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Prisoners of Time by Christa Buswell A friend who hates daylight savings time once exploded: "Why do they always have to mess with God's time?" After a bit of a chuckle over that one, we got to talking about time, that "mystery in a class with transubstantiation" to use Elizabeth I of England's fortuitous phrase. One suspects that time is a purely human attempt to impose order on chaos, to keep our lives from careening out of control like a runaway freight train. So, we wake in the morning to the shrilling of the alarm clock, we hurry to work or school or appointment to be on time. We live our lives by the clock or the calendar years, months, weeks, days - hours, minutes, seconds, even nano seconds, for crying out loud. Then there's overtime, a bit of an oxymoron, don't you think? It goes on and on, it enslaves us until time must have a stop hand and the real time we call eternity begins. God's time … At no time is time more acutely felt than at the turning of the year. We reflect on past and future, we engage in that annual ritual called the New Year's Resolution. Not a bad thing to do, if only we keep it up. What if we called it a New Year's swap meet instead? Swap something not so good for something better? Swap hatred for love, indifference for passion, despair for hope, doubt for trust. Maybe write down these bargains and check them at the beginning of each moth? That might just work. Talking of swap meets, the New Year is also the time for that out-with-the-old, in-with-the-new event we call the after Christmas sale. Books by-the-Sea is offering some spectacular bargains at rock bottom prices. Stock up for next year's Christmas, for birthdays and other gift occasions, and maybe you'll even find that gift you hoped to get but didn't. You can't lose, our loss is your gain. Happy swapping, happy bargain-hunting and a New Year of peace and hope. Time is a gift from God, let's use it wisely. Be not time's prisoner, but its master.
Copyright © 2005 St. Augustine by-the-Sea
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