Living in Time: Alexis A. Goring
Summer 2014 Guest Post by Alexis for His Yes Girls blog
“Welcome to a world where time has become the ultimate currency. You stop aging at 25, but there’s a catch: you’re genetically-engineered to live only one more year, unless you can buy your way out of it. The rich “earn” decades at a time (remaining at age 25), becoming essentially immortal, while the rest beg, borrow or steal enough hours to make it through the day. When a man from the wrong side of the tracks is falsely accused of murder, he is forced to go on the run with a beautiful hostage. Living minute to minute, the duo’s love becomes a powerful tool in their war against the system.” ~Written by Twentieth Century Fox
In Time is a movie that unsettled me. I mean seriously unsettled me. Why? Because it is a story about poor people who are stopping at nothing to literally buy or steal more time in order to live longer and rich people having all the time in the world but living empty lives. And honestly, it was too true of a mirror on real life outside of the movies.
The fictional story centers on the lives of two main characters: Will Salas, (played by Justin Timberlake) who is from a poor family and resides in the ghetto and Sylvia Weis (played by Amanda Seyfried) who is a rich girl from the best part of town. Will knows what it’s like to lose the people he loved because they ran out of time. Sylvia knows what’s it’s like to be so sheltered and protected from the ills of society that you don’t take any risks and are just barely living life.
Long story short, Will meets Sylvia and they run off together and start to war against the system of having to buy or steal time. But they do this buy robbing banks that are not full of money but time. Even in the last scene of the movie, they’re stepping into a wealthy bank to steal more time.
Just the constant anxiety of needing to buy or steal more time in order to live longer got to me because is that not exactly what we try to do in real life? How to live a long, fulfilled life and how to live to be 100 years old are popular topics of conversation amongst friends, family, colleagues and all forms of media (broadcast news on television and radio, magazines, newspapers, blogs, etc.). It seems that we, as a society worldwide, are obsessed with living as long as possible, enjoying every moment of our lives here on Earth. Years ago, I heard someone say, “Everyone wants to go to heaven; no one wants to die.” It’s like we as a society are so scared of dying that we focus on living to be as old as possible so that we can still be here to experience what we know. But the problem with that way of thinking is that reality is everyone will die eventually. Yes, there will be people who live to witness the Second Coming of Jesus Christ whether they be 100 or younger. Yes, there will be people living their lives on Earth when Jesus returns. But the Bible says only God knows when He’s sending His Son to this Earth to take His faithful followers home to heaven (Matthew 24:36) which means that Jesus Christ doesn’t know when this event will happen which I would say also tells us that there’s no way we’re going to be given that information. If God wouldn’t tell His only Son the time of His return, He certainly will not tell a mere mortal like you and me.
So what is a mere mortal who could die at any given time, to do?
Enter a topic we’ve talked about before, the salvation plan. The beauty of the salvation plan is that Jesus paid the price for us to have eternal life (John 3:16). We don’t have to rush through our lives here on Earth trying to earn wealth, status and buy our way into good health with all of the medical treatments and foods to promote longevity. We just have to believe in Jesus Christ and trust that He knows all of our days before we live it (Psalm 139:16) meaning that everyone has an appointed time to die. But the good news is that there is hope of eternal life for those who follow Jesus Christ! Death and the grave are NOT the final stages of life for those who have accepted the best life insurance plan you cannot buy—the salvation plan. I believe that’s one of the best things about it—all you have to do is accept Jesus Christ and His plan of salvation and live for Him (Micah 6:8) and if you die young or old, you can rest assured that when Jesus Christ returns to this Earth, you will be changed in a moment from mortal to immortal (1 Corinthians 15:52) and go to heaven to experience eternity.
Eternity with God is a beautiful thing where all of the ills of society as we knew it while living on Earth are gone and the entire city is lit by the presence of God (Revelation 21:23). There are no poor parts of town in heaven, no rich areas to vie for residence because even the streets are made of gold (Revelation 21:21) and Jesus has prepared mansions for you (John 14:2)!
Let’s not be too concerned about whether or not we’ll live to be 100. Let’s focus on living for Jesus Christ and let Him take care of the rest.
God bless you!
Love,
Alexis
Austi Garrett
Kait
His Yes Girls 