Timeless Time

Everybody struggles with time. Maybe we're rushing to make an appointment, or wondering why the clock seems to move so slowly. But time is an ever-present, and often frustrating, part of life.

So let's take a fresh look at time. Imagine that we can control time.

Because we can.

Time doesn't have to be a neutral backdrop to my life. I can actively grab hold of my time, and make it meaningful. When I consciously use my time to make my world a better (read: holier, more sensitive, etc.) place, I take a moment, and make it cosmic. I make my time into something timeless.

Think of it this way (somewhat paraphrasing a thought of Victor Frankl’s): One type of person looks at life as a wall calendar. He sadly observes that his calendar, from which he tears a sheet every day, grows thinner and thinner. That person sees himself as a victim of time.

Now consider a person who actively engages his time, seeing each new day as a fresh opportunity for meaningful living. He, as he removes each successive leaf from his calendar, can then use it to record that day's meaningful activities. If he puts those pages into a folder each day, he has a successively growing record of his meaningful life.

That's taking control of your time.

When the Jews left Egypt, on their way to Sinai, they were granted their first Mitzvah. It was to create a calendar. But it wasn’t just about the organizing system. It was about the freedom that comes with controlling one’s time.

We all live in a world which has an incessant flow of time, but we have the freedom to create diamonds out of every moment.

In transcending our personal ‘Egypt’, in finding freedom to guide life instead of succumbing to it, this perspective is liberating.

It’s about finding the Infinite within the finite. And that’s what life – and genuine freedom – are all about.

Shabbat Shalom