Alas, we turn from the blissful summer season and step over the threshold to fall and all the beginnings that come with it. Fall may bring the start a school year, the return to work, and many of us anticipate a change of schedule and new tasks. This September, we are beginning a new series to help us return to daily disciplines and cultivate a heart ready to answer to God’s call. We are starting this week with excerpts from Elisabeth’s book, “Joyful Surrender” and her chapter on the “Discipline of Time”. Elisabeth wrote and spoke extensively on the subject of discipline. For more resources on the topic, use the search tool at ElisabethElliot.org.
Lover of All, I hold me fast by Thee,
Ruler of time, King of Eternity
There is no great with Thee, there is no small,
For Thou art all, and fillest all in all.
The newborn world swings forth at Thy command,
The falling dewdrop falls into Thy hand.
God of the firmament’s mysterious powers
I see Thee thread the minutes of my hours.
Amy Carmichael has beautifully bound together in her poem the two ancient concepts of time. One, expressed by the Greek word chronos, refers to “the minutes of our hours,” or the notion of duration and succession. The other, kairos, is what Dr. James Houston calls “time evaluated,” signifying instrumentation and purpose. “Man needs to see himself significant, in the light of events, of kairos, seeing himself hope-fully in the context of a greater reality than his own temporality, of chronos.”
“I hold me fast by Thee, Ruler of time, King of Eternity” is the expression of faith that my temporality is understood only in the infinite context of eternity. Not even the tiny dewdrop lacks the care and attention of the Lover of all. Shall I then think of any detail of my earthly life, even so little a thing as a minute of one of my hours, as without meaning? How shall I answer to my Master for my time?
**Excerpt originally published in Joyful Surrender, p. 96