Measuring Time

This week I had the chance to talk with a good friend who was made a bishop recently.  He made an interesting observation.  He said that when most people talked to him after finding out he had received this calling they would both congratulate him and offer their condolences as well.  Only those who had been a bishop before would simply congratulate him without any other negative remarks.  My friend suggested that this was because those who had been a bishop knew of the blessings that their service had brought them in their own lives.  I think that the reason many of us are inclined to “offer condolences” for someone who is called as a bishop or other similar calling is because the time requirement is so large.  Life is so busy that it often causes us to very carefully guard any extra time that we have.  I would venture to guess that many have a harder time parting with time than with money; we may not covet our neighbor’s house or ox as ancient Israel was warned against, but we do covet our own time (Exodus 20:17).  

                Alma taught his son Corianton, “All is as one day with God, and time only is measured unto men” (Alma 40:8).  I believe that this is suggesting that, in some way I don’t understand, there is no time in heaven. It is all just “one day.”  But I wonder if we can’t interpret this verse in another way: men are the only ones who “measure” time.  To measure something we get exactly the right amount and we make sure we don’t go over; for example, we measure the baking powder in a recipe for pancakes very carefully because too much will ruin them.  Likewise, many of us tend to measure out our time in an exacting way; when the one hour service project takes two hours or the temple visit takes longer because the session is full or our children take an extra hour to go to sleep we become very frustrated because that’s not how much time we originally measured for the activity.  I think that one of our great challenges in this fast paced society is to give of our time to the Lord in the way that Savior instructed us: “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom” (Luke 6:38).  There’s a poem which I believe stems from this verse called Forgiveness Flour in which the author tries to “measure” very carefully the amount of “forgiveness” she will give to one who needs forgiving but her husband brought a whole bag of forgiveness flour and said, “Take all of it” (see here).  Surely we could apply the same principle to giving of our time; we spend too much time “measuring” what it is that we will give instead of simply giving all we can.  Of course we don’t have unlimited time, but perhaps we can spend less time measuring it and more time making it meaningful.  Even the Savior when He visited the Nephites was willing to stay longer than His schedule had allotted Him: He said goodbye in 3 Nephi 17:1-4 but then did “tarry a little longer with them” to heal them when He saw their sadness at His departure (3 Nephi 17:5).  He was much more concerned about providing the most meaningful experience for this people He loved than measuring out exactly the time He had planned to spend.