The Long View
For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.
—Psalm 90:4
We live in a society that demands instant access: photos, food, internet connection, access. Who uses real cameras when we can see the photos we take on our phones in the blink of an eye? Students can see their grades within a day or two thanks to computer posting. And if we have an online account with our healthcare provider, we can see medical testing results within twenty-four hours. We become frustrated when our internet doesn't connect as soon as the final letter of our password is keyed and when our cell phone service is “slow.” We think delivery service is lousy if what we've ordered doesn't arrive within forty-eight hours. We want a faster cellphone, internet, TV, and delivery service, and we often purchase newer devices that promise just that – faster service.
It’s true that technology has, in many ways, made life easier. However, we’ve become so accustomed to “instant” that we have a hard time with the concepts of waiting, patience, and of the “long view.” This leads to an abundance of frustration, irritation, and robs us of peace. If we can see beyond the moment and understand that some things take time, and if we’re willing to wait and to work for a goal that involves much time and effort, then we will develop a “long view” of life and time beyond our own lifespan.
Not being able to embrace a long view of time affects our understanding of God and our relationship with Him. If He doesn’t immediately answer our prayers, we think that is inaction or refusal. However, God is not defined by time, and His view is eternally long, not just centuries, but forever. He calls us to put our hope in eternity with Him, not in the culture we know and interact with daily. Psalm 103 is a good reminder of God’s long view: As for a man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone; and the place shall know it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting to them who fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children, to such as keep his covenant and to those who remember his commandments to do them. (vs. 15-18).
“Everlasting to everlasting” – what a beautiful description of eternity! “Unto children’s children” is a reminder that God’s mercy and His plans extend beyond our lifetimes. C.S. Lewis helps us understand eternity in Mere Christianity, “Our life comes to us moment by moment. One moment disappears before the next comes along . . .That is what Time is like.” Lewis continues, “Almost certainly God is not in Time. His life does not consist of moments following one another. If a million people are praying to him at 10:30 tonight, he need not listen to them in that one snippet which we call 10:30. 10:30 – and every other moment from the beginning of the world – is always the Present for Him.” [You may read more on this explanation of eternity versus time in the chapter, “Time and Beyone Time” in Mere Christianity.]
How can we reclaim a long view in light of how we are bombarded by the insistence on instant in our daily lives? The Abbey that we at Church of the Lamb hope to develop, build, and share with our community will serve as a lovely antidote to the pressure that instant imposes on us and the world around us. Ancient abbeys were built, and they served with the long view, God’s view. Building them to completion took generations, but once built, they served their community for centuries. Cleeve Abbey in England is a good example – it was founded in 1186–91 and had its first abbot in 1198. It was home to Cistercian monks, and they began serving the community almost as soon as the abbey was founded. However, completion of the buildings wasn’t accomplished until the late thirteenth century, roughly one hundred years later. No one who helped at the beginning of the construction of Cleeve Abbey saw its completion, yet those who began the construction had the vision of what the abbey would be and how it would serve. The abbey served its community for 400 years, earning the reputation of providing a tranquil haven during England’s most turbulent times. It provided that haven until 1589 when it was decommissioned during the anti-Roman Catholic purges.
Just as abbeys were planned and constructed over long spans of time, some being under construction for centuries, God’s plan for our individual lives is also on long time, not instant returns. The Victorian missionary, Lilias Trotter, served faithfully in Algeria for forty years, from 1888–1928, with what seemed like very little lasting impact. It wasn’t until recently that the seeds of faith in Christ that she planted were discovered to have been quietly growing during the past century.
As we walk the land where our abbey will be planted, we see evidence of God’s long view in the trees that are older than we are. A local expert recently estimated that “Treebeard,” the huge gnarly tree growing into the rockface along the stream is over 200 years old! The stream itself has flowed for at least several centuries. Even the rocks, which are a source of frustration when they’re in our way, remind us of the ancient times when they were created. If we allow it, all of these will help us recalibrate our concept of time.
It is wonderful to think that the abbey we at Church of the Lamb are planning will offer a safe haven to our community like Cleeve Abbey. It will also offer opportunities for reflection about the true meaning of time as God manages it. Planning and building our abbey will give us practice in the long view. As we look for God’s guidance, we are assured that not only what we immediately undertake is important, but also what we plan for the future is just as important. We have many wonderful ideas, but not all of them will be feasible immediately, and some proposals, like a cemetery on the land, may have to wait some years. We can have peace about long-range development on our land, realizing that God will see the work to completion in His time.
