Monday, March 12, 2007

Daylight Savings Time

If you're like me, you're still reeling from the hour of sleep you lost from the beginning of daylight savings time. I like the extra daylight. I don't like the loss of sleep. Somewhere we have to find the happy medium.
My grandparents (the White side of the family) were farmers...and they never changed their clocks. I still can hear my grandfather say in his class Ohio drawl, "The cows don't know the difference." They did continue to live by the standard that was set by the U.S. government, though. Grandma would say, "Okay, it's 5:00 our time and 6:00 your time."
One of my brothers went through the house on one of our trips and secretly changed all the clocks. He didn't reveal his secret until we were well down the road. My grandmother wrote a scathing letter to my dad complaining that "one of your boys changed our clocks."
They had a point, you know. The cows don't know the difference. It reminds me of a joke my dad used to laugh at from the old Hee Haw program. One farmer said he used to hold his pigs up to the apple tree to let them eat apples. The other farmer said, "Doesn't that take a lot of time." The first farmer replied, "What's time to a pig?"
Really, we get so caught up in everything that we forget what's really important. Our kids grow up, the seasons change, people move in and out of our lives, and the next thing you know you face retirement saying, "What happened to my life?" I know I talk about this a lot, but it's important. In the grand scheme of things, what really matters? I don't know of anyone who, while on their death bed, says, "I wish I'd spent more time at the office." Family and God. Relationships. All blessings that time take time. The kind of time that is really important.
Look at it this way. Not too long ago we had a 24 hour prayer vigil at our congregation. It was right before we were selecting new shepherds. I scheduled this event to be held on the weekend the time changed. You guessed it, we had a 25 hour prayer vigil. Maybe God thought we needed the extra hour. Enjoy the extra hour. Have a great day. JW

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