Calendars out of synch

 Dearest e-votees,

I don't know about you but keeping track of time on the calendar and routines during the day has been challenging.  Normal rhythms have been out-of-whack for quite a while.  Day blurs into night blurs into day.  Weekdays blur into weekend blur into week.  Sabbath time looks very different than it used to.  The changing clocks just add another level of detachment.  It feels like I am living in chapter 2 of Slaughterhouse 5:  "Billy Pilgirm has come unstuck in time".

How about you do you have your chronological and routine moorings?

Peace,

Karl

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Another piece of the "Where am I and what time is it?" conundrum is the fact that the church and the world work on very different calendars.   Our church year ends this Sunday with Christ the King Sunday.  The world has another 43 days until the big ball drops in Times Square.

The church enters into a season of Advent at the tail end of November which leads all the way up to Christmas Eve.  The radio stations and stores started trimming the shelves and decking the aisles with Christmas paraphernalia weeks ago.  People have swapped out their spooky lawn decorations for Christmas bits (although there are some staunch owners of inflatable turkeys who won't let Thanksgiving pass by unnoticed).  The isolation, extra-time and pent-up energy are causing some to over-function even more than usual in terms of holiday decorating.  At least most places aren't as out of control at the mall in 'It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown" which has a Christmas Display labeled 246 shopping days until Christmas.

The point of all of this is that we are always being pressed upon with competing calendars, schedules, priorities and deadlines.  Work and play, friends and family, holy and secular.  It can be very stress-inducing and detrimental to all of those realms of our life even in the best of times.  These, it seems, aren't the best of times.  Layer a pandemic, various levels of lockdown and constraint and the craziness of an election that won't seem to stay within the bounds of normal election dates and all of us become a little unstuck in time.

I don't get all bent out of shape about Christmas oozing over and past Advent.  Some churches are even having an extended time of Advent this year to help cope with the distancing of the pandemic.  If it is helpful to fire up the Hallmark movies and the holiday music for your soul you'll find no objection from me.

My hope and prayer for all of us is that we will let Jesus help us find our bearings and grounding during this disorienting time of shifting sands of time.  Michael Card, in "The Final Word" spoke of Jesus as eternity stepping into time so we can understand.  I have always resonated with that turn of the phrase.  In the fluidity of our schedules or lack thereof may we find some time to let Jesus come in to bring direction, grounding and understanding in the ways that matter most.

God, we invite you.  Come into our lives in your time and in your way.  Help us be gracious to others on different calendars and different levels of unstuckness in time.  You are our Rock and our Redeemer.  Help us rest in and cling to you amidst all the churning around us.  Amen