Time

Today’s Gospel reading reminds us how close we are to the end of the church year and to Advent.  Several people have said to me lately – I can’t believe it’s nearly Advent!  Time certainly flies, and it is indeed hard to believe where the last year has gone.

We live in a world that keeps reminding us how fast time goes; a world where time management is an issue, where we look around and see problems so great that even if we had all the time in the world, we might never solve them. Scientists say the universe is both expanding and speeding up. It sounds as if even the cosmos works against us: there’s more and more to explore, and less and less time to do it in!

Time is a big issue for us.  Do we ever have enough time, do we need more time, if only there were more hours in a day.     How do you spend time?   We begin this life as children do, with their delightful incomprehension of time. Maybe you can remember, or remember children you know waking up long before dawn on Christmas day.    ‘Is it time yet?

We will grow old, some of us, and our days may stretch out before us, as we wonder how to fill our time: the time between visitors, the time between meals, the time between the great effort of getting up and the relief of another bedtime.   For many of us, time is a problem because it’s a limited commodity. We have to make choices about what we do and when. Surely one of our great human questions is a question about time.

In today’s Gospel reading we find that this wasn’t only our issue.  The disciples are also asking ‘when…..how?’  Jesus’ answer to the disciples and to us is, don’t be afraid.  Don’t be concerned about what the future holds.  Our generous and gracious God who holds all life, all time, all our days, holds and knows the future.     If we are free from being afraid about the future, then we are freed to be faithful — to live every day as if it really matters.   Not because it might be our last, but because God holds the last, and every one until then. We can live today as if it’s the most important day of our lives, a precious gift of God.    We can find in today an opportunity to show love, not fear; to be aware, not alarmed.

How do you spend time? How will you live this day?   Those are the big questions.   Live this day and every day knowing that God holds them all.   Live this day and every day knowing that God holds you too, in the midst of your days.

In peace, Mother Lynda

Mark 13:1-11