Time

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven." - Ecclesiastes 3:1

Thinking about time today. It has been a somewhat strange stretch... these past three weeks. Tom and I have both had a bout with Covid, and now he is enduring shingles, brought on most likely by having had the virus. Time has consistently marched on, yet, oddly enough, it has also seemed to stand still.

Between illness and the cold, gray days of late, I have found myself in more of an "existance" mode than productive. It feels odd, unnatural. I should be about the business of doing, not just "be-ing." Having said that however, God has used this pause to reiterate a point that being is just as important... perhaps even more important sometimes... than doing.

Time is a gift, a very precious and finite resource. What we do with the time we have matters.

These past few weeks have been different. They've been different because we've both been at home together... different because we've both been under the weather... different because we've each needed a little more "TLC" than usual. The daily routine has been upended for the two of us, and it has been interesting. The "normal" by needs has given way to the needs of the moment... and it has been an opportunity for each of us to learn and to grow.

Because time is a gift, how we choose to spend it... and who we spend it with speaks volumes. Which is the more important task... fixing a cup of tea to soothe a raw throat, or getting the laundry done? It all depends on the needs of the moment, doesn't it. Even the most miniscule act we do, when done in love for another, is a worthy trade for our time.

Sometimes just being available trumps everything else. Being available to take a "pause" in the day to listen to someone's concerns. Being available to drive a neighbor to a dentist appointment. Being available to read a story to the grandchildren. Being available to deliver a meal to a friend home from the hospital. These things upend our routine, yes, but whoever said keeping the routine going was the most important thing in life?

Stuff happens. Life happens. We have to roll with the punches, and if you really think about it, it's what we do in those moments of upended interruption that defines how we interpret the value of time, and what we are willing to exchange for it.

I'm dating myself here, but that's of no consequence... so here goes. "Cat's in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin is somewhat of a folk song that came out during my teenage years, 1974 to be exact. It had a unique influence on me, and continues to have an impact nearly fifty years later. Some of you will be familiar with it. If you're not, you can give it a listen on Youtube. The song is all about time... the passing of time, the things we choose to exchange for the finite days we are given. It's a sad song, tragic really. It's about a father who never realizes the impact his "lack of time" has on his son until the child grows up and the man grows old. The tables turn at the end of the song, and it is now the son who has no time for his father. The last line echoes the child's wish throughout, to grow up to be just like his dad... and he has.

I was reading in the book of Ecclesiastes this morning. It has much to say about life... and time. There is tremendous truth to the statement that "for everything there is a season." There are seasons in life, and each season brings its own challenges as well as its own blessings. Life's seasons, however, are not like the changing of seasons throughout the year. God put those seasons in motion to mark time, to repeat end on end until He comes again. Life's seasons do not repeat. They march on... ever forward. There is no going back, no return, and as the aforementioned song attests, what we choose to spend time on matters. I say this not to be morbid, quite the contrary.

When we fully grasp that the time we have today... this place... these people... today's need... is all we have - and all we will ever have of this moment in time - it gives perspective and weight to our decisions about how we will make use of that time... what we will exchange for this day in our life. It is impactful, and it elevates those seemingly insignificant acts of love we do for others to a whole new level. Making tea, listening to a friend, taking a meal, reading a story, playing a game... they are golden, for we have allowed our routine to be upset. We have taken a grand "pause" in our day to say, "You matter. You matter more to me than anything else I could be doing right now."

I, for one, can think of no other rate of exchange that gives... or means... so much.