Sense of Time
／Evelyn O. Shih
Everyone knows that the Chinese people have no sense of time, for China was an agricultural society. Time was scheduled only according to sunrise and sunset. People didn't have watches to count time in hours and minutes. Furthermore, Chinese people are slow to embrace improvement. Even now, in this industrial and technological world, with Rolex watches on their wrists, they don't want to make use of time.
Let's consider the example of an invitation to a dinner party. You ask the host, "What time does the party begin?" The answer may be, "Just come around dinner time." Thus, the answer is not an answer, for you still don't know when you should arrive.
Perhaps you are the host and you set the time at 7:00 pm. Experience has shown that many guests will be late, from 15 minutes to an hour late. They may notice your vexed expression upon greeting them and tell you, "It's only a dinner party." "Why are you so serious about it?"
These two examples illustrate how many people have no sense of time. We don't cherish our own time, nor do we respect the time of others. It is a double waste of time.
We Christians are no better, arriving at church late and going beyond a reasonable time during prayer opportunities. For example, some of us say grace for such a long time that everyone is fidgeting with hunger. Other pray for so many requests in the prayer meeting that the ones who follow can only pray in repetition, as the Pharisees do.
At home, a husband may be reluctant to pray with his wife at bedtime because she will pray from Genesis to Revelation and for relatives and missionaries all over the world. He follows her prayers from a conscious state to an unconscious state, and, when he finally awakes from the sound of his own snoring, she is still in Africa or some remote country.
Consquently, he feels guilty and she believes that he should be more spiritual. The real problem, however, is that neither one has a good sense of time.
Preachers have no sense of time either. They may delay the state of the service until the latecomers are seated. As time goes by and this habit becomes customary, even more people arrive late, for they know the service won't start on time.
Preachers may also lose their sense of time at the pulpit. Most churches today offer two or three services on Sunday mornings. If the first preacher uses double his scheduled time for the sermon, you can be sure that all the services will be in a turmoil as a result.
I can recall one summer conference in which a preacher was scheduled to speak in the morning session. Not only did he speak all morning, but he spoke all throughout the lunch hour. He had too much material and too much enthusiasm, but no sense of time nor any sense of his audience's response.
In conclusion, it is a dreadful to realize that having no sense of time is the same as having no sense of living meaningfully and with consideration. After all, time is life, isn't it?
