Earth Life Is a Nanosecond

I was reading the current issue of the Ensign the other day and came across this article entitled, “Living for the Eternities” written by Elder Keith K. Hilbig who was serving as a member of the seventy at the time. Part of that article stuck with me and I mentioned it to Mom. I couldn’t remember where I read it because I read several different church related things that day. But I decided to go find it again and put it on my blog.

Here’s the first part of the article:

 “How different and difficult is the world …today when compared to the …world of two or three generations ago. Many challenges today did not even exist, or were much less intense, than when I was in college.

But you are here now, in this moment. You are pressing forward as your elders are passing into the eternities. You are here at this time not by chance but as part of an eternal plan—designed, agreed upon, and implemented before the earth was ever created.

How fortunate you are to be aware of the Restoration of the gospel! You know there was a premortal existence in the presence of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. You were schooled and tested. You learned of the laws that would allow you to progress and advance. You followed those laws, and thus you were entitled to come to earth, placing you on a course leading to exaltation, dominion, and godhood.

You understand the purposes of mortality on earth, and you have been taught concerning postmortal opportunities. In short, you have the perspective of the eternities—you can look back, and you can gaze forward.

The majority of your …peers who are not members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the world in general, know little of these realities. They live as if in a box defined by two events: birth and death. They make decisions and engage in behaviors circumscribed by a limited perspective. Essentially they live for the moment—the length of time between their births and their deaths, which is a mere nanosecond in the scheme of eternity. They likely know nothing of their premortal existence and little of eternity.” – Elder Keith K.Hilbig, served as a member of the 70 from 2001 to 2012, from a devotional address given at BYU Idaho March 20, 2007, July 2013 Ensign

The last paragraph is what made me think. I began thinking about some of my relatives and certain people I’ve met who do not have the gospel. I thought about how their lives have no direction or purpose other than to have fun and live for the moment. This scripture came to mind: “2 Nephi 28: 7 Yea, and there shall be many which shall say: ^aEat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die; and it shall be well with us.”

Then I started thinking about how long this time on earth really is, it seems like it’s always related to the blink of an eye compared to eternity. But, if you take Elder Hilbig’s quote about our time on earth being a nanosecond compared to eternity, the blink of an eye comparison is much too long.

Let’s break it down. A nanosecond is 10 ^-9 seconds or 1 billionth of a second (1/1,000,000,000). A human eye blinks at the rate of 300 to 400 ms (a millisecond is 1/1000 of a second). Which means that the human eye can blink about three times per second. So, the blink of an eye is the equivalent of 300,000,000 to 400,000,000 ns (300-400 million nanoseconds). So putting this in perspective, we could live 300 million to 400 million lifetimes in the blink of an eye, if our lifetime between birth and death is only a nanosecond compared to eternity.

Thinking about it this way, it makes all of our choices during mortality even more important considering how short this test of mortality really is. Everything that is not related to following the Commandments and not helping your eternal progression is irrelevant.  Not only that, but doing anything contrary to the will of God is extremely detrimental. Considering how short this test is and how important each decision, thought, and action is in our eternal destiny, we should all be doing everything we can to live the gospel by following the commandments the best we can and helping others to do the same. Perhaps this is why there is such a push for missionary work right now. Time is short, and those of us blessed with the gospel in our lives have a great responsibility to share our blessings, the blessings the gospel brings in our lives, with others not as fortunate.

Doctrine and Covenants 18: 15-16

 15 And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one ^asoul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!

 16 And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the ^akingdom of my Father, how great will be your ^bjoy if you should bring many ^csouls unto me!

 That’s my two cents.