Ask a physicist what the fourth dimension is and they are likely to reply that it is time. That’s a helpful insight based on Einstein’s theory of relativity which combines our usual three dimensional understanding of place (length, width and height) together with time into a four dimensional framework called spacetime. Behind it is the conviction that you can’t really know what happened unless you can point to the four co-ordinates of where it happened (the precise position of its length, width and height) and when it happened (time). In short, in physics it is not enough to know where you are in the universe, you also need to know when you are there, and a four dimensional model is needed for this.
As in physics, so in everyday life. Place matters, but so does time.
I grew up in Apartheid South Africa. It was such a beautiful place and such an agonising time. I met many people of astonishing ability who as a result of the colour of their skin, were never going to reach anywhere near their full potential. The time simply did not allow it, and fighting against it could cause repercussions more serious than what was lost.
And of course the world is always filled with situations like that. Every war zone, every country under tyranny, every country trapped in poverty, is facing a situation where all the potential of “place” is being held back by the troubles of the particular time. Of course what is devastating for most is the making of others. Many horror situations produce heroes who at a more normal time would have faded into grey ordinariness. It’s the Esther story in the Bible. Esther could have lived a life of contented privilege, but in the course of her journey she had to be woken with the reminder, “who knows if perhaps you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14). Ordinary was fine until she was faced with this particular time of crisis – which in Esther’s story was the potential extermination of the Jewish nation.
It’s important for us to take seriously the time and place in which we live, and the time and place in which others live. Ordinary, everyday compassion means our hearts should break because of the place many find themselves in at this particular time, and if we are in a very different place and time, we should ask what that knowledges calls us to do.
Time has other dimensions. There is time past, and time likely to come. Between the two is the now. Because of time past I have both assets and deficits. I’m not simply talking money here. It’s a much wider concept. I have runs on the board – things I have done well, skills I have acquired, credibility I have gained, friends I have made. But there are mistakes as well – things not done, things not set right. I enter the now with both the joy and the weight of what has gone before. It impacts what I can do in this moment of time. There might be things I need to sort out to open a more promising future time. And future time in this place is a contracting category. Forever will not be spent in this place. The diminishing depth of our future in this particular place invites us to sense the urgency of the now. Do what you can, where you can, while you can.
This may all sound rather philosophical, but I mean it to be intensely practical. I’m really simply saying, take the fourth dimension seriously. Time is both your friend, and your humbler. You can do something now, and that is a great gift. But time moves along and place changes. As the Psalmist so poignantly expresses it in Ps 103:15 “Our days on earth are like grass; like wildflowers, we bloom and die.” So carpe diem – seize the day… Yes, today is now.
Nice chatting…
Photo by Fritz Jaspers: https://www.pexels.com/photo/vintage-clock-face-18704327/
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