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My daughter, an incredible human being who has had an indelible impact on thousands, mentioned the other day that time is a thief. She was talking about my granddaughter’s upcoming high school graduation. She was reflecting on how quickly time had passed from her birth to her graduation. With that brief statement, ‘time is a thief,’ she captured something essential about the human condition.
“The best use of life is love, the best expression of love is time. The best time to love is now. ” – Rick Warren
Time acts like a thief. When those meaningful memories arrive—the ones that truly matter—time keeps moving forward. It takes those moments away and replaces them with new ones that rarely feel as significant. The rhythm doesn’t pause to recognize the importance of the moment; to it, they are all the same.
No moment has no soul or heart. It treats each moment with equal indifference, never looking back to reflect or add context to the present. Moments simply moves forward relentlessly.
James 4:14, “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”
Why Time?
What is the reason for the existence of time? Aristotle states that time is the measure of change. Einstein’s theory of relativity claims that time allows events to occur in sequence. In physics, the focus is on the arrow of time, with entropy providing its direction. Without this measurement, the universe could not begin, end, or change. Time is what makes history possible.
We exist within an unending rhythm of time. This moment, right now, will never happen again. Anything happening now cannot be duplicated because it will never exist again. Why do we assume that Heaven is beyond time? Christ remains the same yesterday, today, and forever. There is no beginning, no end, and no change. In heaven, moments don’t matter. But we are not there yet, so time still matters to us.
Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
The Call
Psalm 90:10,12, “Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures… yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away…Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
We often take time for granted. We don’t fully grasp the moment until it becomes history, and then we cherish it. By the time we realize its worth, it’s already gone. We have to recreate the experience. When we grow old, those precious moments are all we have left. We remember them, replaying them over and over in our minds. We share them with others who have experienced the same thing.
Shared experiences validate our existence. When others remember the same moment we do, it reassures us that our lives truly intersected in time.
How to Capture Each Moment
Live each moment as if it were your last. Every moment is unique and should be treasured. The clock keeps ticking, and time keeps moving forward. We will never relive this moment in our lifetime. So, recognize its significance. Every breath, heartbeat, act, thought, and word is unique in time.
Take each moment to build meaningful relationships. Be present when engaging with others. Recognize that these moments can’t be repeated. Regret is like the echo of a bell that has already rung. Once the sound leaves the bell, it cannot be called back.
The wise use of time is not the building of castles that will someday be dismantled. It is the planting of seeds whose shade we may never sit under.