Morning by Morning, Daylight Savings Time and Lent
Daylight savings time has started, I’m still not used to it, it keeps me in the dark while going to work, so spring feels like more winter, I don‘t need more winter. Usually when the sun starts rising at the real hour in March, it’s such a welcome sight for guys like me who are really better in the morning. I’m usually up before the alarm clock, so it’s nice to rise with the sun. I don’t need a longer, “day,” I need the darkness to come at it’s appointed time so that I can sleep and rise to be the morning person again. People say that you get used to daylight savings time, I don’t know that I ever will, frankly, I‘m not sure that I really want to. However, I don’t have a fiddler on my roof playing Sunrise, Sunset, so I take what comes when it comes to daylight.
People who know me well know that spring is my time of year and Easter is my holiday. I have to confess that since Easter is nearly as early as it can be this year, it means that the journey through Lent has seemed more like a race through the season, even though it is the same length of time that it always is. This is another reason why I like for the sun to rise early in the day, it sheds light on the look I’m taking on my inner self. That’s what Lent is really about, not the notion of giving up something. I don’t know that I’ve ever given up anything for Lent, but I have used the time to think about what’s coming and what’s behind and what needs to be put behind or away.
This Lent has been different than last year, but it is because I made it so; taking the steps early so that it would be what I needed for it to be, I think that it’s what God has called me to do. Time to listen for his still small voice, time to look deeply at my sins and seek his forgiveness. I’ve pondered on what Rev. Rachel said in a sermon this past summer, “we should seek to forgive, we do not have to seek reconciliation.” It has been food for thought during this time of introspection. Some of the things that I’ve held on to for the longest time are starting to slip away, I don’t think of them as often, I think that is how God let’s us know that we are accomplishing what we have set out to do in working to forgive, and for that I am grateful. There have been several things that have slipped away from me this Lenten season. Thinking about that, I guess I haven’t given up something, I’m giving up something. I just had the Eureka! moment that it as an ongoing process.
Beginning Sunday we commence the last steps to the Great Feast of the Resurrection. It starts with a parade for a victor, is interrupted by a, “dinner party” that goes sour, is darkened by the brutal death of the Messiah, and then the fulfillment of scripture in his rising to new life once again making him the ultimate victor. It is hard for me to imagine being able to fit all of that into one run on sentence. But in a filbert shell, that’s the story. It is also hard for me to imagine that in that one sentence our life is completely changed. In so many ways our lives fall into the same pattern, maybe once, maybe often.
There are times where we feel like we are king of the world, (we don’t have to hang off of the front of a luxury liner to feel that way.) Then, through a course of life events we come to a point where we may wish that we could die, we fall into the deepest darkness, somewhat like the darkness of a tomb where we feel that we are descending into hell. This is usually the point where we seek the face of the Lord and through grace we are raised to new life where we feel like we are king of the world again. I feel like this is truly the lesson we are shown so that we may see at what level we are able to experience just exactly what Jesus went through. It’s here that we have to bear in mind that we will never be given more than we can handle.
Daylight savings time or not, this story doesn’t change. The words of the old hymn come to mind, “…morning by morning, new mercies I see.”
People who know me well know that spring is my time of year and Easter is my holiday. I have to confess that since Easter is nearly as early as it can be this year, it means that the journey through Lent has seemed more like a race through the season, even though it is the same length of time that it always is. This is another reason why I like for the sun to rise early in the day, it sheds light on the look I’m taking on my inner self. That’s what Lent is really about, not the notion of giving up something. I don’t know that I’ve ever given up anything for Lent, but I have used the time to think about what’s coming and what’s behind and what needs to be put behind or away.
This Lent has been different than last year, but it is because I made it so; taking the steps early so that it would be what I needed for it to be, I think that it’s what God has called me to do. Time to listen for his still small voice, time to look deeply at my sins and seek his forgiveness. I’ve pondered on what Rev. Rachel said in a sermon this past summer, “we should seek to forgive, we do not have to seek reconciliation.” It has been food for thought during this time of introspection. Some of the things that I’ve held on to for the longest time are starting to slip away, I don’t think of them as often, I think that is how God let’s us know that we are accomplishing what we have set out to do in working to forgive, and for that I am grateful. There have been several things that have slipped away from me this Lenten season. Thinking about that, I guess I haven’t given up something, I’m giving up something. I just had the Eureka! moment that it as an ongoing process.
Beginning Sunday we commence the last steps to the Great Feast of the Resurrection. It starts with a parade for a victor, is interrupted by a, “dinner party” that goes sour, is darkened by the brutal death of the Messiah, and then the fulfillment of scripture in his rising to new life once again making him the ultimate victor. It is hard for me to imagine being able to fit all of that into one run on sentence. But in a filbert shell, that’s the story. It is also hard for me to imagine that in that one sentence our life is completely changed. In so many ways our lives fall into the same pattern, maybe once, maybe often.
There are times where we feel like we are king of the world, (we don’t have to hang off of the front of a luxury liner to feel that way.) Then, through a course of life events we come to a point where we may wish that we could die, we fall into the deepest darkness, somewhat like the darkness of a tomb where we feel that we are descending into hell. This is usually the point where we seek the face of the Lord and through grace we are raised to new life where we feel like we are king of the world again. I feel like this is truly the lesson we are shown so that we may see at what level we are able to experience just exactly what Jesus went through. It’s here that we have to bear in mind that we will never be given more than we can handle.
Daylight savings time or not, this story doesn’t change. The words of the old hymn come to mind, “…morning by morning, new mercies I see.”
posted by Don Bryant at 9:06 AM
1 Comments:
Don,
Just catching up on your posts. This one really hit home. I have been gone from home now for almost 30 years. I'm not sure I want to "go back' now. I am no longer the same person. I have had experiences and learned life lessons I never would have done had I stayed home. I definately am a 'visitor' at Mom's - especially as she no longer lives in the same house and her husband is not Dad. Nothing against Clay, Brenda and I have been very lucky in that respect. But it is obviously now 'different' than when I was a kid. You know what? I like it! The love is still there, the ability to be myself still exists. In some ways, it is better than 'going home' because I am no longer a little kid and have no desire to be one again. Perhaps that is what they mean by the adage, you can't go home again.
Rita
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