It seems to me that time is moving faster today than it ever has in my lifetime. Birthdays, holidays, and graduations of those who were once just little children are telling signs that the years are passing by more quickly than I remember in my early years. I can still remember looking forward to becoming a teenager. Those next three years of waiting to get my driver’s license felt more like ten years at the time. Then came high school graduation and ultimately college graduation. Those were some amazing years but again, it truly felt as if those years were very long in comparison to now.
I believe that this feeling that time is speeding up probably won’t ever completely change. I also believe, however, that our early years in life can help give us some perspective as well. When we are constantly looking forward to something and striving to reach new goals and dreams, we are living our life on purpose. These are all goals and dreams that we are told that we should strive for and they are relatively positive in nature. Who doesn’t want to graduate, get a good paying job, and buy their dream home? However, what happens after you achieve those goals? Life seems to speed up for many of us and in spite of reaching those goals, something still seems to be missing. Let’s look at a Bible story for some explanation.
On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.”
John 2:1-3 (NKJV)
When we read about the life of Jesus in the scriptures, we understand that he was sent to the earth for a specific purpose…to die for the sins of the world. His mother knew the purpose that God gave her this child to raise. She was even visited by an angel to let her know the purpose for which this child was to be born. Yet, the Bible describes some very “normal” years that Jesus lived out on earth before all of that.
He had brothers and sisters, became a carpenter, and here we have him attending a wedding celebration. During this wedding, his mother discovered that there was a problem that could certainly dampen the party and only one person in the room that could fix it. No one else knew what Mary his mother knew about him, because up until that time he was just a normal resident in the community with a normal life.
Jesus was now thirty years old and no doubt Mary was still thinking about that angelic encounter that was now over thirty years prior to this moment. After waiting all these years for Jesus to “do something” to demonstrate that he was ready to walk in his true purpose, she simply brought him a problem that only he could resolve. Jesus’ response is similar to ours when we are waiting for the perfect moment to step out and do something we know we have been purposed for.
Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.”
John 3:4 (NKJV)
In other words, Jesus responded to his mother that this particular problem was not his concern. He was just attending this wedding in support of the bride and groom. No doubt he was probably socializing and just generally having a good time. Then he says something I’m sure all of us have said, “It’s not time yet.” While we understand that Jesus clearly knew the time for him to step into his true purpose, we can’t say the same about ourselves. We will go our entire lives saying the timing isn’t right for certain things, and these could be the very things for which we were born. Either way, his mother did not let these words deter her. She probably said to herself that after thirty years it was about time for him to show who he really was so she simply ignored his response and gave instructions to the servants at the wedding.
His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”
John 2:5 (NKJV)
Mary, the mother of Jesus, ignored Jesus. Even though Jesus said it wasn’t time yet, she put him in a position where that which was inside of him was needed at that moment. Like any determined mother, she would not take no for an answer and received a solution to the problem she brought to him. In doing so, she helped move Jesus from “it’s not time yet” to “now is the time” by simply putting a demand on what he had. The Bible tells us that this moment was actually the first of many miracles that Jesus performed.
To conclude, I want to encourage you to do the same. The world needs what God put inside of you when you were sent to the world. You have a purpose to fulfill in life, and striving for everything else without fulfilling it will never quite satisfy. God put a purpose in you and there comes a time that the answer can no longer be “it’s not time.” Rather, we must recognize that now is the time and the only instructions we need are the same that Mary gave to the servants, “whatever he says to you, do it.” I would encourage you to put yourself in situations and around people where a demand is put on that which is in you. Just like Jesus, that one moment could be the catalyst that launches you into your ultimate destiny.
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