Time is perhaps the most mysterious of life’s many aspects, providing both bad and good, discouragement and encouragement, strife and peace, pain and pleasure, loss and reward. It offers an unparalleled consistency whose measurement seems to speed up with age with unbiased respect to any individual, race or creed. Its mystery has always been a source of fascination, particularly as it relates to events in our lives.

Several years ago while standing on one of our nation’s many battlefields I imagined, but for time, I could find myself in this exact spot experiencing the most savage acts of men - war! However, on this sunny spring day, birds and squirrels were the most active inhabitants on this once bloody spot. Historical markers explaining the horrors which had taken place caused me to wonder what it would have been like to experience seeing thousands of men die in a matter of a few days. I thought, "fortunately time separated me from this particular event." Similarly, Viet Nam veterans who have returned to exact spots where they fought thirty years ago have expressed the strange paradox that time and geography can produce, often bringing healing and closure to old wounds.

Time is a powerful force in our lives and to understand its mystery is to understand life. We have all experienced friendships, relationships and relatives that, at the time, seemed to be everlasting, almost eternal, yet time came and they are gone forever. Strangely, time changes virtually everything in our lives. While change can produce a sadness, there can also be a great excitement if we choose to understand time. With every death, whether physical, relational or emotional, there seems to be new life, interestingly reflective of one of the earth’s basic principles seedtime and harvest. A seed must fall into the ground and die in order to produce life. Anything growing will change, whether our physical bodies as we grow from childhood to young adults or a company undertaking tremendous growth. If time produces change and change is an outward sign of growth, we can reasonably conclude that time and growth are connected, particularly as individuals.

Time can make allies enemies and enemies allies. The wall (line) between East and West Germany, once a life threatening maneuver to cross and separating drastic Eastern culture, politics and policy from West, is now crossed routinely with scarce little difference in the makeup of the city. Time can make the rich poor and the poor rich. Its march inevitably brings change thus evoking provocative questions. Is it the sheer force of an international leader’s personality that puts him in potential harmony or conflict with the world or is it time-produced destiny? Would Bill Gates have been rich had be been born in 1850? Could Hitler rise to prominence in the year 2000? Would Steven Spielburg be a household name in the 12^th Century? The bible states there are seasons for every event in the earth, a predestined path orchestrated by time. Is time an ally or an enemy? Are events in our lives part of a grand scheme nestled into spots of time or is everything in life simply chance, fate or a direct result of our own efforts, talents and skills?

After years of contemplating the subject and admittedly looking upon Father Time as an enemy, I now foster new beliefs which, whether right or wrong, serve a more positive view and attitude about my new friend. I count him as having the greatest of attributes; teacher, coach, mentor, guidance counselor, historian, spiritual guide, educator, healer, and future hope to name a few. I have grown content with my lot in life, comfortable that time will indeed keep life interesting, ever changing and always teaching. To not understand time and its very positive nature is to lose a quality of life our creator intended for us to have.

In evaluating time during the half century I have been on earth, I quickly conclude a positive result. Time has constantly taught me to be a better husband, father, businessman, friend, son and citizen, turned enormous failures into overwhelming successes, healed wounds, and given hope. No other element of life can provide both a memory from the past and a hope for the future as time can. No other element in life can produce the enormous changes time can. I have chosen to let time be my friend, seeking only to understand him better. To understand time and its purpose is to understand life and understanding life is one of the greatest gifts a human can possess.

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