By Marcia Lee, Detroit, MI

The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.
Albert Einstein.

Time in its measurements of hours, minutes, days, and years is a human construct that we have created to make order in our lives.  (Think of how many different calendars there are in different parts of the world and terms we use like people of color time, Asian time, etc.). We want a certain level of structure and having time to measure events allows us to have something outside of ourselves, a ‘science’ if you will, to give purpose and stability to our decisions.  This is how people come to say things like, “If only I had the time,’ or ‘there are not enough hours in a day.’ This, I call ‘human time.’

Timelessness takes into account the present while fully functioning within the flow of the past, present, and future.  This is the long view that sees beyond and before the actual event itself and is not measured within the context of an hour, a year, or even three lifetimes.  Rather, it is measured by the love that is made present and the process that creates it. As Wendell Berry says, ‘Say that the leaves are harvested 
when they have rotted into mold.’ Life exists beyond our comprehension and we are called to make manifest a way of living that allows for this truth.  This, I call ‘God’s time.’

Right now, in order for any of our efforts to bring about a world that is honestly sustainable, mercifully just, and joyful, we must shift our mentalities from scarcity to abundance.  Our foundation must be rooted in the reality God’s time while our actions work within the constraints of human time. In human time there will never be enough because we are measuring our actions only by what we can see, feel, and touch within the human dimension.  In God’s time there is always enough because it does not discriminate based on human understanding, but rather understands that our actions and work are only a small part of a large whole. Let’s practice letting go of time and making events, because you are worth more than time.