WB - Mysterious Time
Near the end of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Headmaster Albus Dumbledore offers this warning to Harry and Hermione, saying, “Mysterious thing, time. Powerful, and when meddled with, dangerous.” In the story, he’s referring to the characters’ ability to use a Time Turner device to alter circumstances a few hours in the past for the benefit of others. While you and I may not have to worry about the ethics of going back in time to improve situations, time is still for us a powerful, mysterious gift.
As a young man, John Wesley had a growing disdain for the German Calvinism he had been reading, whose writings he said: “magnified faith to such an amazing size that it quite hid all the rest of the commandments” (Journal & Diaries, 18:212). In other words, he was reading from Protestants who were so afraid of sounding Catholic that they swung to an extreme. Focused so much on intellectual faith these authors were skeptical of the need for good deeds.
At the age of 22, Wesley began to read works from the pietists, a German response to this reliance on faith at the expense of deeds, focused on holy living as the natural purpose of faith. One of the most fundamentally influential books on young Wesley was the Anglican Bishop Jeremy Taylor’s Rule and Exercises of Holy Living and Holy Dying. Taylor was called the Shakespeare of the “Caroline Divines,” important theological writers during the British social upheavals of the 1600s. His Holy Living & Holy Dying was a poetic, practical exploration of the Christians responsibility to pair the gift of faith with the gift of time.
For Taylor, the remedy for society was not found in the power of the sword, but the “fellowship of Christ’s sufferings and the returns of the God of peace,” noting that “men are apt to prefer a prosperous error before an afflicted truth” (Holy Living, introduction). Taylor describes a Christian faith that truly makes sense for every person, whether they be devoted to monastic holiness or an everyday, uneducated laborer. We have all been given the mysterious gift of time. So Taylor lays out three rules for Holy Living that can be applied to all people everywhere, as a way of life where faith in an eternal God enjoins with the limits of human space and time.
The first is care of our time. While life may seem short, every moment is a gift that we must account for every careless and idle word before the Judge of our souls. Taylor describes idleness as the “burial of a living man,” the space where sin takes over. Work does not take our attention off of God, for your employment itself is a calling to serve and glorify God in the way you go about it. Breaks in the day and days off from work are opportunities to reflect on the work that has been done and offer undivided attention to God’s glory. This practice helps us to better organize our time and our intentions as we move forward. We don’t have time-turners, so there is no way to recover wasted or lost time.
The second rule is purity of intention. As we order our time, we set our purpose to make every action “religious,” setting our actions and intentions before God to reflect the love of the crucified Christ.
Finally, we practice the presence of God. If God is always everywhere and in every moment, we are given the blessed opportunity to seek first God’s kingdom, because it is within and among us at all times. Look into the moments you are given and discover that God is truly there, with each person and animal you come across. All of life is a prayer, and practicing this will shape the way you interact with the time you’ve been given.
When Wesley read this, he started keeping a diary, as often as every 15 minutes reflecting on this intentions, his words and deeds. He was so moved by the power of time, and perhaps just high strung enough, that he made every effort for the rest of his life to pay strict attention to the use of the moments he was given. This book grounded his belief that holiness in this life is possible, not just for a few saints, but for all Christians. Anything less is an excuse.
This is not a call to anxiety, to worry about the wasted times or freak out that you’re not organized enough. Taylor’s work over and over emphasizes how doable this is because God’s grace has made it possible for you. Where John Wesley scrutinized every detail and conversation, Taylor suggested you reflect on large blocks of time at break times and the end of your day. In my comic, I’ve made Taylor to be like Harry Potter’s faithful professor Lupin, a great encourager who braced young Harry to face the things which threatened to suck the life out of him. I have found wasted hours to be soul-sucking, and I’ve found great encouragement in the practicality of Taylor’s teachings to care for my time, focus my intentions towards serving God, and practicing the truth that nothing can separate us from the love of God for us in Christ…not even my job.
When not drawing the Wesley Bros cartoon, the Rev. Charlie Baber, a United Methodist deacon, serves as minister of discipleship for youth and families at Highland United Methodist Church in Raleigh, N.C. His cartoon appears on United Methodist Insight by special arrangement.