In Good TimeSample

The Time It Takes

The zeptosecond is one of the smallest units of time that scientists have most recently measured. If a person can cross a street in about 30 seconds, a photon can cross a hydrogen molecule in about 247 zeptoseconds.

We are a culture obsessed with speed. We count on technological innovation to help us work faster, think faster, move faster, even eat faster. Unfortunately, this emphasis on speed distorts our expectations of the spiritual life. Our intolerance for waiting corrodes our ability to practice the slow habits that form us.

In both Psalm 1 and Matthew 7, we begin to appreciate that this imagery in the Bible suggests a different time-ethic. These images—of the tree and the builder— herald slow and steady work, rather than fast and shoddy production. Into these images is baked the idea that waiting is to be anticipated in a life with God. We can’t microwave the process of being formed into the image of Jesus Christ. It takes time.

In Psalm 1, the righteous person, who meditates day and night on God’s word, is compared to a tree. That tree grows, but it grows slowly—as trees do. It doesn’t turn from sapling to mighty oak overnight. Rather, it requires the daily watering of God’s word. In Matthew 7, we’re given the image of two Middle Eastern builders. As anyone hearing Jesus tell this story would know, the foundation was the slowest, hardest part of the construction project. It required a person to dig down to the rock to insure the house’s stability. One builder, of course, doesn’t have the patience for that work, and he pays the price for his shortcut.

Time, in our mortal lives, is scarce, and yet God is never in a hurry. In fact, even time itself can’t threaten the work that he begins in us and through us. Just as the images of the tree and builder suggest, when we submit our lives to the authority of God’s word, there is no seasonal drought, no flash flood that we must fear.

A tree takes a long time to grow, but when it is rooted deep, it stands firm. And a foundation takes a long time to clear and pour, but when it is founded on rock, it withstands the fiercest storm. We practice time-wisdom when we allow God to do his good, slow work in and through us.