Clocks

Tonight we fall back!

Many years ago I used to fall down backwards as a stunt.

One time I was on a college choir tour and did so in front of the audience just for the fun of it. Today I would not dare do so as there are too many stiff parts.  The trick is to have your head just a little lifted else when you hit, you smack your head first and get a good headache or a concussion.  I remember the last time I did so was when a fellow I had known for many years came out of his house with short hair.  He was a professor in a college in Aberdeen where he taught German and had long hair – sometimes in a ponytail (at times he carried – which looked to me – a purse.  Different! And very, very intelligent.  Read Russian and German newspapers daily and never, never watched television.  In fact, the day Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, he walked through the living room and his mother told him to watch but he did not for he would read about it the next day.  Oh, I mentioned different or strange.  He came up through Italy with George Patton and had great stories of Patton and the war.). When he walked out, I fell back but didn’t have my head just right and hit hard – the last time I did it.  And now you know what, at least in part, is my issue.

Now, back to tonight we fall back!

We go back to regular central standard time.  I always felt somewhat badly for the railroad as I would claim 8 hours of pay in the Spring when only actually working 7 hours and then in the Fall claim an hour of overtime as I had to work the 2 o’clock hour twice.  Poor railroad had hundreds of people that did that to them.

Yet, tonight we fall back to normal!  And just what is normal?  I know,  a setting on your dryer.  But I do wish we could go back to normal.  NO… did I actually say that?  Go back to normal!  According to my president (Sept. 1 in front of Freedom Hall in Philly), going back is bad.  It is evidently a return to darkness, oppression and loss of rights.  There are those on Tuesday that are going to vote for a return to mean, hopeless and bad days – I will be voting that way, Mr. President.

Fall back!  You know, if life was just me, I’d need no clock.  I’d get up to do my things, eat when hungry and retire when tired or it is too dark to carry on.  If just me, a clock would be pretty useless or at least not very important.  So, you see, clocks are really about relationships.  We all set our clocks to a common idea (Greenwich mean time or some calculation of the sun’s rule of the sky) so that we can rendezvous with others.  A clock is about people.  What time do we – “WE” – eat?  When should I meet you at the zoo?  I’ll be glad when this sermon is over – man, the clock seems stopped!  Clocks are about connecting with others and not offending others.

A clock also reminds me of Jesus for in the fullness of time He came (Galatians 4:4).  It reminds me that God sets time (Genesis 1:18, Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day.)  God has a clock (I wonder how big that clock is in Heaven’s square?  I wonder what earthly hour it follows?  Maybe Jerusalem time?).  God is always on time – His time, not necessarily our time.

So, fall back tonight or first thing in the morning.  You should look more chipper tomorrow with that extra hour of sleep.

Al [McElheran, our missions conference missionary] and I are off for coffee, study and breakfast with the guys.

It’s 5:49 AM on my clock!