The seconds of life are ticking by as we begin a new year, aren’t they? I have a beautiful mantle clock, laminated in black and gold, purchased by my Granddad in 1918, the year my Dad was born. For years it sat in the dining room at Granddad’s place in Neosho, Missouri. I’m so proud to have it and to think of the seconds and hours of life it has witnessed in these 125 years. Time has indeed passed since my grandfather brought that clock home in a Model T, each second ticking by, never to be repeated.
I love Granddad’s Clock, but it’s not accurate. The ticking of a pendulum has given way to atomic clocks, accurate to the billionth of a second. The International Bureau of Weights and Measures coordinates world timekeeping through 25 atomic clocks in a measure called Coordinated Universal Time. This is the hyperaccurate time that keeps the digital world running in unison to the nanosecond.
Have you ever wondered what Jesus thought about time? He never heard the ticking of a clock or read a sundial. When Jesus lived time was measured by hours and days. In spite of this, he knew much about time and how to live it. Jesus taught that every second of our life is full of meaning.
As the gospel of John narrates the story, we find Jesus in trouble with the religious leaders. He had done a great miracle at Jerusalem’s Pool of Bethesda, finding a man who had been disabled 38 years and healing him. Yet the authorities griped it was done on the wrong day of the week, the sacred Sabbath. Jesus seized the moment to teach about time in the redemptive work of God. He said, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.”
This teaching declares a revolutionary truth about God. The religious leaders confined God’s work to the past, during the time of Israel’s lawgivers and prophets. The blind, the lame, the paralyzed lay all around them, hurting and in need, but there was nothing to be done about them. Jesus blows a new wind through the dusty museums of their faith to say, “My Father is always at work to this very day!”
Modern Process theology holds this as a central and revolutionary idea. God is immersed in time and changes with the universe moment-by-moment. God’s work has spanned all of the 13.8 billion years of the universe. Every nanosecond God has influenced every atom and creature to provide an initial aim for good, growth, and meaning. This work is not deterministic or controlling but collaborative with all. For most elements there is very limited capacity to respond, bringing a law-like regularity in the universe. But for higher consciousness humans, we are granted the tick of a clock to respond or resist, like the man by the pool in Jerusalem.
I’ll grant that some hours of our lives seem meaningless. We go to work, come home, and go back again. We start on a promising road to meet a dead end and go back defeated. We make a decision and then watch as our choice turns sour. The routines of life capture us like flies in a spider’s web of dead-end living. Even our faith becomes mired in more of the same-old-thing Sunday after Sunday.
Maybe this January has brought this malaise. The holidays had their joys, yet you’re forced to go back to work, or live with the same sour relationship. You truly feel stuck. Let me remind you that you’re not alone with this dissatisfaction. According to the polls, about 25% of Americans are not happy with their lives right now. For too many, the new year doesn’t hold much promise of improvement.
God cares about the happiness of our lives. That day in Jerusalem, the 38 years of a lame man’s misery was interrupted in a heart-stopping question, “Do you want to be healed?” In the same way, God’s action in our world means the ticking seconds of the clock are the sounds of the divine hand moving across my life and yours. Every moment brings the possibility of insight, miracle, renewal, or fulfillment. We can move beyond the malaise to have energy for the future because God is working in this very minute!
There are ways we can live in the Now-moment of divine possibility. One is to grasp the ordinary as the place where extraordinary lives. A stop at the grocery store could give the gift of appreciation offered to a harried employee. Giving a few dollars to a food bank instead of a coffee shop could lift a burden on a person still looking for work. The minutes stuck in a traffic jam could become conversation with God that brings insight and hope for the challenges you face. It’s not that we lack the time but that we lack sensitivity to what this Now-moment can really mean.
In the hit movie of 2005, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, the intersecting lives of several women are traced. One is the young leukemia victim, Bailey. In one scene, she lays looking up at the stars. Her friend asks, “Are you afraid to die?” Bailey says, “No. I’m just afraid I won’t have time to do all that I want to do.” It seems that Bailey had grasped the truth of each moment calling us to live fully.
Another way to live in this Now-moment is to resist the call of the past or the future. I think all of us know how easy it is to live in the dusty museum of the past, or the rosy dreams of tomorrow. It is important to reflect on what happened yesterday to see if we can do better. It’s vital to have goals and dreams of all that can happen tomorrow. Like the Roman goddess Janus, there are times when we should look both ways at the parade of time. But when we kick ourselves with regret or fret away the hours in anxiety for what might happen, we are distracted from the Now-moment and the sacred possibilities. The reality is simple: the past can’t be changed and the future is not defined. My life and God’s work intersect in only one place- Now. And it is here, in this moment called Now, where our well-being lives!
This Now-moment and this Now-place is where God always works! Annette Wynne, a 20th century poet, offered this thought:
To-morrow, what does it matter?
To-day—that is here!
To lend or to spend for my purpose—
All without hindrance or tear,
To-day only matters—to-morrow's
A dream and a fear!
To-morrow, I never shall own it—
To-day—that is mine!
What if I take it and make it
To something divine!
Granddad kept the clock in the dining room until his death in 1981. His two-story house and 40 acres he called “Green Acres” were sold. The old cattle barn, the garage with his 1947 Studebaker, the massive black oak trees I had climbed up as a kid, all are now merely memories. But he had lived a faith-filled, happy life that included me walking with him through the pastures, listening to his funny stories. After I inherited the clock, I opened the back and found a repair bill from decades ago. Granddad had written, “Doesn’t keep good time. But don’t let it bother you.” That’s good advice, I think. The things that bother us must be kept in perspective so we can focus on living in the Now-moment. We find in the ticking of the clock the eternally fresh work of the ever-creative God.
What will we do with the moments that go by as the clock ticks another Now-moment?
CITED
Anthony Salvanto, “CBS News poll looks at where Americans find happiness.” https://www.cbsnews.com/news/americans-happiness-whats-good-a-cbs-news-poll-series
Deborah Martine Chase (Producer), Ken Kwapis (Director). “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Movie). Warner Bros Studio 2005.
“Poems about living in the moment.” https://discoverpoetry.com
Music by lemonmusic on pixabay.com