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In a world that runs with the need for speed, we feel time pushing us, sometimes even mastering us, as we rush from one thing to the next. Time is as familiar as the clock on the wall, yet it's also a mystery. For poets, philosophers, songwriters, and scientists, time and eternity are frontiers as rich and compelling as the origins of the cosmos and the nature of God.

One of the emerging writers and thinkers of our day, Ellen Vaughn, takes us on a stirring journey through this topic that touches us all. How can time-bound humans relate to a limitless God and enjoy his peace? Time Peace examines how we experience time in life's fleeting moments. It explores timekeeping through history and in different cultures and introduces the unique Christian distinctive about it. It soars through the space-time continuum in an intriguing exploration of how science and philosophy illuminate biblical accounts. It helps readers take these truths and apply them to everyday life, freeing us to live at peace in time--and to leave a legacy that lasts for eternity.

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Time Peace

Zondervan

Contents

PART ONE Experiencing Time1 Curiosity.....................................................152 Wonder........................................................193 Time Flies....................................................254 Time Hurts....................................................295 Haven't Got Time for the Pain.................................356 Falling Ashes.................................................417 Devouring Beast or Purring Pet?...............................47PART TWO Managing Time8 Keeping Time..................................................539 From Sticks and Boxes to Ion Clockses.........................5710 Nothing Will Slow Us Down....................................6311 Wild Jesus and the Secret of Time............................7312 Pronto!......................................................7913 Extremes: The Sloth and the Controller.......................8314 Slug Time: The Long and Slimy Trail..........................8715 Steward Little...............................................9316 Mission: Control!............................................9717 How Big Is Your God?.........................................10718 What If?.....................................................113PART THREE Re-Viewing Time: A New Paradigm19 The God of Surprise..........................................12120 Intricate Riddle.............................................12721 Einstein on My Mind..........................................13122 All Things Weird and Wonderful...............................13523 Stranger Than Fiction........................................14724 Time and Light...............................................15725 Science's Sharper Image......................................16326 Time and the Quantum World...................................17527 Time Dimensions..............................................187PART FOUR Enjoying Time28 Counting Our Days............................................19529 Enter into Joy...............................................19930 Time in His Hands............................................20931 Leaving a Legacy that Transcends Time........................21732 The Rest of the Story........................................23333 Receiving the Present........................................237Notes...........................................................239

Chapter One

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God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11

My curiosity about time starts with three things.

The first has to do with how big God is and how small we are. People often say that Christianity is about a "relationship with God." True. But as I get older, I wonder: what does it really mean for a mortal being to have a "relationship" with One who dwells in eternity, who lives in cosmic dimensions beyond our conception?

How can a human biped, so trapped in time, really live in connection with a God who transcends it? How can His reality shape our own experience every day? What are we missing when we think only in terms of the here and now, so strapped to that watch on the wrist ... in the face of eternity?

The second issue that piques my curiosity about time is less cosmic and more practical. It has to do with how people experience time every day.

As I've polled others, I've found that many have a pretty negative feeling about time. Ask fifty people - random people who don't happen to believe in God - about their relationship with time, and most will sigh and roll their eyes. "Time? There's never enough of it!" They'll voice frustration, burnout, and guilt. Some will tell you how they wasted their best years in the past or how they worry about the future. Few will say that they're at peace with time.

Here's the rub: now ask fifty people - random people who do believe in God - the same question. If you catch them off guard, before they formulize the proper "spiritual" response, you'll get many of the same answers as from nonbelievers. For the most part, you'll hear the same stress, regret, and anxiety about time and its passage. Sadly, for many of us who are earnestly committed to Christ, this key perspective of everyday life is much like the vantage point of those who don't believe in Him.

If this is so, we're missing something vital, certainly in our experience, but also in our ability to demonstrate that God is real. Today many Christians are known for their political views or how they school their children or how they dress or talk. These are all fine things. But perhaps many of us are missing one of the most fundamental distinctions of real Christianity: peace. Is there a supernatural tranquility, joy, and freedom in the rhythms of our everyday lives, a heartbeat that is clearly not of this world? What really makes us tick? What motivates us from the inside out? Do we demonstrate, in everyday life, a distinctive relationship with time?

The third issue that intrigues me is how I am haunted, in a good way, by the words of Psalm 90. It's the oldest Psalm, written by Moses when he was old and his long white beard, parted like the Red Sea, fell to his waist. Moses contrasts God's eternal permanence with his own fleeting lifespan. He pleads with God, "Teach me to count my days! Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may ... be glad all our days!"

I'm like Moses, though I have no beard. Every morning I am more and more aware of the fact that my days are fleeting. The older I get, and the more I learn about God and His grace, the more I want to grab hold of His ankle, so to speak. Like Jacob wrestling with God in the Old Testament, I want to shout, "I won't let You go until You bless me! Teach me to count my days! Show me how to make them count, how to really live so that my days here on earth echo in eternity!"

So yes, I am curious about this thing we call time. So basic, yet so mysterious. How does an earth-bound person really connect with an eternal God? How can we really live with distinction, at peace in a culture so full of stress and "hurry sickness"? And how do we live our days in gladness and satisfaction, like Moses prayed, making them count?

I've queried all kinds of people about these things. Almost all have resonated with this issue of time. Not time management, but how to grab the ankle of this most elusive and familiar element of our lives. The arrow of time hits a tender mark in the human heart; we long to be at peace with its passage. For most of us, such peace would be absolutely radical and life-changing.

This book thus grew out of curiosity, conversations, and my own growing convictions about a refreshed approach to time. Clearly it's not a definitive study of such an enormous topic. But I hope it will take the reader, as it has me, on a journey of wonder, toward the end of newly discovering the God who is so far beyond us ... and yet somehow too so close.

Chapter Two

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Nothing is too wonderful to be true....