About Time

While you were asleep last night you lost an hour of your life.....

Everyday people who travel across the International Date Line lose a whole day!  Of course, in both instances you eventually gain it back....that is if you don't die first.

We saw a movie last night called About Time.  Its premise was that the men in this particular family had the ability to travel back in time and redo something they've done--to a point.  The character uses this ability at first to change the stupid things he does and says that keep him from getting a girlfriend, but eventually he learns, through trial and error and advice from his father, how to live his ordinary life in an extraordinary way without having to go back and redo it.  Along the way he tells us how he learned the secret to happiness:  It's to "live every day again almost exactly the same.  The first time with all the tensions and worry that stop us from noticing how sweet the world can be, but the second time noticing."

Of course, for us, we can't go back and redo, but we can take his advice and just live each day noticing what's good about it.  This is the advice St. Paul gives in Philippians 4:8:  Whatsoever things are true...noble...honest...just...pure...lovely...of good report; if there be any virtue...praise, think on these things.

For the character in the movie, just the noticing of the sweet things about life was enough to change his day for the better.  It made all the difference in the world how he felt at the end of the day.  I remember in my younger days I took what happened around me much too seriously.  If someone was in a bad mood, I let that set the tone of MY day.  The older I've gotten, the more aware I've become of time.  I passed the expected middle point a long time ago.  "Every day counts" is no longer just an axiom to me.  It's a reality.  But in truth, it should be a reality for even the youngest person because no one is immune to death.  

Children start out living this way, but soon the adults in their life too often "teach" them to discount "today" so they can concentrate on "tomorrow."  It's a good thing to plan for the future, but we shouldn't skip over today in the process.  

Don't you think it's about time you realize this for yourself?  We can't recover lost time--not really.

Father, "time" is an earth thing, but it can't be ignored as long as we are still in the body.  You have numbered my days.  I've already lived 23,111 days.  May I not waste my remaining days.

Link to scripture: Job 14:5

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