On Time, a Word from Martin Luther King Jr., and Staying Awake

A Note from Me

I’ve heard the saying from the saints: if you’re not growing, you’re moving backward. It carries weight. I know how easy it is to slip into old patterns when I’m not attentive. One unguarded stretch of time, one season of drifting, and I can find myself less patient, less kind, less loving. Time never really stands still. It always moves us somewhere. The vigilance this saying calls for is real.

In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, there’s a word for this kind of watchfulness: nepsis (sober-minded alertness, staying awake to the movements of the heart). At its core, nepsis is about how we use time—being awake in the present moment rather than sleepwalking through it. This resonates with me.

But there’s a danger, too. It can sound like everything depends on my effort. As if growth is only possible when I’m pressing forward every hour of every day. Yet the truth is more complex. Failure often becomes its own teacher—showing me where I’ve leaned on myself instead of God. Fatigue is a signal too—it’s my body’s way of telling me I’ve been pushing too hard, that it’s time to rest and let the Spirit carry more of the weight. And laxity, though uncomfortable, can uncover misplaced expectations—reminding me that pride can creep in even when things are going well. Each of these experiences, though they feel like “lost time,” can actually mark the very moments where God’s grace reshapes me.

So much of transformation is about how we handle time. Some days feel like momentum, others like retreat. Both can become places of growth if I stay awake. Maybe the deeper invitation is not to fear wasted time but to keep paying attention to time itself—to notice what it’s doing in me, and how God is using it to form me.

A Voice from the Tradition

From his Birmingham jail cell in 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote:

“It is the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually time is neutral. It can be used either destructively or constructively. I am coming to feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people. We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right."

—I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World

A Question to Carry

What would it look like to stay awake to the flow of time this week?

Thanks for reading,

—Jon