Time
Do You Want to Live Forever?
-
William Shakespeare
**Part of The Nature of God: A Quick and Dirty Guide series.**
Jeanne Calment. Shigechiyo Izumi. Edna Parker. Charlotte Hughes. Florrie Baldwin.
What do these five people have in common? Two things.
1. They’re the world’s oldest people.
2. They’re dead. . .or will be dead.
Unfortunately, whether we live to be 50 or 125 years old. . .the tragedy for you and I and every other human is that we were made for eternity but . . . forced to live in time:
. . . He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11
Everything around us–dust, wrinkles, earthquakes–reminds us of change and death. Yet our hearts yearn for life and permanence.
A sad paradox.
What Is Eternal Life
and Where Does It Come From?
Like time, man has a beginning and end. In his short life, he is born, breeds and dies. And, as we all know, man grieves over this tragedy:
Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more.
Macbeth, Act V, Scene V
And on the other end of the spectrum, there is eternity.
My buddy Boethius said, “Eternity is a life of the most perfect kind without beginning, succession or end. . .a never-changing now.”
Yet, you and I are slaves to time. That is, you and I can choose to keep our bodies in the same spot as long as we want. What we can’t do is choose to remain in a particular spot of time for as long as we want.
Time unmercifully drives on.
Why the Idea of Eternity
Is Essential to Christianity
A. W. Tozer said that “The concept of everlastingness runs like a lofty mountain range through the entire Bible and looms large in orthodox Hebrew and Christian thought.”
For example:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1
Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. Psalm 90:2
And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. John 17:5
The first thing you notice in these Bible verses is that since time begins with the universe…God is before time.
And if God is before time, then other things about God must be necessarily true. Namely. . .
How Does Philosophy
Support God’s Eternality?
Listen, if God wasn’t eternal, then these things wouldn’t make sense:
Immutability: Whatever is in time changes. God is not in time. Therefore, God does not change.
Perfection: Because God is changeless, he cannot change for the worse, and does not need to change for the better. He exists completely.
Infinity: Whatever is in time has limits. If God is outside of time, then He does not have limits.
Necessity: If His existence is critical to the universe’s existence, then He must have existed before the universe.
Self-Existence: If God created the universe–which is made up of time and matter–then he had to exist before the universe.
So, since God is immutable, perfect, infinite, necessary and self existant, God created time. And if He created time, God is different and independent of time.
But, so what?
How Should We Respond
to God’s Eternity?
Materialists tell us that each human life–yours and mine– is the smallest nothing compared to the infinite emptiness of the universe.
So. . .what’s the point of life. . .really? Well, in the face of God’s eternity, we should be:
1. Confident that His word will stand.
2. Assured that His promises will never be broken.
3. Rooted in the hope of Christ.
4. Vulnerable because we have the promise that God can help us.
5. Certain that he can give us eternal life. He can alleviate the fear of death.
Jesus Christ abolished death through his resurrection. The Book of Romans sheds light on this: He has brought life and immortality to you and I.
So, through all of life, God is an anchor to our soul. That means He is the one safe home for you and I–his tragic time-struck children.
That is if you want to live for ever. For every man it must be Christ or eternal tragedy.
Your Turn
Where you at on this issue of living forever. . .do you want to? Do you think it’s a crock? Are you afraid of death? Does God’s eternity–and Christ’s resurrection–bring you comfort?
Give me your thoughts. Brutal and all.
How to Read a 291-Page Book in Two Hours
Trinity College Library
Frustrated by the number of books you want to read…and the lack of time to read them?
You’re not alone.
Like most determined and driven writers, professionals or students, you have a list of books the length of your arm.
A list you want to finish by the end of the year. Ambitious, but naive.
There’s a way to read more books in less time–and even catch up with the classics you’ve missed.
It’s called chapter pacing.
The Steps: Read Any Average-Sized Book in 2 Hours
Imagine you want to read Chip and Dan Heath’s book Made to Stick. Let’s also pretend you only have 2 hours.
Follow these steps to read this 291-page book in that time:
1. Determine your reading goal. Superficial? Inspectional? Analytical? All you really want to learn are the principles behind making ideas stick.
2. Skim the table of contents. The first 6 chapters of the book cover the principles. You’ve also got an Epilogue, Acknowledgments, Notes and the Index.
3. Determine what you have to read. According to your goal, all you really have to read are the first 6 chapters.
4. Break the chapters down into time blocks. Since you only have 2 hours, spend only 20 minutes per chapter.
It’s a lot like runners who pace themselves during a race. They know to finish a ten mile race in 2 hours they need to run one mile every 12 minutes. The same principle can apply to reading.
Let me tell you why using this method is important.
Why Chapter Pacing Is Important
If you don’t chapter pace, then you’ll end up spending 1 hour and 45 minutes on the first three chapters–but blazing through the rest.
The result: an imbalanced understanding of the book. And frustration.
Chapter pacing eliminates the problem of imbalance and frustration. Why? It allows you to give the essential topics equal study.
More importantly, when you spend less time on scannable books, you have more time to crawl through the heavier ones.
When Not to Read This Way
This method wouldn’t work on Stephen Charnock’s The Existence and Attributes of God or War and Peace. Some books demand slow, careful reading–not skimming.
Nor would you read this way if you were trying to memorize something. That’s obvious.
However, most contemporary business books like Made to Stick are heavy on ideas but light on content. They’re prime for the two faster styles of reading: superficial and skimming.
Conclusion
Whenever you approach a book, determine your reading goals. Then plan your reading accordingly.
This way you can comprehend more in less time. And stockpile in your brain only the essential and important ideas.
So tell me, what do you think of chapter pacing? And share any tips or ideas or links you might have for speed reading.
Image credit: TheNonist
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