urgency as if to make time stop. What I was really trying to do was pick a point in time for later reference  a sort of “time machine” where I could later go back (hey, I said I was a child).  I remember another particular time when I was 9, as I lay on my bed watching TV I was literally gnawing on the wood of the frame of my bed (much to my mother’s later displeasure).  As I looked at the gnarled wood, I uttered “right now!”  Just so I could say “I remember gnawing on my bed, when I was young” You know what? It worked.  As I got older, I remember thinking, “boy that was 3 years ago,” later it became, “boy that was 10 years ago.” I still say that today, but now it’s, “boy that was 42 years ago.

Time just ticks on by, unabated with seemingly no sense of urgency but with no want for leisure either.  It’s always on a mission, yet doesn’t seem to do anything once it gets there other than to continue on with its duty as though by contract. I on the other hand am always governed by it, doing things it commands much like a dictator barking orders. Get up, get ready for work, leave now, drive faster, come here, go there. . . The point is, time just goes by and nothing I do seems to slow it down one bit. And to make matters worse, too many times I find myself looking forward to something in the future and wishing it would hurry up and get here and then as though to mock me, it purposely slows down like ketchup in a new bottle.

I never did figure out how to stop or actually slow down time. I’d be a very rich man if only I could. Yet why even try? As I thought about it, it’s not about time but about youth.  It’s about being vibrant, being able to do things, having a sharp mind, looking good, not being tired. Ponce de Leon searched in vain for the “Fountain of Youth.” Since he is not around, one can presume he did not find it.  Man has always cherished youth. Billions are spent every year in a fruitless endeavor to capture it. We rub everything and anything on our skin, from tree saps and mud to insect excrement in our futile efforts to bring back that youthful look. Doctors will cut here and there, stretch and pull in an attempt to make you what you no longer are - young. Many of us take all types of vitamins and herb, medicines and potions, in a vain effort to give our tired organs a kick start into new life after years of ill-treatment.  It’s vanity.

Growing up, long before I was a Christian, one of my favorite songs, was “Turn, Turn, Turn” by The Byrds. “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven”. Ecc 3:1 Many people do not realize that this “song” is actually over 3000 years old. It was written by King Solomon, who God blessed with extreme wisdom and wealth.  The book of Ecclesiastics is a book about want and excess, it describes the pursuit of anything and everything. It was Solomon’s attempt to bring fulfillment in his life. Read it for yourself, as he withheld nothing neither from his eyes, heart nor his flesh. At the end he concludes it is all vanity and striving after wind.

The 12th chapter starts with: Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you say, “I have no delight in them” Ecc 12:1 NASB

The evil days he is referring to, are your aged days. It is important that we live a good life pleasing to God while we are young and strong. For the days are coming when we are old and afflicted and the only good things we will have left are the memories of what we once had and the joy of what we did with the time God set apart for us. Many people live their life in wanton pleasure with the thought of seeking God when they are old, now is the time for “fun.”  Oh what mockery and misguidedness, for the “bite” will surely come. Just ask any old invalid or near invalid person. They will either be joyful from a life well lived or bitter from what should have been.

As Dietrich Bonheoffer said:

"If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction."

Live your life, so your regrets will be few, do it “RIGHT NOW”

Below is the 12^th Chapter of Ecclesiastics (NIV), I think you will find it interesting.

¹ So remember your Creator^[a] while you are still young, before those dismal days and years come when you will say,
         I don't enjoy life.

² That is when the light of the sun, the moon, and the stars will grow dim for you, and the rain clouds will never pass away.

³ Then your arms, that have protected you, will tremble, and your legs, now strong, will grow weak. Your teeth will be too few to chew your food, and your eyes too dim to see clearly.

⁴ Your ears will be deaf to the noise of the street. You will barely be able to hear the mill as it grinds or music as it plays, but even the song of a bird will wake you from sleep.

⁵ You will be afraid of high places, and walking will be dangerous. Your hair will turn white; you will hardly be able to drag yourself along, and all desire will be gone. We are going to our final resting place, and then there will be mourning in the streets.

⁶ The silver chain will snap, and the golden lamp will fall and break; the rope at the well will break, and the water jar will be shattered.⁷ Our bodies will return to the dust of the earth, and the breath of life will go back to God, who gave it to us.

 ⁸ Useless, useless, said the Philosopher. It is all useless.

⁹ But because the Philosopher was wise, he kept on teaching the people what he knew. He studied proverbs and honestly tested their truth.

¹⁰ The Philosopher tried to find comforting words, but the words he wrote were honest.

¹¹ The sayings of the wise are like the sharp sticks that shepherds use to guide sheep, and collected proverbs are as lasting as firmly driven nails. They have been given by God, the one Shepherd of us all.

¹² My child, there is something else to watch out for. There is no end to the writing of books, and too much study will wear you out.

¹³ After all this, there is only one thing to say: Have reverence for God, and obey his commands, because this is all that we were created for.

¹⁴God is going to judge everything we do, whether good or bad, even things done in secret.