Just the other week, I saw the recent film, ‘In Time’. Starring singer-turned-actor Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried, I was impressed with how this film portrayed an image of the future, and definitely made me think about my own life and how I want to spend it. The film portrayed the future like this; that time is the new currency. Everyone lives til they are twenty-five; and then they are given one more year left, unless they can bargain their way for more years, by working or stealing. Items cost ‘time’, and are taken from the clock that’s ticking down on your arm. The rich are able to live as long as they want, thousands or even millions of years. But for this to happen, the poor are to suffer for it. Places are cordoned off into ‘time zones’, the rich living in seclusion and isolation in ‘New Greenwich’ to what is going on in the ‘Ghettos of Dayton’, where murder, theft, and other desperate crimes are committed every day. Time-keepers rule the city and allocate time, giving them to people that are willing and can afford the price that they ultimately pay. Time is the new way of living, and begs the question; if you had enough time (or money in the 21st century… or maybe even enough time), how would you use it? If you could do anything, spend the money to buy anything or go anywhere, how would you live your life? This got me thinking about what I would do if I had a million dollars, or if I could live to more than 100 years old. If these things in the future are remotely possible, then I really need to start thinking about how I would want to live my life before I am forced into living a certain way.
In the movie, the character that Justin Timberlake plays, Will Salas; comes from the ghettos as he manoeuvres and survives life, one day at a time. When he is given more than 100 years one night by a rich man willing to just die (that he saved at a bar from a time-robbery assault), he is accused of his murder and hunted down by both the time keepers and the local crime mobster. As his mother is ‘timed out’ after failing to have the allotted hours for a bus ride, Will remembers what the rich man told him, about the corruption of the system, and decides to revolt against it, the same system that has been put into place that allows the rich to live forever, yet at the same time raise the costs of living in the poorer ‘time zones’, thus increasing the allotted hours that one needs for daily living at a faster rate than wages. Running from the law, Will Salas crosses paths with Sylvia Weis, a rich daughter of time-loaning businessman Phillip Weis, and together they are able to challenge the system that has never been questioned since its existence. As the film carries on, ethical questions are certainly raised about the issues of the time that we all have, knowing that we have one life that we live, no more. How we use this life is of utter importance. But then there’s always the thought; if you had unlimited resources (including time and money), how would you live your life? What would you do? We certainly need to figure out what our purpose and calling is in our lives, what we enjoy doing; whether other people have spoken encouragements into our lives, telling us, ‘I really see you as this’, or ‘I think you’ve got such a real talent for that’. Because once we discover our passion, and realise that our passion isn’t our purpose (our purpose on this Earth is to further the kingdom of God!), we can be able to live our lives with no regrets, acknowledging that even when things crumble around us, that we can count on God to always stick by us, never leaving us and encouraging us in the moments when we need Him the most.
How I live my life will certainly have ramifications about where I end up. What I choose today will have consequences for tomorrow. But there is a notion in society that speaks about how we should all make good choices because of the time that we have; but also because the choices that we make will define who we are for the rest of our lives. We are fed this thought that if we do screw-up, then it’ll be ‘written on our headstone’ for all eternity, ‘not wiped from the hard drive’, not forgotten by our parents. But then Jesus comes along and turns everything and every thought on their heads. We are told not to screw up, because what we do, we’ll carry for the rest of our lives. Sure that is the case, but God shows us that what we do doesn’t define us. It has consequences to where we end up, but what defines us is Christ’s unending love for us, that while we were still in the sinning mood, Christ came down from Heaven and lived a human life. He suffered and died the death that we knew we deserved, thus empathising with our very pain. It is because of what He did on the cross that we can be called sons and daughters of the Living God and that is who we are. We are heirs of the throne of heaven, part of the never-ending story of God. As we realise our identity in Him, we are filled with overwhelming joy as we live our lives with a Christ-centred focus. How we certainly live today will have consequences for tomorrow. But we must also get this clear; that irregardless of what happens in our lives, whether we screw up today or tomorrow (we’re still gonna make mistakes- it’s part of the learning process as we become more and more grounded in Christ and what He’s encouraging us to undertake), God still loves us and will continue to love us.
What ‘In Time’ has taught me is that all life is valuable. We do not know when we’re going to die. It may be today, tomorrow, next year, or even in 50 years time. Regardless of the date, we’ll know that when it comes, we must have this attitude where we say ‘I know that I’ve done everything that I can to live a fulfilled life! I’ve told my family that I love them, I was able to do the things that really matter!’ We must get our priorities right, because if we cannot say with full confidence that once we go to the grave, we’ll be happy with the life that we’ve lived (if we continue the path that we are on right now), then something inside of us needs to change. We need to see our lives like how God sees them, beautiful and with purpose.
As I finish this blog, let me leave you with Sidewalk Prophet’s song, ‘Live Like That’. As you reflect upon the lyrics, let me remind you, that God treasures us and died for us, that even if we were the only people on the planet, He’d still come and die for us anyway. That is love at its best. Once we appreciate this, we must go and live like Christ, as our time on Earth is only a whisper in the wind, a stone in a quarry of rocks, a sand grain along a shore of beach. Let us make this live count for the only thing that matters!
Til next blog,
Jon.
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