Those of you who know me, know that over the years I have been somewhat of a Trekker. No, I don't have an official communicator badge, or one of the older hand-held models. I did, however, a while back have a tie with  Worf's picture on it. One of the things I have enjoyed, over the years, about the several series, is that often the writers use their fantasy world to explore some interesting questions about reality in the real world.
While on vacation, I watched an episode of Deep Space 9 (One of the Star Trek series). Captain Sisko comes into contact with some beings who have no idea of time. Instantly a scenario involving two stretches of imagination kicks in.
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| DS9 - Emissary; human existence |
There is the underlying unknown: Is life without the linear sequence of one moment after another, each one influencing what the next one will be, even possible? Then, how would I explain my time bound existence to someone who lives outside of it? It is interesting that Captain Sisko's explanation of time, using baseball as an illustration, has some similarity to the reasoning of some theologians I have read.
OK, I'm leaving the world of fantasy.
I'm confident that a time is coming when I'll gain a much better idea of what it means to live without time. Rather than waste too much time speculating about what lifewithout, or beyond, or in control of time would be like, I need to right now be sure that I am using my time in ways that will count for eternity.
That is what we are emphasizing this week in the NYRC--the Stewardship of our time. Right now, I live in a realm in which one moment follows another. I can use the opportunities each of those moments provides to make the next moments better, or I can live them so that the future will be worse. God's word says that I ought to be "making the most of [my] time." That passage in Ephesians 5:16, offers further encouragement by pointing out that "the days are evil." It is an aspect of the entropy that dominates our world. Unless there is purposeful activity things run downhill, slow down, rust out, and become less useful. All I have to do to assure a bad result is nothing. Doing nothing will result in something bad because not only is this world marked by time, it is a realm where evil is the default condition, Ephesians 2:1-3.
I'd like to think that the past few minutes, used writing this STTA, have been used in a profitable way. This is an evaluation I ought to be engaged in on a regular basis. What am I doing now that will contribute to the future--even the eternal future?
It's STTA.
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