Are you having the kind of day that seems like you are “outside of time?” Like more is getting done than humanly possible? Or, like me, are many days the kind that seem like “time is an enemy” and you think, “How am I going to get it all done?” When I wrote the song A Thousand Years and gave my 7th album this title in 2011, I was thinking about this a lot. Ever since, life often reminds me of the inspiration for this song, like what I saw in the sky last night.
A thousand years…are like a day – Psalm 90:4
I noticed the clouds in the sky, a steeple and the stillness of the moment, like I was outside of time, just for a few seconds. Psalm 90:4 says “A thousand years in your sight are like a day or a watch in the night.” It is hard to wrap my mind around God being outside of time for eternity – past, present, and future. But here is an attempt from the analytical side of my brain…
If 1 day (24 hours) was 1,000 years of time…
- Half a day (12 hours) would be 500 years of time
- 6 hours would be 250 years of time
- 3 hours would be 125 years of time
- 1 hour would be 42 years of time
- 1 minute would be 8 months of time
- 1 second would be 4 days of time
I don’t know about you, but this gives me a new perspective on my daily to do list in every area of life. If my life is a story, and there is in fact a Storyteller, who is outside of time, perhaps there will be times when a lot, a whole lot, gets done in much less time than I would think. Perhaps there are a lot of things getting done, moving forward, that I don’t even know are happening right now.
So, the next time you have a project due in seven days, what if you thought, “That’s like 7,000 years.” Or, if you only have three hours left to get something done, you say, “I can finish this in less than 125 years.” Life is hard work, and has moments of victory and struggle, but Psalm 90:4 keeps things in perspective for me. How about you?
If you like, you can listen to music from A Thousand Years for reflection.
