By Grace Gaddy
Assistant City Editor
Imagine this: a world without time. What would it look like?
Everything human eyes have ever swept across has been touched by time.
It’s where we get adjectives like “new” and “old,” as in a new Heisman trophy or an old rock in Cameron Park.
“Age” then constitutes a measuring stick that determines a person’s experience within time — both physically and mentally — in various chapters of life.
Accordingly, age speaks a lot for a person on their capacity to reason and make sound judgments and decisions.
Age is enveloped in time, much like a box within a bigger box.
But time, as we know, is not a box. Time is a dimension, in which unique experiences take place, cause leads to effect and people change.
But as time progresses, the borders of that dimension do not change.
It’s as if all this life is occurring onboard a moving miniature train within a glass case. Someone outside the case could look in and observe.
They would see the progress of the train traveling all around within the limits of that case. But the viewer would still remain outside that dimension.
This is one way I tend to imagine God, who exists outside of time.
God, in his omniscience, can see the end from the beginning. This is only a greater testimony of his goodness.
From this, it’s clear he is purely good to give us words of life and wisdom that tell us how to conduct our train.
If we let him, he’ll become the driver, since he knows the track perfectly.
He sees the whole picture. He knows what was behind and what is ahead, and so he knows only the very best routes to take.
This is why the most important thing we can do as people — as his creation, as humanity — within the dimension of time is to trust him.
This world is packed with numerous fleeting pleasures and a host of activities that God commands us — as people who can’t see the whole picture — not to take part in.
These commands are for our good, wrapped and written in love.
But for some unbeknownst reason, most of us have picked up the idea somewhere along the track that we know better, that we have more experience within our limited dimension and we should make the calls.
And death is the result. Sin is a runaway train.
In 1 John 2:15, God commands us not to “love the world or the things in the world.”
The word “world” here relates to the indulging of sinful appetites, feeding our lusts and selfish pride.
This could be seen through sexual immorality, drunkenness, gluttony, lawless living, obsession with material possessions, reckless pursuits of pleasure, and so forth.
Why would he tell us not to take part in that which may seem fun from a certain perspective, especially when so many others seem to be having a grand time with the exercising of such activities?
It’s because those tracks lead to death — every single time. They are tracks filled with pain, heartache and empty promises.
So where do we go? How do we fill our short time, this lifetime?
The truth is that life, true life and true joy can only be found in knowing and sharing it with the creator.
Nothing else will ever satisfy — ever. Life with him is overflowing and abundant; it gives everything purpose.
Time, our current dimension, only marks a beginning, because life lasts forever.
Time itself will end, and this current world will be no more. But life — with Jesus — is something worth having forever.
Grace Gaddy is a senior journalism major from Palestine and is the Lariat’s assistant city editor.
