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A number of years ago when I was youth pastoring in Massachusetts, our youth group acquired a djembe, an African drum, to accompany our praise and worship services. We thought one of the kids would either know how to play it or be interested in learning how to play it, but when no one was willing to do either, I decided that I would give it a shot. If you can play any sort of drum, you can play a djembe, and I said proudly, “How hard can it be?” Besides, I was going to be taught by the world’s greatest music teacher, my wife.
After she taught me the basics about how to hold and strike the djembe, I was ready to rock and roll, or so I thought. Over the next few weeks I practiced regularly. I practiced at church, at home, and even in the car when Jennifer drove. I gave it an honest try, but it was to no avail. Eventually, I recognized that I wasn’t cut out for percussion and I gave it up. The exacerbated looks on my wife’s face helped me come to that realization. She was much too kind and far too committed to grammatical correctness to ever say it, but her face communicated, “Give it up baby! You just ain’t got no rhythm!”
Do you ever feel that way in life? Do you ever feel out of rhythm? Do you ever feel like your life is too fast or too slow? Do you feel out of step or off the beat?
Some people are constantly frustrated because they have too much time on their hands. They complain because they are bored and can’t find anything to do. If you call them up and ask them what they are doing, they say, “Nothing, just killing time!”
On the other hand, some people are constantly frustrated because they never have enough time. They complain because they are always rushing around and have a hard time fulfilling all of their commitments. If you call them up and ask them what they are doing, they say, “I’m sorry, I can’t talk right now; I’m on my way out the door!” That is, if you can even get them on the phone!”
Whereas most people are inclined to believe that they are out of rhythm because of either an abundance or lack of time, the problem is actually with us. God created time and gave it to us to manage. Contrary to popular opinion, time is not ours. It is God’s! He has called us to be good stewards of his time.
The Bible opens with two creation stories, set by side in Genesis 1 and 2. These two chapters have been studied meticulously for two thousand years by Christian and Jewish scholars, and their collective insights stagger our imaginations. But what is often missed in the cascade of exegetical brilliance is how skillfully these texts prepare and lead us as ordinary working Christians into better lives today. Far too many Christians reduce these stories to only a defense of creation against evolution that they fail to see any other significance for today.
These two creation stories, set at the entrance of our Bibles, are primary texts for living in the time and place that we wake up each morning. Genesis 1 focuses on God’s creation gift of time and Genesis 2 focuses on God’s creation gift of place. As we consider the topic of stewardship of time, I hope to center our attention on Genesis 1and help us to recover the rhythms of creation for our lives today. (Eugene Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten-Thousand Places, 63)
The Creation Gift of Time (Genesis 1:1)
So, let’s look at Genesis 1 again! The first three words of the Bible set creation in time. Before we know what God did, we know when he did it—“In the beginning”—he created the heavens and earth in the beginning! Now no one knows exactly when the world began. Even among Christian scientists, theologians, and scholars there is considerable debate. Depending on whether you take the Young Earth or Old Earth Theory, God created the world somewhere between 6,000 and 4.5 billion years ago. Personally, I don’t think it is nearly as important to know precisely when God created the world as it is to simply know that God created the world and set it in time.
God gave us the gift of time while we are here on earth and he wants us to enjoy it and be good stewards of it. God embedded rhythms into his creation to help us be good stewards of time. Have you ever noticed how creation functions in rhythms—consistently repeated patterns of time—60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, 52 weeks in a year, and so on! One of my favorite aspects of time in creation is the changing of the four major seasons. As soon as you start to get bored with one season it changes and adds beauty and variety to life.
Don’t you just love the new birth of springtime? The brown tree limbs awake from their slumber and bloom into glorious glades of green; flowers arise from the ground and stretch their multi-colored hands across the ground; songbirds return to fill the air with marvelous melodies!
Don’t you just love the growth of summer? The sight of corn rows rising out of the dust; the smell of a freshly cut hayfield or golf course; the taste of homegrown fruits and vegetables from the garden; the rush of cool water encompassing your body when you plunge into a mountain stream!
Don’t you just love the autumn harvest? The hillside foliage bursting with brilliant colors; the sound of choppers in the field; the smell of a Cortland apple pie baking in the oven; the early evening sunset shimmering across the lake!
Don’t you just love the winter sleep? When all nature around us rests and that first snowfall glistens over the ground; when you hear the crackle of the fire and watch the flames dance in the woodstove; when your boots lock into those skis and you feel the icicles form on your nose hairs as you soar down the slopes! Yes, these are all parts of God’s gift of time! Each day of creation gave us a different rhythm to enjoy!
The Creation Rhythms of Time (Genesis 1:3-2:3)
All of these rhythms are embedded in the creation order as described in Genesis 1. Even the structure of Genesis 1 is rhythmic. The creation account is arranged in a sequence of seven days. Six times a segment of creation work is introduced with the phrase, “And God said…” and six times is concluded with the phrase, “And there was evening and morning…” followed by the number of the day, one through six.
But the seventh day is treated differently and that difference sets it off for special emphasis and attention. Instead of the number being in the concluding phrase, it is in the introductory: “And on the seventh day.” This number seven is then repeated twice more in successive sentences. So, “seventh” is repeated three times, giving this seventh day an emphasis far beyond that of the first six.
So, here is what we notice: God’s work of creation is revealed to us in a rhythmic pattern—1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7, 7. There are two sets of three days each of creation activity. The first set of three gives form to the pre-creation chaos of verse 2; the second set of three fills the pre-creation emptiness. These two sets of creation days, days 1-3 forming the “without form” and days 4-6 filling the “void,” are then followed by the seventh day of creation rest in triple emphasis. As we assimilate Genesis 1, we find ourselves “keeping time”: one two three, four five six, seven seven seven! (Peterson 67)
We are created to live rhythmically in the rhythms of creation. We are created to live in the patterns of days, weeks, months, seasons, and years. There is nothing we can do to speed time up or slow it down, but we can certainly embrace the rhythms God has placed in nature and inside us. Probably the most important rhythm we see here is the balanced pattern of work and rest. God has shown us how he wants us to use the time: six days of work and one day of rest per week.
I believe that one of the chief reasons why so many people’s lives are so messed up today is that they are out of sync with God’s creation rhythms. They are not good stewards of the time God has given them. Some people make the mistake of ignoring God’s rhythm of work. They refuse to follow God’s pattern of six days of work and then wonder why they suffer financially or lack a sense of purpose and fulfillment in life.
Other people make the opposite mistake by ignoring God’s rhythm of Sabbath worship and rest. They refuse to follow God’s pattern of one day a week being set apart for worship and rest and they wonder why they are always stressed out, filled with anxiety, and lack a sense of peace in life. This often leads to relationship problems and say things like, “I just don’t see God working in my life!”
So, consider your own life for a minute! Are you in step with God’s creation rhythm of work, worship, and rest? Are you working? Are you resting? Are you worshipping?
Desecrations of Time
Before I conclude today, I want to briefly discuss the twin enemies of God’s creation rhythms: hurry and procrastination. Have you ever noticed that God is never in a hurry? Have you ever noticed that God never procrastinates? Even when Jesus lived on earth, he was never in a hurry nor did he ever procrastinate. Both of these are violations of God’s nature and desecrations of his creation rhythm. Listen to what Eugene Peterson says:
The understanding and honoring of time is fundamental to the realization of who we are and how we live. Violations of sacred time become desecrations of our most intimate relations with God and one another. Hours and days, weeks and months and years, are the very stuff of holiness. Among the many desecrations visited upon the creation, the profanation of time ranks near the top, at least among North Americans. Time is the medium in which we do all our living. When time is desecrated, life is desecrated. The most conspicuous evidences of this desecration are hurry and procrastination. Hurry turns away from the gift of time in a compulsive grasping for abstractions that it can possess and control. Procrastination is distracted from the gift of time in a lazy inattentive or by a procrastinating inattentiveness to the life of obedience and adoration by which we enter the “fullness of time.” Whether by a hurried grasping or by a procrastinating inattention, time is violated! (65)
Hurry
When I think about hurry, the chorus of that old Alabama country song comes to mind: “I’m in a hurry to get things done, I rush and rush until life’s no fun. All I really got to do is live and die, but I’m in a hurry and don’t know why!”
Do you ever feel like that? Like your always in a hurry and don’t know why? We certainly live in a culture that is always in a rush. Hurry is a desecration of God’s gift and rhythm of time! How about you? How often do you find yourself in a hurry?
Procrastination
I have a friend (whose identity will remain hidden) who wears a tee shirt with a very simple and ironic message on the front of it. It says: Procrastinators Unite: Tomorrow!
Do you ever find yourself saying, “Tomorrow!” When we procrastinate our responsibilities, we desecrate God’s gift and rhythm of time. Oftentimes we wind up being in a hurry because we have procrastinated. Are you a procrastinator?
God created time and gave it to us as a gift. He instilled beautiful rhythms of time in us and the created order. These rhythms reflect his very nature and provide the pattern for abundant life: Work, worship, rest! Work, worship, rest! How well do you keep the rhythm? Are you a good steward of the time that God has given you?
I want to ask you to do something! Sometime this week, take your Bible and read through Genesis 1 again. Read it out loud several times in a row and try to keep the verbal rhythm! Let the pattern of the words sink into your mind and soul! Then, on a sheet of paper, write down some ways that you are a good steward of time and some ways you are a bad steward of time. Finally, pray and ask God to help you maintain the areas where you are strong and improve the areas where you are weak, especially if you are prone to hurry or procrastination!
And may we always be thankful for the time God has given us and use it to his glory!