Time is a Funny Thing

I can’t believe that I’ve only been in my new call for four months. I also can’t believe how fast the past four months have gone. Time is an interesting notion. Standing in the line at the grocery store five minutes can seem like twenty. Sitting next to a loved one you haven’t seen for awhile five minutes can seem like two seconds. I’m sure you’ve heard the quote or have even stated it before, “time is relative.”

A scientist would argue, what makes it relative starts with the assumption that the speed of light is the same for all observers… bare with me here. If a baseball was thrown by someone on a moving train, the speed of the ball depends upon the situation of the observer. Someone on the train would give one speed for the ball, while someone on the ground watching the train go by would give a different speed. The speed of light must be relative, depending upon the speed of the observer.

Are you still with me? Standing in line at the grocery store our mind is racing about everything else we could be doing. Sitting with a loved one our mind is in the moment and not wandering onto the next task. This changes our state of mind. Just as the speed of the ball depends on the speed of the observer; the speed of our day depends on our state of mind and if we are moving toward the future or living in the moment.

The Sunday this is published is Daylight Savings, we will change our clocks, and time will change. This year we experienced a leap year where we actually had Feb. 29, a way in which we try to catch up with lost time every four years. The structures in our world for time adjust. I believe many of us this Lent are working on some adjustments ourselves.

Maybe you gave something up encouraging yourself to be in prayer when you miss your old habit. Maybe you took something on trying to add a healthy habit to your life. These adjustments call us to experience our life in Christ differently. We live in time, but Christ lives in us. The truth of Christ living in us changes our essence. It means we live a resurrected life. We are Easter People!

Galatians 2:19-20 “…I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”