Infinite Life Lived in Infinite Speed
I have a song on my iPhone where the lyrics include the line, “infinite life lived in infinite speed”. The song is generally about what a beautiful world we have and how we need to pay attention and appreciate it. OK, the song seems like it could have come straight from a ‘70’s love-in, but for some reason I like it regardless. While it’s a very nice, smooshy song, this line has never seemed to feel quite right. While I’m sure the purpose is to encourage us to appreciate the world around us because life passes so quickly, the line actually makes me a bit sad.
For those of us who have lived our fair share of decades, I think we understand how life moves quickly. I mentioned to Ruth recently that a whole piece of our lives passed in the blink of an eye – mostly the years our kids lived at home (don’t worry kids, we still love you). The frenetic pace at which days turn into weeks, which turn into months, and eventually turn into years is only fully appreciated looking backwards. Kierkegaard is quoted, “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” There is much truth to that.
So, back to the song lyrics. I think as Christians, we certainly believe we have infinite lives, insofar as we are eternal beings who live on after our physical death. That part makes sense, but the living at “infinite speed” is more difficult. In some sense, if you live an infinite life, you are automatically living at infinite speed (this concept will give you a headache if you think about it too long). However, regardless of whether we are actually living at infinite speed, I don’t think it’s something I would want.
It seems to me that we are not called as Christians to operate at infinite speed, but rather, to shed the frenetic pace of this world and take a step back. We are called to be grounded in such a way that the world spinning around us matters, but does not ultimately matter. You and I should be standing back from all our worries, and as C.S. Lewis puts it, “coming in out of the wind.”
Some time ago, our pastor read Lamentations 3:28 from The Message, a biblical paraphrase (i.e., not a translation). It says, “When life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself. Enter the silence.” I like the image of entering God’s silence. That is where we listen and learn and become at peace.
In the world of public policy, there is plenty of spinning at a breakneck pace and lots of distractions to keep us from grounding ourselves. During a typical legislative session, things become crazy at NDFA, trying to keep up with identifying bills, creating testimony, presenting at hearings, talking with legislators, and much more. But the challenge is to “enter the silence” of God’s plan for us.
Our organization is first and foremost there to represent your biblical values. Most of the time it’s through all the aforementioned mechanisms, but sometimes it’s simply taking a few minutes to talk with a legislator or colleague who seems to be going through a rough time. Perhaps it’s striking up a conversation with those in a hearing room who are there to testify against our position. Maybe it’s as simple as taking a few seconds and talking with the security officers at the Capitol entryway.
Let me close with this story. A few sessions ago, I was busy testifying on our many bills, and something odd happened. After a number of hearings, it began to register to me that the same lady often sat in the back of the hearing room when I testified. In fact, sometimes she was nearly the only person present besides the committee members and me. But here’s the strange part – she never got up and testified or interacted with the proceedings.
Well, my curiosity finally got the better of me, and eventually I went over and introduced myself. Of course, I asked her why she was at the hearings but hadn’t testified or gotten involved in any other way. Her answer? “I sit in the back and pray while you testify”. Wow. That stopped me in my tracks. Suddenly, I was pulled out of the wind and forced to enter the silence that was there all along, but which I was neglecting in my rushed political work.
We all have times when life spins around us and can seem a bit overwhelming, especially during those busy “kid years”. I’m here to tell you that it truly does pass in the blink of an eye, as many older folks always tried to tell us. We can seem to run at infinite speed sometimes, but let’s work at stepping back and “entering the silence” God gives us. So, if you see me hurrying around the Capitol during session, stop me and ask if I’ve entered His silence. I need the reminder.
Our next interview: Rep. Vicky Steiner
We are very excited to present to you our eighth legislator interview. Our purpose in doing legislator interviews is so that you can better get to know the legislators representing you, from both a personal and legislative perspective.*
For our eighth interview, we decided to visit with Representative Vicky Steiner from District 37. Most recently, she has served on the House Finance and Taxation and Government and Veterans Affairs Committees. We know you'll enjoy learning more about her compassion, her zeal for protecting our children, and much more.
You can watch the interview HERE.
Get Ready! One Week, One Nation, One Book. April 18-25, 2026
We want to let you know that America Reads the Bible is coming up April 18-25! Join a historic, week-long, continuous Bible-reading as leaders from every sphere speak the Scriptures aloud from beginning to end — reminding us of America’s spiritual foundation as we celebrate 250 years of freedom.
It is hoped that this great event will inspire a time of revival and discipleship across the United States. The Bible readings will be broadcast from places like the Museum of the Bible, Washington, D.C., Independence Hall, Boston, and other landmarks important to our national story and will be available via a complimentary livestream hosted by Great American Pure Flix. You can find out more about the vision behind this event by watching this short video.
How can you, your church, your organization, or business get involved?
America Reads the Bible has information on how to join the event and get involved here – including prayer team meetings and complimentary access to the full livestream for your church, organization, business, or home. You can use the form at this link to sign up!
We hope you’ll join America Reads the Bible on April 18-25. As we are reminded in Isaiah 55:11, “It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.”
2026 Faith, Family, and Freedom Dessert Gala!
We are excited to announce the 2026 Faith, Family, and Freedom Dessert Gala hosted by North Dakota Family Alliance! The Gala will be on Tuesday, May 5th at 7:30 pm at the Fargodome. Our keynote speaker for the event will be Steve Green, with special music provided by Capstone Classical Academy Choir!
Early bird tickets are available at the special price of $50 for a limited time only HERE.
For table sponsorships, please call 701-355-6425
This event is highly anticipated, so get tickets while you can!
About Steve Green
President of Hobby Lobby / Founder and Chairman of the Board of the Museum of the Bible / Celebrated Author of Multiple Books
Steve Green became President of Hobby Lobby in 2004, and helped to grow the family business to more than 1,000 stores in 48 states, employing over 46,000 people with over $8.3 billion in annual sales in 2025. He speaks on business and philanthropy, focusing on how his faith intersects with his life endeavors.
As Chairman of the Board of the Museum of the Bible, Steve has assembled a team of academics, designers, technology professionals, and other experts to create the 430,000-square-foot museum, dedicated to a scholarly and engaging presentation of the Bible's impact, history, and narrative. The museum opened in November 2017 in Washington, DC, near the U.S. Capitol, and saw approximately one million visitors during its first year.
Green is the author of Faith in America (2011), The Bible in America (2013), and This Beautiful Book (2019) and co-author of This Dangerous Book (2017) with his wife, Jackie. Steve and Jackie have been married for over 41 years and reside in Oklahoma City. They have a son, five daughters, a daughter-in-law, three sons-in-law, and twelve grandchildren. They are active in their local church and support many Christian charities.
About Capstone Classical Academy Choir
Capstone Classical Academy Choir is comprised of singers from Capstone Classical Academy, the new Classical Christian School in Fargo, ND. Many of these 6th through 10th-grade scholars participate in the NDHSAA Regional and State Music Vocal Contests as soloists and ensemble members and have earned the highest ratings of achievement at these events. The Choir is under the direction of Aaron Zinter, who teaches both Choral Music and Mathematics at Capstone.
We look forward to welcoming Steve to North Dakota, and hope you’ll make plans to join us at the 2026 Faith, Family, and Freedom Dessert Gala!
A Watch for a Messy World
I like watches. You might call me an enthusiast; my wife is a bit more blunt and calls me a hoarder (a box full of watches does not help my case). Given that I don’t work for a Fortune 500 company, I don’t collect Rolexes, Omegas, Breitlings, and similar watches. Instead, my box has Seikos, Citizens, and quite a few inexpensive foreign brands. However, I want to discuss one watch in particular – the one shown above in the picture. My father’s watch.
Of all the watches I own, this is without a doubt the most valuable to me. As you might guess, it’s the emotional value that trumps all my other watches, and has nothing to do with the fact that it’s a vintage watch. But more than that, the watch recently reminded me of an important lesson.
You may remember that my parents immigrated to the US from the Netherlands in 1950. My father started working at a low-paying hardware store but eventually landed a job doing the engineering he loved, which paid considerably more. Based on the watch being manufactured in 1954, I imagine that’s when he bought it. I bet Dad needed to do a lot of talking for Mom to agree to this purchase.
I remember my father’s watch as a small child. I remember seeing the watch on his arm when he’d throw me up in the air and catch me. It was there when I’d sit on his lap at night and he’d read me stories. The watch represents many wonderful memories for me, so when my sister found it last year (70 years later!), I was enthusiastic, and she was kind enough to let me add it to my collection. Not surprisingly, the watch did not run well, and I finally got around to sending it to a watch repair shop late last year.
The watch shop did a good job, and it now runs, but it’s not what I’d call particularly accurate. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but when I inquired about the accuracy, the watchmaker emailed back that, “Bulova watches were great movements, but they didn’t keep time as well as railroad grade watches or other high-end luxury watches.” I think that was code for saying I needed to adjust my expectations about the watch’s accuracy.
Never one to be satisfied, the Jorritsma Watch Experiment of 2025 began. I tested the watch in different positions, since a mechanical watch may run faster or slower when oriented in a certain way (this is due to the gears, springs, and other mechanical parts being influenced by gravity). I tested its accuracy in six different positions, and there was quite a lot of variation. I was not particularly happy, but it seemed there wasn’t much I could do about it. It finally occurred to me that I should just wear it for a day and see how much the seconds varied. After all, that was the point of getting the watch running again – to wear it.
What do you suppose happened? It ran more accurately, in fact, dramatically more accurately than in any of the other static positions I had tried. In other words, the combination of all these various watch positions during the day on my wrist essentially averaged out, and the watchmaker had optimized it for actually wearing the watch.
In trying to gauge the watch’s accuracy in all those static positions, I was putting it into unrealistic environments. I was essentially assuming that the watch would exist in some sort of controlled test environment instead of functioning as it was intended.
That may be an interesting story, but what’s the takeaway? We sometimes do the same thing with public policy, and indeed, many other aspects of our lives. We see things from a clinical viewpoint, but that’s a problem, because the world is a messy place. Things don’t turn out as planned, people don’t react as expected, and the law of unintended consequences is always ready to disrupt the most well-crafted plans.
It’s easy for us to believe that making law X will result in Y. In reality, it will often result in action Z, so you will need to go back and correct law X to fix the problem, and now the fix creates an additional problem W upstream. Even more, sometimes you discover that we no longer need to create effect Y because some other law now already does that. Yes, it can be frustrating, but that’s how it works. Public policy in no way resembles a straight line.
I try to remind myself of this fact, particularly during legislative sessions. Humans are very creative at finding ways around laws, and those of us who operate in the public policy world have to anticipate this, but also to some degree accept it. Laws are made for the real world, just as a 1954 Bulova watch was made to be worn in the real world. My father lived in the messy world, just as I do. I’ll try and remember that, Dad. Besides, now your watch runs only a couple of seconds fast, and I’m pretty sure I can find a way to live with that.