God of love, hope, grace and peace – Day 7

The concept of time always crops up somewhere in our daily conversations. What is shocking is that it is mostly mentioned in a negative context – something along the lines of “I’m so busy, I did not have time” or “everything is so rushed” or “look how the time has flown”!

Time, which was intended as a gift from God, has become our boss. Instead of being in control of our time, it feels as if time is a skateboard under our feet that we’re desperately clinging to, trying to stay on top! We plan many things down to the last detail, but when it comes to time, we carry on indifferently.

Too often, we think like this about time:

Everything can wait until later,
Everything in this world can be postponed
– until I feel like doing it
– until I feel better
– until my children are older, or out of the house
– until I’ve worried myself sick about it
… until it’s too late.

Maybe there’s a letter, an e-mail, a phone call or a visit you’ve been putting off for weeks – maybe, now is the time to do it. Maybe, today is the time to encourage, to forgive, to speak or to remain silent. Perhaps, the time has now come to go back and make amends.

I found this English poem tucked away between some cards I had stashed away (I wish I knew who the author was):

When I have time
there is a poem to be written,
a song to be sung.
When I have time
there is a child to be led
a prayer to be said.
When I have time
I’ll tell you a story,
I’ll visit a friend.
Alas, time is gone –
The poem’s unwritten,
the song unsung.
The child is a man
grown up unled.
The prayer, ah! The prayer,
it went unsaid.
The story is ended.