People talk and think about the passage of time in different ways. My parents were a little less than seven months different in age. My father was the older of the two. As soon as his birthday was past, he would say, I’m in my . . . year. For example after his 50th birthday, he’d say, “I’m in my 51st year.” My mother spoke of her age in the conventional manner. I never knew if my father spoke about his age because that’s the way his family was or because he had done many things early in his life and there had been a time when he was considered “too young” by others or, more likely, because he got such a good response out of my mother. “Oh Walt!” she’d exclaim, “You’re not that old.”

I’ve known pastors who speak of their experience in the church in a similar manner. A colleague and I began serving in the same conference during the same month. When we were at meetings and introducing ourselves, he would always report that he had been in the conference longer than I. We served together in that same conference for more than 10 years. I always joked that he was the only one I knew who could cram 15 years of experience into 10 years and that he was accumulating years so quickly that he would reach retirement decades before I did. He did retire from the pastoral ministry at a young age.

In different cultures, the way that people count ages differs. There are many stories about situations that were created by the custom in some parts of Asia to count the age of a child from the estimated time of conception, not from the time of birth. As long as there is only one culture involved, there is no problem, but when a person spends time in a different culture, some minor confusion can arise out of the different ways of counting age.

I’ve been thinking about the passage of time in regards to my own life. There are things that I have done for relatively short periods of time. After living for 17 years in my home town, I lived for only 4 years in my college town and for only 4 years in my graduate school town. Our pastorates to date have been 7 years, 10 years and 20 years. Before that I had many jobs that lasted only 1 or 2 years, and several that were only a matter of months. There was a succession of summer jobs during our educational years. Some I did multiple summers, but if you add up several summers, it doesn’t count much in years.

Of course some things can be significant even when they are short in duration. We only spent a little over a month in Australia. Although it has been spread over several different trips, I’ve spent less than 50 days in Costa Rica. Both places, however, have become significant in my story and I have life-long relationships that have grown out of those experiences.

Things don’t have to be long in duration to be meaningful.

When I was young I was collecting experiences and there were many things that I did for a little while and then moved on. I did, however, make some long-term commitments when I was young. I was just a week beyond my 20th birthday when we were married. More than 42 years later, we’re still enjoying that commitment. 5 years later I was ordained. That seems to have stuck as well.

Now, however, I have reached a phase of life where some of my adventures need to be for shorter amounts of time. I am no longer young enough to make a 50-year commitment, as I have envisioned my career as a minister. These days I need to think twice about 20-year commitments. When I start new projects, I need to assess whether or not I have the energy or stamina to complete them.

We’ve been thinking in terms of 50 years around the church lately as we lay the foundation for a major capital funds drive that will make serious long-term investments in our building and infrastructure. At one meeting we were talking about our vision for the church a half century down the road. Of course I had to point out that most of us wouldn’t be around 50 years from now. I didn’t do so to dampen the excitement of the meeting, but rather to remind us that we needed to be careful about consulting with church members who are much younger than we as we talk and envision the future.

Perhaps the provence of those of us who have long years of experience is to keep our attention focused on the short-term. The funding for our 50-year projects needs to be raised over the next three years. Attention to details in the next three years will make a big difference for the congregation 20 years and more down the road.

The span of time that we measure in this life is pretty small when compared to the fast sweep of history. Biblical history goes back 4 millennia and more. That is just a blip on the span of geological history. When they start talking about the age of the universe, my mind tends to become confused. I have no idea what a million years is, let alone the 13.8 billion years that has been posited as a possible number for the age of the universe.

The Psalmist commented on different perspectives of time. “For a thousand years in they sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.” (Ps. 90:4). What seems to us to be a long time is not the same from God’s perspective.

Our grandson, who is four, has to wait a quarter of his life between birthdays. For our granddaughter at six months her next birthday is a lifetime way. For grandpa, a year is a small fraction of the time I have seen.

Time and its meaning is elusive. Fortunately, we are blessed to be able to imagine beyond our time and when we have accumulated a few years of experience we are able to put some smaller amounts of time in perspective.

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