Newsletter: Time Travel

If you could travel through time, where and when would you go?

This is one of those questions families might ponder on a multi-state car trip after the i-pod batteries die. The question has been the source of some great stories by authors as diverse as H.G. Wells, Mark Twain, and even Charles Dickens. The idea of zipping away in a time machine presents exciting possibilities. For some, time travel might mean going back to interact with figures from the past like Abraham Lincoln or your great-grandmother. Others want a chance to fix past mistakes. A few even want to escape into some utopian future.

In a sense, however, the premise is wrong. All of us are time travelers. We are traveling forward in time one second, one hour, and one day at a time. Time is a precious commodity, and sometimes we try to hoard it. Nevertheless, no matter what we try, we cannot stop its relentless march. Instead of saving time, we must learn to invest it. We invest it in families, friends, and the community of faith. We invest time in the people God calls us to love--the children, the poor, and the infirm. The time we have should be met with courage. As Mordecai told his cousin Esther, "Who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14)

Since you are traveling through time, where and when will you go?