“Trapped in Time?”
Who doesn’t love a good time-travel movie? Whether it’s hopping in a DeLorean, getting stuck in a time loop like Groundhog Day, or trying to change the future, we’re fascinated by breaking the rules of time. But don’t we all do this every day? We get stuck in our own kinds of time traps — mentally reliving our regrets from the past or anxiously pre-living our worries about the future.
Paul urged the early church to “look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:15-16). Older translations use a theologically rich phrase: “redeeming the time.” What does it mean to rescue and reclaim our present moments when our minds so easily get lost in the past or future? The Bible says the key is breaking free from our mental time loops and anchoring ourselves in God’s presence.
Here’s What You’ll Find:
We often get stuck in mental “time loops” of regret for the past and anxiety for the future.
It’s fueled by a tension between our “experiencing self” (who lives now) and our “remembering self” (who curates stories).
The Bible’s call to “redeem the time” is an invitation to break free by anchoring ourselves in God’s presence.
The Past Trap
The rearview mirror is a trap that can take hold of any of us. We get stuck mentally reliving our past, caught in a loop of either sepia-toned nostalgia for “the good old days” or, more often, sharp regret for our failures. We all have those moments we wish we could go back and warn ourselves, “Hey, don’t do that!” But the past can have a magnetic pull, keeping us from moving forward into the life God has for us now.
No one understood this better than Paul. He had a past he could have easily been trapped by — proudly persecuting the very faith he now preached. Yet, he writes with incredible freedom, “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13-14). It wasn’t amnesia, as Paul frequently used his past to highlight the riches of God’s grace. Paul refused to let his past define him.
How did he do it? He trusted that Christ’s sacrifice was enough to completely redeem his timeline. He wasn’t the man he used to be. For the Christian, Christ has dealt with the guilt of our past so completely that God says, “I will remember their sins no more” (Heb. 8:12). Dwell on forgiven sin is like having a phantom itch — trying to scratch a limb that isn’t there anymore because God has already healed and removed it.
The Future Trap
While the past traps us in regret, the future traps us in anxiety. We spend so much of our present energy worrying about a tomorrow we can’t control. Jesus gives guidance for our struggle: “Do not be anxious about tomorrow,” he says, “for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matt. 6:34).
It’s an anxiety fueled by serious internal conflict. We all have what psychologist Daniel Kahneman calls an “experiencing self” and a “remembering self.” Our experiencing self lives in the messy present, while our remembering self is the storyteller that crafts a narrative for our lives. The remembering self obsesses over the future tale, creating anxiety about performance, outcomes, and how we’ll look back on what we’ve done. Going with our happiness discussion last week, you could think of it like this: the “remembering” part of us wants to be happy with our life, while the “experiencing” part wants to be happy in our life. The book of Ecclesiastes expresses the value of both (Eccl. 3:11-13; 11:8-12:14). But a Christian’s eternal perspective adds another dimension to both as well — teaching us to live gratefully and wisely in the present, while keeping the “end of the matter” in mind (cf. Eccl. 12:13-14).
I think about my past family vacations. My remembering self had a script: beautiful sunsets, happy kids laughing on the beach, and a highlight reel of pictures to prove what a wonderful time we all had. But my experiencing self lived a whole different story. It dealt with the sunburn, the kids melting down in the backseat, the stress of waiting in line, and just knowing — “this is NOT relaxing!” And right in the middle of all that, the “remembering” part of me tells everybody to smile for a picture! So in my desperation to capture the memory of joy, I sabotage my chance to experience any actual joy. Funny how we can end up performing for our future memories, and in the process, completely miss the sacred moment God has gifted to us right now.
The Bible’s antidote to all that anxiety isn’t a guarantee that it’ll all be smooth sailing. It’s a command to give God our burdens. Peter, who knew about anxiety, tells us to cast “all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). It’s an active choice, taking all the specific worries we carry and prayerfully, intentionally handing them over to our God who holds the future. It’s recognizing the division of labor: our job is to plant and water today, while God’s job is to bring growth tomorrow (1 Cor. 3:6-7).
Redeeming the Present: Breaking the Loop
The call to “redeem the time” pushes us to break free from the loops of past and future by choosing to be purposeful and present, right here, right now.
Remember when Martha got caught in that anxiety loop, frantically focused on crafting a picture-perfect story of service (Luke 10:38-42)? But Mary broke the loop. She let go of the to-do list to simply sit with Jesus and learn. He offers Martha — and all of us! — this gentle correction: “Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” Because being present with Jesus mattered more than any A+ hospitality Martha could have offered him.
This isn’t a new idea. It’s the same lesson God was teaching the Israelites in the wilderness. By providing just enough manna for each day, he was training them in present-moment trust (Exod. 16). Those who tried to hoard for the future — to live by the plans of their remembering self — found that their efforts rotted away. So God was teaching them to rely on his presence in their present.
Your Next Moment
Choosing to be present isn’t about abandoning our memories or our planning. But when we pay attention to what is sacred and important right now and trust God with our past and future, we can break free from the time traps that ensnare us.
So this week, stay mindful of God’s holy presence. See what happens when you find an opportunity to deliberately give your attention to the person, task, or experience right in front of you — instead of living for the memory. Take a walk and leave your phone in your pocket. Sit in silence for five minutes before your next task. When you pray, use the messy words, not the polished ones. The most profound stories aren’t the ones we carefully craft for our highlight reel, but the ones written on our hearts by abiding — fully present — with God, one moment at a time.