Time

What is your idea of heaven?  Many people think of heaven as a place that they will be on constant vacation.  I disagree with that - unless you define vacation as the joy of serving the Lord.  I believe that we will still have tasks given to us by God, that we will serve one another, and that (much like now) our service of Him will bring Him glory in a myriad of ways.  I imagine that there will be “times” by which we should accomplish certain things.  I don’t have a great grasp on exactly what all that will look like, but that’s my idea of heaven and eternity.

I enjoy considering eternity, and what time must look like to God in light of the idea that God exists outside of time (the fourth dimension).  The classic hypothetical perspective of the idea is that we can’t understand God in the fourth dimension in the same way that a two-dimensional character can’t understand how we exist in the third dimension.  It’s a diverting exercise.

As I tried to wrap my mind around existing outside of time, I wondered what time would be like for us in our resurrected form in eternity.  Would it be important?  The second dimension is still an important dimension to us in the third, and God created the fourth dimension for a reason.  So time must be important.  I can imagine, though, that having so much time, would make it far less of a commodity (and priority) than it is for us as we exist inside it.  Time is incredibly valuable here.

This thought made me thankful that I exist inside of time now, so that I can learn (and discipline myself) to use it well.  Not that I won’t necessarily use it well in eternity.  I just think that it’s a privilege to be able to obtain the discipline of time-management now, while it “counts.”  Then, in eternity, I will have a jump-start, so-to-speak, on paying attention to when things need to be done.

Perhaps I am still too caught within the perception of time in that thinking, but that’s about as far as I can get.  Beyond that, I will simply trust in God, “not lean on [my] own understanding...” (Proverbs 3:5b), and “...in everything give thanks...” (Thessalonians 5:18)  I will falter and fail at times, but that is why God has given us Grace.  His grace is sufficient for me (2 Corinthians 12:9a).  In fact, it’s overwhelming.