Time Change

Time Change

Today is the day we change our clocks.  In the spring we move our clocks forward one hour for Daylight Saving Time.  In the fall our clocks will “recover” the hour lost in the spring as we move our clocks back one hour.

It’s always a big deal at our house to make this adjustment because we have too many clocks.  Of course we have our watches, by which we regulate our day so we will arrive at appointments or pick up the kids or go to work at the right time.  I know our watches are necessary but I’m not sure that we don’t get too carried away with “being on time.”

Then we have clocks by the bed.  Actually my husband and I each have a clock on our side of the bed no less.  We seldom ever set the alarm on those clocks so I’m not sure why we need them.  I guess we use them so we know what time it is when we wake up in the middle of the night.  I mean after all, it I go to bed at 10:22 p.m., I want to know when I wake up at 1:35 a.m. that I’ve only been asleep a few hours so I can spend the next 30 minutes thinking about how I must have been asleep much longer than that!  Or, even better, if I wake up and my clock tells me I only have about another hour to sleep before its time to get up, I need to be able to fret about how I really need to get back to sleep.  Now who needs that extra stress to begin the day?

Then, of course, there is the clock on the stove which is totally unnecessary.  If I’m cooking supper (which doesn’t happen every night) then I obviously know its supper time.  I really don’t need to know the exact time because seldom is my husband home to eat “on time” anyway!  If I’m not cooking supper then I’m not looking at the stove wondering what time the stove will cook something on its own.  Now the microwave is another matter.  I need the timer on the microwave to tell me when three minutes has elapsed, but I don’t really need a clock, just a timer that beeps when it’s time to take out food.

The clock that is the most reliable and is used the most is the one on my cell phone.  It changes itself automatically and is tied to the “mean” time or the world’s time or something beyond my control, whatever that is!  On my cell phone I lost my hour in the spring and I’ll get it back tonight with no effort on my part.  Convenient isn’t it?

Which brings me to the point of my story.  As I have pondered this process this morning I realized my life has been a bit like Daylight Saving Time.  For about the first 20 years of my life it seemed like my clock was being “set back.”  Would I ever turn 16 and get my driver’s license, would I ever be 21?  Then sometime over the next several years, my clock began to speed up somewhat.  I really didn’t “change” my clock but all of a sudden I’d lost a year, or maybe two.  I found myself thinking my children should just be teenagers, but wait, it’s my grandchildren who are learning to drive!  Wasn’t it just a few “time changes ago” that I was learning to drive?

I’ve been known to complain about my cell phone.  With all of its conveniences, also called apps, it controls my life, with little effort from me and often without me intending to let it happen!

Have I allowed my life to spring forward at such a pace, controlled by the world or others, that I hardly know what time it really is?  Am I allowing life to “fall back” or “spring forward” and just happen with no real purpose or plan? 

God’s Word addresses this in several places.  Psalm 90 in The Message says we live for seventy years or so and with luck we might make it to eighty.  Then the question is asked, “And what do we have to show for it?  Trouble, toil and trouble and a marker in the graveyard.”

Well that gets my attention since I’ve had my seventy years!  Now I don’t want to stop the clock, I don’t even want to watch the clock, but I do want to be intentional about living my days.  Verse 12 of Psalm 90 says, “Oh!  Teach us to live well!  Teach us to live wisely and well.”  God has ordained our days before even one of them came to be (Psalm 139:16), may I allow my “time” to be controlled by Him as I seek His will.

“Search me, “O God and know my heart;” test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”  Psalm 139:23-24

P.S.

As I penned the above thoughts in my Journal this morning I was reminded of something I wrote over 25 years ago. 

Time

Time doesn’t stand still for anyone,

It moves on for all of us.

We must move forward, day after day,

Until all of life is done.

Taking each day as it is,

And not for what might have been.

Not for what the future will be,
But today for today, today!

Rain

I sat on my porch that morning enjoying the birds calling to each other as it began to rain.

First it was gentle and I hardly realized it was raining because it wasn’t raining hard enough to come through the trees that surrounded me.  I heard the soft drops as they fell on the leaves and only then did I notice the small drops of rain as they landed on the deck.

As the rain became more intense, the gentle drops becoming larger, the rain began to splash gently on the table.  The birds seemed to increase their chatter with each other.  They seemed to enjoy the rain. 

Then it came.  Thunder!  Not just in the distance or a soft rumble, but THUNDER!  Cracking, loud, bold, attention getting!

As the thunder got my attention I was reminded that God is in this picture.

He is in the gentle rain, when the rain comes gently to refresh the earth and the birds call out.  He refreshes our soul in the gentle way He speaks to us, guides us as we read His Word.

His voice is in the thunder.  The rain didn’t stop with the thunder, but it seemed to almost pause, hesitate.  Even the birds were silent as they heard His voice.  Sometimes as I study His Word, He speaks to me like that.  

“This is for you today.”  

        "Where have you been?"  

                    “Today is the day to act.”  

                           “Love your neighbor.”

                                     "Do you love me?"

I could feel His presence as I sat there on my porch.  In the distance I heard a rumble.  Almost as if God was acknowledging my thoughts.

To be His child, to know His love, to hear Him speak through the rain, the thunder and through His Word.  I am blessed!

The birds are silent now but He still speaks!

We speak to God when we pray.  God speaks to us when we read the Bible.  St. Augustine

Update

The above journal entry was written several weeks ago.  As I revisited it today, I realized that perhaps this was the last day it rained.  The earth is very dry, grass brittle and leaves are dropping from the trees, all a result of little or no rain.  I couldn’t help but think about how this relates to my life when I go days without spending time in God’s Word.  How quickly my life changes without the washing of His Word on a daily basis.  Thank you God for reminding me how necessary Your Word is to keep me refreshed and alive.

My Requests

My Requests

I ask for words to teach,

You filled me with praise and a desire to share.

I ask for good health,

You gave me your strength to draw from.

I ask for friends to love me,

You gave me love to share with strangers.

I ask for children who would call me blessed,

You blessed my children and they’re a blessing to me.

I ask you to protect those I love,

You allowed those I love to walk with you.

I ask to find happiness in life,

You filled my life with unquenchable joy.

I ask to do things perfectly today,

You gave me a new day so I could try again.

I ask for knowledge so I’d understand why,

You gave me your Word to be my guide.

I ask for quiet in this busy world,

You lifted me up high above the noise.

I ask for new clothes for others to see,

You let your radiance adorn my being so they’d see you.

I ask to have no storms in life,

You hid me in the cleft of the rock as storms raged outside.

I asked for things over and over

and you repeatedly answered my every need. 

You then waited patiently as I learned

that all I need is you and you want the best for me.

                        

May ‘97