"Time"

I saw it fleetly running,

Looked like to get away,

I stood up in my stirrups,

And heard my own heart say,

I can’t let it escape me,

I ride a faster mount,

I’ll build a loop and catch it,

I’ll make a shot to count.

So I took down my lasso,

And stridin’ toward full speed,

I spun an extra big loop,

I thought that I might need.

‘Cause the one ahead me runnin',

Was not a horse or cow,

But actually old time itself,

And gettin’ gone somehow.

And I was gettin’ closer,

And now full out ahead,

A-ratin’ and a-spurrin’,

Gettin’ ready as it fled.

And have you had that feelin’,

To catch and make it slow,

To somehow try to turn it,

Or leastwise make it whoa.

So, yes, I got close to it,

And sailed my loop so true,

I really almost had it,

But time, it went right through!

Coiled up my rope while trackin’,

And this time knew I could,

Put the mo-jo on it,

I really thought I would.

But, by gosh, don’t you know it,

Time never missed its stride,

Truth is I couldn’t catch it,

No matter how I tried.

I rode back hot and bothered,

And thought just what the heck,

I never really had a chance,

To rope time round the neck.

And when I got unsaddled,

Got supper and to bed,

I had a dream in which the Lord,

Spoke these words, He said,

You cannot out-run time, son,

To catch and halter break,

But you can give your time to me,

And I will help you make,

The most of what it can be

Not because you get control,

But ‘cause you surrender,

Your time and life and soul.

I woke up a-prayin’,

And that’s just what I did,

Gave up all my chasin’,

Let go and plumb got rid,

Of all the need to rope it,

And make time all my own,

It wears the brand of Jesus,

Thank God I have been shown.

“Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be…” (Ps. 39:4, NLT)

Time is not something we easily comprehend. It seems by the time we are mature enough to appreciate its brevity we have already let a large percentage of it slip away. Going, going, gone…how depressing! But here’s the good news: if we surrender our time to the Lord, He and He alone can help us redeem it. He can breathe meaning into it. He can restore things we thought we had lost forever, and give us so much blessing in such a compressed time period that we wonder how much more we can stand. He can fill our time with so much eternity that we lose track altogether and become oblivious to the way we normally measure it. That’s what God can do with it, because He is not limited by it. In fact God lives outside of time and ultimately controls it. Teach us to number our days, the Psalmist prayed to the Lord. That’s a good thing to pray.

Lord, teach us exactly that, in Jesus’ name.

Art by Mark Maggiori, markmaggiori.com. Used by permission. Thanks, Mark, and God bless you.