When Time Feels Too Fast—or Too Slow

-Andrea Haughian

Depending on what age you are at you are either wanting time to speed up or slow down, or if you’re like myself a bit of both! You want certain things to speed up and others to slow down…like I want to hurry up and retire so I can slow down and enjoy life more! 

Time is a funny thing that can cause some of us anxiety. We talk about time as if it’s moving, how it's flying by or slowing down or how we never seem to have enough of it. But time itself isn’t moving, we are!

We are the ones moving through it, growing, and changing. Time doesn’t change—we do. Time is just a journey we are on. Paul describes the Christian walk as a race, so if it’s a race I would liken TIME to be the track we are on and the milestones in our life are just markers plotted along this track. 

Some people get anxious about time. When we’re young we fear not getting to those milestones quickly enough and when we’re older we fear we’ve missed them altogether, but both are rooted in fear. God asks us to look at our life through what He has said.

So by Faith we say…

He has numbered our days and knit each of us together in our mother’s womb. He knows when we sit down or get up and understands our thoughts and He is acquainted with all our ways. He has created us for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

He is a sovereign God, and He is over all. And although we make choices—good and bad—He is a loving Father who causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. God knows the plan He has for each of us, and it is for good, to give us a future and a hope.

That last verse from Jeremiah 29:11 we all know—but my heart always takes comfort in the verses that follow…verses 12-14 say,

‘Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will let Myself be found by you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’

God hears us. He lets us find Him when we truly seek Him and He brings us back from the places He sent us to. We are never out of his reach or his love. So no matter where you are at in this time of life, take heart that God is with you—helping, strengthening and leading you. The more we make knowing God a priority, the more it diminishes that fear and gives us peace in whatever season of life we are in!