It’s About Time…Isn’t It?

“Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil (Ephesians 5:15-16).”

Big Al

On April 18, 1955, a man who understood Time better than anyone, with perhaps the most dazzling intellect ever, could not stop Time’s steady advance and got swallowed up by it.  That man was Albert Einstein, the father of Quantum Physics.

Einstein’s office on the day he died

Einstein figured out the space-time continuum that led to the Atomic Age, won the Nobel Prize, and laid the cornerstone for modern science.  Despite his renown, Albert literally (and theoretically) proved that Time waits for no man, something we’re forced to admit every New Year’s Eve.

Big Ben

I guess it’s necessary to recognize Time each January, but I’ve never understood making resolutions.  Lose weight.  Stop smoking. Start exercising.  Why?  If we’re honest, and take the 100-year viewpoint, resolutions to help us live longer, look better, or improve ourselves are all futile attempts to beat Time and its ravages.  We need to conquer Death, not delay it, but that’s impossible, right?

The Garden Tomb in Jerusalem

Well, there’s another man with an even more dazzling intellect than Einstein, who was the first to actually swallow up Time and Death.  In his letter to the Colossians, the Apostle Paul called Jesus “the invisible God”and “the firstborn from the dead,”

“He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything.  For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross….”

The mirror proves we’re all losing the race with Time.  Resolutions are only a stop-gap measure.  You can lose weight, but Time will still swallow you up too.  Isn’t it wiser to make the most of your time by investigating the claims of the only man who conquered Death?  Maybe resolve to read just one of the four Gospels this year.

Beth Shean Amphitheater

In 2016, I went to Israel on a 2-week writing assignment that required a hundred decisions–flights, expenses, tour guides, hotels, passports, and restaurants. It took weeks of planning. That was a trip I “hoped” to take, but you have a definite April 18^thtrip that Time silently screams in your ear every New Year’s Eve.  How ironic to ignore that warning and just hope your permanent departure ends with a reservation.  If Jesus is alive, perhaps your resolution should be to make peace with Him and give Jesus “first place in everything.”  

After all, it’s about Time…isn’t it?

Here’s more about April 18, 1955:  The Day Einstein Died

Ironically, the power that holds the structure of an atom together has puzzled Physicists for decades.  Consider Stanford Physicist Lambert Dolphin’s explanation:

“One of the key words in the Colossians passage above (“…and in Christ all things hold together”) is the Greek word sunistemi which means “to stand-together,” “to be compacted together,” “to cohere,” “to be constituted with.”

“This passage can be applied to the structure of the atom, for example. The nucleus of every atom is held together by what physicists call “weak” and “strong” forces.

“[Physicists today are familiar with four basic forces in the natural world: gravity and electrical forces, plus a “strong” and a “weak” nuclear force. The first two forces decrease in strength inversely with the square of the distance between two objects; the latter two forces act only at very short ranges.]

“The nucleus of the atom contains positively charged and neutral particles-to use a simplistic model. Mutual electrostatic repulsion between the like-positive protons would drive the nucleus apart if it were not for the “strong force” which binds the nucleus together.

“There is thus an active force imposed on the universe, which actively holds the very atoms of the material world together moment by moment, day by day, century by century.

“Similarly, accelerated electrons circling the nucleus should quickly radiate all their energy away and fall into the nucleus unless there exists an invisible energy source to counteract this.”

Lambert’s full article:  I bet Einstein would have liked to have known Colossians 1:17, right?

And here’s more to chew on if you have…Time:  Psalm 39