Time Flies When You’re Having Fun

This past week I’ve been reminiscing about celebrations, milestones, and anniversaries. Then I began to look at this week, this month, this year. Time is flying! I believe this is a God created circumstance that is a part of the “fabric” of time.

As children, time seems to drag on and on each year from birthday to birthday; holiday to holiday, and seems like eternity. Even as adults certain experiences seem to drag on unbearably, or quickly end in a feeling as of a blink of an eye.

I’ve often wondered, imagined about the events (usually deeply spiritual moments) that are hours long, but time seems to stand still. Is it because the presence of our timeless and eternal God and Father has broken into our linear time and time actually stood still?

Could the slogan “time sure flies when you’re having fun” be replaced with “time stands still in the Presence of God?” Does the standing still of time explain how in the wilderness the Israelites’ shoes didn’t wear out? Did their shoes not wear out because they were ever in God’s presence of the cloud by day and the fire by night?

Does time standing still explain the ability for Sarah to appear attractive and desirable twice in her later years and to also give birth LONG after it would seem normally possible? Sarah was desired by the king of Egypt at age 65 and later desired at age 90 by the king of Gerar, and this second attraction was just before she gave birth to her only child Isaac.

What are we missing in this life when we focus so much on time? While time is important, have we given it more rule over our lives than God would desire? Throughout history it has not always been as it is now. There was no “adolescence” or “retirement” until the mid to late 1900s. People and ages were not so heavily segmented. Often, children began work at an early age to assist the family in their livelihood or trade. When  older members could not do heavy work any longer, they took care of the cooking and childcare while the able bodied youth and adults worked from sun up to sun down.

I’m not advocating child labor or slavery. However, have we robbed children and ourselves the cross-generational aspect of life that God intended for us to share? Have we lost the ability to have fun and therefore slow down the clock? Have we quit desiring to create a family that lives and laughs together?

When I started reflecting on my own family celebrations, milestones, and anniversaries, I couldn’t believe that 10, 20, 30, even 50+ years have passed. Has the time passing been easy or without hardship? No, there are many struggles that have transpired over the years, but we must be having fun because it sure has seemed to fly.

Within my family circle we have ALWAYS depended on God’s presence to get us through. Has that then allowed our family to experience God’s timelessness? I’m not sure, but I sure do want to pass on to the next generation(s) that having fun is not just in the activities we do, but in the Presence of the God we keep.

Let us cultivate God’s Presence in every moment of our life, at every age of our life. God’s Word (Psalm 16:11) states, “You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.” Begin those pleasures forevermore right here, right now so that we can say, “Time sure flies when you’re having fun!”