The question posed in the title above is such a common modern cliché—often for people stuck for what to say—it’s not funny. Yet, speaking non-truths like this with routine abandon denigrates us more than we often think or know.
Before we plunge into the issue itself, let’s first refresh ourselves with one of the most important things Jesus ever said:
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they might have life, and have it to the full.”
~John 10:10 (NIV).
Lies initially, then truth. This is what Jesus is saying. Whether we’re Christian or not, this principle is true to all of life. One way or the other we stand for either truth or we perpetuate the lie—we all do.
Indeed, we tolerate lies and forgive same. We have to; we’re human. But this very knowledge we have regarding our common propensity is alone setting us free.
Most Cliché is Broad Truth, but It’s Often Applied Inappropriately
The time only seems to be travelling quickly; we suspect this because we either have so much on or, paradoxically, because we are letting life slip through from between our fingers.
Time is one of the most constant of the constants, if that makes sense.
No second is faster or slower than another. Time incongruence is an oxymoron; when we think these ways we encourage a very insidious form of insanity.
Possibly the worst thing—and this gets us back to the original issue of truth versus lies—is we’re incongruent not only in our words, but also with others via our small talk. Do we think it’s even possible to personalise our communication with complete strangers? It is. We just need to be ourselves.
Making the Most of Father Time
For us to propagate that time is flying by is at best a reminder to make the most of it in the immediate future, and at worst it’s a reminder that we’re falling for a commonplace lie; the result of which will almost certainly be less of the abundant life that Jesus came to give all—a life freely available to us now.
The less we speak in such incongruent ways the more truth will stick hard and fast to us; not one day or one year will appear to go faster or slower than the other. Time will just ‘be.’
We will then dispel this perception, saving our precious conscious thought for things more worthy, like marvelling over the mystery of time in context with the movement of life—which is ironically quite close to the original false thought, but it’s bounded to truth i.e. God.
© 2010 S. J. Wickham.
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