What if you were to resolve things into thoughts and not think of a sunset as a daily event which takes place at a predictable time, but as an experience, a different dimension, unbounded by time; a quality of beauty and not a predictable, measured event?   Wouldn’t that be liberating– de-emphasizing matter, making it less consequential while focusing on the spirit, the qualities behind the material façade?

Do you have a moment to spare?

The word “moment” is derived from the Latin word “momentum” meaning motion and movement. Originally, the word moment had nothing to do with time.  It simply meant a weight, a particle sufficient to turn the scales.  A moment is a turning point, a moving power and I’ve come to see a moment as a force for good rather than a limitation of time.

Have you ever thought of time as a visible and audible dimension?  You can see and hear time everywhere — from watches to bell towers, we are aware of time.  Time is a constant around the world.  A second is a second everywhere no matter who or where you are.  The axis of time is the great equalizer against which all worldly actions are judged, measured and remembered. It is one of life’s predictabilities, constants – uninfluenced by the past or the future; it is an indispensible tool of human existence.

We treat time like a commodity.  If time is money — how do you spend your time?   Do you spend your time wisely, or do you have time on your hands, where you need to “kill” time?   When you hear the argument, “I don’t have enough time,” remember, not having enough time is like not having enough love, because we always seem to be able to make time for the things we love.

Time connects the past with the present with the future.   There is no time in Spirit; there is no time in Love, and there is no time in Truth.  Time is a meaningless concept when contemplating the infinitude of Love, Spirit, Soul, Mind, Life, Truth and Principle, the ever-present nature of God.  “Eternity, not time, expresses the thought of Life, and time is no part of eternity.” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, page 468 by Mary Baker Eddy).

So, are you in time or are you in eternity?  It’s your choice to live within the unfair and unnecessary limits of time, or to live in eternity.  We might think of it this way: time is eternity misunderstood, whereas eternity is time understood correctly, spiritually.

Why does time seem to go hand-in-hand with anxiety, fear and change?   Because time exacerbates the very anxiety that fears loss, rather than celebrates everlasting good.  Fear, anxiety, disquiet, worry and change are all rooted in time.  If the meaning and importance of time is what you give it, then are you allowing time to impose unnecessary limits on your life?

Time, space, matter and fear comingle in the dream of human existence – each designed to limit, constrict and kill because time is the stopwatch of mortality. Time sets and re-sets limits and limitation.  Just think, there’s a major American sport played without a stopwatch: baseball.  It is a “timeless” game, played without a clock.

Here is one of my favorite Albert Einstein quotes: “To those of us who believe in physics, this separation between past, present, and future, is only an illusion, if a stubborn one.”  (Jim Holt, “Time Bandits,” The New Yorker, Feb. 28, 2005, page 85.   When, (exactly), did the present begin?  When will the present end and become the future?

As we begin to see and accept time and space as limiting, “stubborn” illusions about eternity, we are able to transcend the so-called limits of time, and live more freely, fully, and fearlessly.  It may take time to become an expert, knowledgeable, and skilled; however it does not take time to be loving, caring and kind.  These are timeless qualities.

Constantly traveling around the world as I do, I find time to be a helpful, if not an indispensible tool in establishing a human sense of order.  Timing prevents everything from happening all at once and thus causing chaos.  Without time and timing, several aircraft might occupy the same airspace at the same time.  So we need time and timing to establish a human sense of order here on earth.  Unlike time– order, orderliness and perfect order are a divine influence and are ever-present in human consciousness.

What happens to our concept of time when we are asleep?  Time becomes malleable and distorted, without limitations or constrictions, because thought is unencumbered by the laws of matter.  When we are sleeping the laws of time, space and gravity are suspended because they have no power over our thinking.  And so, time is just a part of the mortal dream.

Now…I’m not suggesting you throw away your watches and clocks, but I am encouraging you not to become a slave to the limitations of time.  If it is true that I am the world through which I walk, then I take with me my concept of time through my world — and it becomes my servant, not my master.  All the dimensions of “now” are here and available. “Now” are endless possibilities, possible…not yesterday, not tomorrow, but right now.  Wherever I am, God is.  So I am always in the right place at the right time.

We naturally think of time in terms of a measurable quantity, but can you imagine time as a quality rather than a quantity?   What if you were to resolve things into thoughts and not think of a sunset as a daily event which takes place at a predictable time, but as an experience, a different dimension, unbounded by time; a quality of beauty and not a predictable, measured event?   Wouldn’t that be liberating– de-emphasizing matter, making it less consequential while focusing on the spirit, the qualities behind the material façade?   It is liberating to free ourselves from the so-called laws, reality, and substance of matter, all of which are based on the five physical senses.  Why should the five physical senses be the criteria for reality?   Think about it: you can’t see, feel, hear, smell or taste radio waves.   And yet radio waves are real

When contemplating the psychological state of timelessness, remember Heraclitus’ visionary statement: “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.”

Without a time and space paradigm to limit us, we avail ourselves of a universe without limits, full of boundless potential and possibilities– grounded in God’s perfect order and timeless love.

There is no time like the present, so let us make the most of it.