Reflecting On Time

REFLECTING ON TIME

[This message has developed around thoughts in an outline by:

J. R. Thomson

Greenmount and O’Leary Churches of Christ

June 27, 2021

INTRODUCTION:

1) Throughout life there are times and events that cause us to take note of the passing of time.

A) We do this on our birthdays.

B) We do it on wedding and work anniversaries and when someone retires.

C) We also take note of the passing of time at the beginning or end of a school year.

ca.) Today many of our young people have ended their schooling for this year, and others will finish it in the next day or two.

cb.) But the end of the school year, marks a time of advancement in both age, and scholastic maturity.

cc.) Today, I want us to look a few minutes as we reflect on the passing of time in our lives.

I) WHAT DOES REFLECTION SUGGEST TO US CONCERNING TIME PAST IN ITSELF?

1) Its passage has been rapid, yet it has been filled with events of great importance.

A) I suspect that last September those ten months until the end of the school year this month seemed like a long time.

B) Maybe even earlier this month as the days were getting nicer and you looking to summer vacation it may have seemed as though this school year would never end.

ba.) But now the year has ended.

baa.) Looking back it seems pretty short of a period of time.

.01) In fact Psalm 102:11 tells us “My days are like a lengthened shadow, and I wither away like the grass.”

bb.) So the questions come up: What have you learned this year? How much have you grown? How have you changed?

bba.) Rather students in school, adults in the work place, or even Seniors in retirement have had another year of life, of learning, of changing, and hopefully of growing.

C.) Young people, this past year has had many significant events.

ca.) You have completed another year of your education.

caa.) You have learned many new things that will go with you throughout life.

cb.) You have completed another year of your life.

cc.) Many of you have grown in stature.

cd.) Some of you have made new friends, and perhaps a few of you have even developed a special friendship with someone of the opposite sex.

ce.) All and all it has been a year of changes and progress in your life.

cf.) As I think on this I am reminded of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

.01) This passage of Scripture reminds us there is a season for everything in our lives.

.02) Even in our education there is a season or season for our learning.

.021) For some it means preparing to enter the school system for the first time.

.022) For others you will change grades and possibly of schools.

.023 For others it means the end of the school system and the beginning of life in the labour force.

.024) Wherever you are it means the end of one season of your life, and the beginning of a new season.

2) Once a season of life has gone we cannot get it back.

A.) We can not change the past.

B.) Some of you may wish you had studied harder, or put more time into those book reports and other assignments.

ba.) But in those areas, like all other areas of life we have only one opportunity to do what needs to be done, and to set goals as to what is the most important things to accomplish.

bb.) For that reason we need to be the best we can be, and to do the most we can do.

3) The year has changed us; some for better, some for worse.

A.) Rather the changes in our lives have been good or bad,they have changed us.

aa.) Every person in this room is a different person than we were a year ago.

ab.) As such, we need to stop and evaluate time.

aba.) As you do so have you become a better person, or a worse person?

.01) The reality is that those are our only two choices and options.

.02) We do not have the option of staying the same.

.03) In fact in life, if we try to stay the same we are in fact without realizing it stagnating, and starting to go behind.

.04) In life or education we are meant to keep growing.

.041) The ideal is that each of us are continually growing. We need to be growing physically until maturity.

.042) In our mental and spiritual walk, there should never be a time when we will stop growing.

.043) 2 Peter 1:5-8

4) Time is not forgotten by the Lord and Judge of all.