This year has flown by in what seems a quick manner, moreso than those before it. We’ve only got two months left in 2016, and yet it doesn’t feel like we’re that far in. It’s already the beginning of November, and before you know it, we’ll be eating Thanksgiving turkey. Then, we’ll be singing Christmas carols and running around trying to finish our shopping. In another whirlwind, we’ll find ourselves counting down the last few seconds of the year as we watch the ball drop.

I’ve been thinking about time and how it seems to fast forward even quicker each year. When I was a child, time seemed to move slower than molasses in January. I felt I was never going to grow up and I would be little forever. Instead, once I hit 18-years-old, I found that time began a rapid march forward and has only gotten faster in the years since.

Since my little one was born, the rollercoaster of life has zoomed forward, taking her from a tiny little baby to being a “big girl now.” (She insists that she is a big girl, even though she will always be my baby.)

This year has flown by very quickly, and I’m having a little trouble watching the sands of time pass through my hands.

I often lament that there isn’t enough time to get things done. I know in my head that there are just as many hours in a day as there were when I was a child, but my heart doesn’t believe it.

Yet, in the Bible, we are not guaranteed eons of time with which to do what we’d like. Instead, in James 4:13-14, we are told something very different. “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’– yet, you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” In verse 15, James continues in telling us to place our faith and our future in the hand of the Lord. “Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.'”

It may seem like time has sped up, and we never have enough time for the things we want to do — but we should rejoice in the fact that we have just the right amount of time for the things that are necessary and must happen. If I look back, even if I have a fleeting moment of regret that I didn’t get a certain project done or didn’t experience a certain thing at a certain time, I can see after a moment of reflection that everything that needed to happen up to this point has occurred right at the exact moment it should’ve.

In the same sense, you and I, dear readers, can rest assured that the best planner in the whole world knows exactly where our life is headed, what we need to do to get there and how we need to do it.

I can try to micromanage my life with Google calendar as much as I want, but it doesn’t mean anything at the end of the day.

Honestly, I’m thankful for that because my scheduling capabilities are adequate at best. As the holiday rush comes upon us, and the end of the year approaches, just remember that the responsibility of planning the future isn’t resting on your shoulders — it’s really just in God’s hands.