The Sacredness of Time and Space

God has been showing me a lot recently about the humility and respect with which He wants me to view time and space. I tend to get all angsty about questions like, "Is it wrong for me to act? Is it wrong for me to see this movie? Would it be wrong for me to read this book?" But when I ask these questions, I am usually seeking answers that will serve me for all time, rules that I can tack up on the wall and walk away from, knowing that if I just follow them, I am a good girl. However, God is showing me His beauty, the sensitivity and subtleness with which He rules His creation. I think of Ecclesiastes 3, where he talks about how there is a time for everything and a season for every purpose under heaven.

I have thought a lot about this with my on-again, off-again dramatic journey (no pun intended) with the performing arts. I recently spent 2 years in New York City trying to make it as an actress, trying to get my foot in the door, and apparently, the timing wasn't right for me to get in the door that leads to Hollywood, but the time was right to be able to take part in some amazing productions as a background actor, to make my first semi-substantial paycheck as an actress while doing a commercial (and feeling really proud of the work), to act on New York stages in two different off-off-Broadway plays, and to know the deep satisfaction of receiving sincere, lavish praise from one of my dearest friends, who herself just got cast in her third Broadway show. And God knew how significant an audience that friend is to me, and what a lifelong treasure the memory of her praise would be...He is so specific in His love, isn't He?

And it would be easy to think that because the road to a career in film acting has not panned out at this point, and because my husband's job just took us to Tulsa, Oklahoma, that acting as a career is just not in His plan for me. In fact, a trusted friend and spiritual mentor recently talked about how Hollywood is Sodom and Gomorrah and how it would be a huge disaster if I went there to act, as I would not be able to withstand the temptation to compromise my values. And he was right...for right now. I'm not ready. And God has been giving me the deep conviction that my character has to be at on an equal level with my career. But I also don't know that he has shut the door on my Hollywood dream for forever. I still long to be among the people of the entertainment industry, those our church would like to say are "bad" or beyond hope...and see Him love them through me with a love that is beyond me, that has saved me and healed me in my own state of otherwise hopelessness. I would LOVE to be one whom He equips to be a light runner, dashing into dark corners with golden love. But He is the master of time and space, and I will follow Him to see which spaces He wants to guide me to in His timing.

Am I rambling? Is it still not completely clear what I mean by the sacredness of time and place?

Here are ways I have seen this principle, this deep truth, played out in everyday life recently:

In traffic: this is an obvious one. Life and death, power for good and power for destruction all depend on the organization of yellow lane lines drawn on asphalt, of the carefully monitored timing of red, green and yellow lights. As I coast down the highway, I am in awe of the incredible technological power we have at this point in history to get halfway across the United States in 26 hours--a reality that was completely beyond the boundaries of the imaginable 100 years ago. The power of an engine and the safety of a metal enclosure makes the unthinkable possible. But at the same time, we Americans who drive on a daily basis are also at the mercy of a thin margin of error--a space of about 6 feet in distance between me and an oncoming car. In this case, space marks the division between life and death.

Or, did you ever see the movie, Sliding Doors, with Gwyneth Paltrow? I loved the premise of that movie. And I saw the reality of it on a daily basis while living in New York City--time and space as related to the subway system. Three seconds often made the difference between someone stepping through the doors and getting to work on time or running to the train to see the doors close in their face, eventually arriving 10 minutes late to an irritated boss. These few seconds made the difference between emerging at your destination to see someone you know passing by, who tells you about that person who can give you an interview, who ends up giving you a job, or emerging ten minutes later to walk anonymously among strangers. And in regards to the space element, as a strap hanger (one who regularly uses the subway system), one foot of space made the difference between moving nowhere on a concrete subway platform, and being bodily in a machine that whisked you away to somewhere else. (I think this is why New Yorkers are notorious for being always in a rush...they are constantly aware that time--three seconds--and space--one foot--determine the course of their lives on a regular basis.)

Time and place are sacred. And I love how Psalm 31:15 says, "My times are in your hands..." There is profound meaning to the exact times and places of our lives, and that meaning is at once universal among God's people and also as infinitesimally specific as the unique design of each of His creatures. Another of my favorite passages in this regard is in Acts 17, which leaves no room for the idea that our lives are arbitrary, random sequences of events, meaningless and empty:

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’" -Acts 17:24-27

In our lives, the settings and order of the chapters, as well as the exact timing and places in which new characters are introduced, are artistic tools in the hands of the Author of all Authors, who is telling a story with each of us. We are supremely privileged as His creations to be an ensemble cast of characters in The Story.

Oh, Lord, my times are in your hands. Let me not be careless or irreverent in how I handle time and space.