All the time in the world

Louis Armstrong’s song, ‘We Have all the Time in the World’ was heard in the James Bond film ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’. The song title was taken from the final chapter in Ian Fleming’s book.

The older we get, the faster time goes. If we once felt that we had all the time in the world, do we still?

The late Billy Graham, the well known evangelist, was once asked what in his life did he consider to be the most profound issue? He answered, "The brevity of time."

God implores us in the Bible to seek Him whilst there is still time, "If today you hear His voice do not harden your heart, for today is the day of salvation". Yes, in modern life we know all about timescales, priorities, pressure and urgent tasks. Yet when God speaks to us of urgency we are offended and seem to think that, as far as establishing a relationship with Him is concerned, we have all the time in the world. "I'll think about that sort of thing when I'm older or another day when I'm less pressured". Of course another day never comes.

We are, by nature, blinded to the fact that we don't have all the time in the world. In fact we don't know what even the next hour has in store for us; the cardiac arrest of Danish footballer, Christian Eriksen, brought that home to many TV viewers. We have no control over time, whether we doze, dawdle or dash, time (and therefore life) slips by! Christians refer to something called eternal life. Jesus defines what eternal (or everlasting) life is when he says; ‘Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.’

So, eternal life turns out to be our experience of knowing God, and this ‘knowing’ is received by placing our trust in the person of Jesus.

Ian Fleming’s character, James Bond, was wrong to say that we have all the time in the world. Jesus, however, speaks of eternal things in the world to come, which are to be received and grasped whilst it is still called ’today’.