Of Time and Timelessness
Theological Reflections on Living at the Milestones of History—With An Inaugural Prayer
I observe our little Welsh Corgi lying on the floor, gazing out as if looking to someplace, yet seemingly nowhere at all. She exists but appears to lack the intellectual and spiritual capacity to contemplate the meaning of her existence. Pausing to reflect is a uniquely human activity. Yet, we must confess that we are often caught living without reflection, trapped in the relentless ebb and flow of life’s tides.
Such a condition is like Walker Percy’s character in The Second Coming:
“Not once in his entire life had he come to rest in the quiet center of himself but had forever cast himself from some dark past he could not remember to a future that did not exist. Not once had he been present for his life. So his life had passed like a dream.”
These words remind us of our tendency to live in distraction, allowing moments of significance—both personal and national—to slip by like dreams we fail to fully inhabit. Large rocks along the shoreline can disrupt the hypnotic rhythms of the tide, offering a place for rest and reflection. Presidential inaugurations, like this weekend’s, are historical milestones—boulders on the shoreline—that invite us to pause and reflect on the larger matters of our lives: our place in time, the meaning of our days, and the road that lies before us. Such events provide a break in the torrent of time, reminding us to be present, to recognize the intersection of time and timelessness, and to acknowledge the eternal hand guiding us. They call us to consider where we stand and where we are going, both as individuals and as a people.
That was the idea behind the painting I share with you on this page. When we dare to pause and consider our condition as humans, we must admit that we reside at the nexus of time and timelessness, of beauty and vulgarity, of hope and insecurity. We might call this pause to ponder “theological reflection.” It is something a creature like a dog cannot do but something we, as image-bearers of God, are uniquely equipped to do. Theological reflection flows from the image of God in us. And what might we see at such moments of reflection?
T. S. Eliot explored this interplay in The Dry Salvages of his Four Quartets:
“To apprehend / The point of intersection of the timeless / With time is an occupation for the saint.”1
Did you catch that? “. . . The intersection of the timeless with time . . .” One of my favorite phrases from all English literature. And why does Eliot call such reflection an “occupation for the saint?” Because such an undertaking awakens our souls to our relationship with God, to the divinely warranted borders of our existence standing at the threshold of eternity. It invites us to see our lives and history as more than a sequence of events but as part of a divine narrative in which we are called to participate.
Like the painting before you, the road ahead may appear veiled in uncertainty, but the promises of God illumine our path and anchor our hope. To be alert to the tensions of time and timelessness is to recognize that prayer to the Almighty is the only sane response to life.
And so, we come to pray—not only for ourselves but for our nation and its leaders—asking for the wisdom to seek the ancient paths, where the good way is, and for the courage to walk in them.
An Inaugural Prayer
Lord God, the eternal and triune God, whose only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, reigns forever as the uncontested and incomparable King of kings and Lord of lords, who heard and answered the prayers of our Pilgrim forefathers and has faithfully preserved this nation through every trial, both from without and within:
Grant, I pray, Thy divine protection and the anointing of Thy Holy Spirit upon our temporal leader, President Donald John Trump, upon Mrs. Trump, upon our Vice President, Mr. Vance, and Mrs. Vance, and upon all those who serve to support the duly elected government of the People of this country. May they govern with humility, wisdom, and a reverent acknowledgment of Thy Word and Providence.
By their steadfast fidelity to our Constitution and their dependence upon Thy guidance, may our nation, and indeed our world, know the blessing of peace, the preservation of liberty, and the pursuit of justice. Enable us to live lives of gratitude, empowered by Thy grace, carefully following Thy Word, worshiping Thee in joyful reverence, and sharing the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ.
All these things I humbly pray, for the advancement of Thy kingdom and for the good of all Thy children, through the matchless name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
— Michael A. Milton, Prayer on the Occasion of the Inauguration of the Forty-seventh President of the United States of America, Donald John Trump of Florida, and Vice President, James David Vance of Ohio.
References
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001. (Referenced passage: Jeremiah 6:16).
Eliot, T. S. The Four Quartets. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1943.
Gish, Nancy K. Time in the poetry of TS Eliot: A study in structure and theme. Springer, 1981
Percy, Walker. The Second Coming. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1980.
I would like to challenge graduate students in theology (or even English literature or psychology) to consider the concept of time and the human soul in those post-WWI authors called “The Lost Generation,” viz., F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and T.S. Eliot. My quote from the Eliot is considered alongside his fellow critics of Modernism. See, e.g., For a critical review of Eliot’s concern with loss of identity and disillusionment following the horrors of the Great European War of 1914-1918 (15-20 million dead) see Nancy K. Gish. Time in the poetry of TS Eliot: A study in structure and theme. Springer, 1981. On Timelessness in T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, see Koo, G. (2024). Musical Poetics in ‘Four Quartets’: A Transcendence of the Individual Will. Textes et Contextes. Retrieved from u-bourgogne.fr . On T.S. Eliot and the Lost Generation, see Dar, A. R. (2018). T.S. Eliot: A Review of the Life and Poetry of the Ground-Breaking Modernist Poet. Impact Journals. Retrieved from impactjournals.us (PDF).
Thank you for reflection and prayer