Daylight Savings time- started just this last weekend. “Until an opportune time” from our gospel reading from Luke 4 this past weekend. Asking “is it the right time” each time I see a clock at the office or in my home wondering if it has been changed. A time to weep, a time to laugh from Ecclesiastes chapter 3. Those sayings about a time for everything under the sun has become well known. The message of Ecclesiastes looks at the inexplicable paradoxes and seemingly aimless cycles of time yet points to us to see life as a gift to be lived. Decades ago I heard James Taylor sing “The secret to life is enjoying the passage of time”.
As we set apart a particular time for Lent- these 40 days invite you to a time to reflect, to worship, to practice quiet and repentance. This is a season to allow for the change from winter to spring, from cold to warmth. As we know so well here in Colorado that can all change drastically in the course of a single day and then back again. There are many things and times over which we have no influence or control like the weather and when the sun will shine or if the snow or rain will fall. What we can have some influence over is our reaction to all of this and what we do with the time we have been given. If I had it my way we would skip the whole Daylight Savings time, traffic would be according to my wishes and we would be given instruction books for life’s challenges like aging, parenting, navigating tough social topics and conversations. It isn’t my way. But this is my time and your time here on earth. Even as our days are numbered, what each day holds we can be intentional in asking for God's help in how the 24 hours are spent.
So what will you do with your time? During this season I encourage you to take the pause to ask for God’s timing and God’s wisdom. One of my intentions is to slow down to ask for God’s will to be made known to me in the very moment and willingness to listen. As I am wondering is this a time to walk or to rest, a time to work on that next project or do more study, a time to ask for help or allow for the struggle of sticking with it on my own-to take a pause, a deep breath and listen. I know that all of these are times to connect with God.
As we head into this next week I invite you to ponder what time is it in your life? How are you spending your time? Is this a time for a change or a time to stick with something or a time to begin to pray about making a change? Is now a time for you to add something or have something taken away in your schedule? And as you ponder- how will you include the Wisdom of God, how will you connect with God’s will for you and your time? Continue to join us in the lenten journey of deepening connection with God, one another and the world and deepening our relationship with ourselves. There is a time for everything under the sun and even when it is cloudy the sun is shining we just don’t experience it that way.