lent 26 - wasting time

Clocks went forward.  Groan.  Somehow it always takes us ages to get over that one tiny little change, it seems to upset the internal body clock for days...... and the poor dogs have no idea what's going on!   Yesterday I heard the most extraordinary thing about Brexit.  Apparently at some point in the next couple of years Europe is going to dispense with daylight saving and allow each country to decide for itself whether or not it wants to put the clocks back and forward or not.  Which means that there is a possibility that in a couple of years time the Republic of Ireland and Spain could be on one time system and Northern Ireland and Gibraltar be on another.  Meaning you'd have to put your clock back if you were travelling from Newry to Dundalk  or the Gibraltar/Spain equivalent.  😃   Just when you thought Brexit couldnt get any more bonkers!

The change in the clock focus our minds ever so briefly on that lost ( or gained) hour.  We groan about an hour less in bed and cheer when we have  perceived' extra' hour in the autumn.  But of course we have the same number of hours in every day and I guess most of us feel that we should be  ' using' those hours well and being productive with them.    Yesterday afternoon I spent in bed - three hours sleeping and the rest of the time doing absolutely nothing at all.  I am utterly exhausted at the moment and just feel the need to do nothing much.  Which is not a waste of time.  It is necessary rest and recuperation. 

Part of the ever increasing pressure of life in the 21st century are the demands on our time.  We need to achieve more, be more efficient, spend less time on screens and on sofas and more time being healthy and constructive and positive.   We use gadgets to remind us to be places and sat navs to get us where we are going in the fastest time possible.  We work from home until late into the night and do more overtime in order to pay the bills.   The internal voice can sometimes shout loudly that we should be being busy if we just sit down and do nothing. 

But God says we need rest.   He commands us to rest.  He tells us that one seventh of our week  ( about 14% of our time) should be spent doing nothing.   In Jesus's day that meant no work, cooking, travel, housework, play, nothing except resting, spending time with family and God.   In our parents day it probably meant church, Sunday lunch, listening to the radio or watching television, doing a crossword and nothing else much.  These days it might still mean church, but it then might entail a Sunday shop, homework, catching up on a few emails, washing and ironing, washing the car, playing FIFA with schoolfriends online, and maybe even church again and a cheeky McFlurry on the way home.

I think it is no coincidence that as we have forgotten how to rest and do nothing our mental health has suffered.  God knows how we work and He never tells us to do something without good reason.  When He says we need to rest it is because actually we don't function properly unless we rest.  We have unfortunately coined that phrase ' a waste of time' which engenders guilt and puts us under pressure to ' do stuff'.  But time is a gift to us.  And God sometimes wants us to just enjoy a sunset, snuggle under the duvet, stroke the cat, sit by the fire, read a book, do nothing and enjoy the silence.
You have not ' lost' an hour today.  You still have 24 hours in which to experience everything God wants to show you.   I challenge you to have a rest today regardless of how much you have to do or how busy you are.  Put your feet up.  Be still. Let the Holy Spirit refresh and restore you.