About time . . .

Dear Friends in Christ -

This week, a friend of mine invited me to think of time as a gift. I was caught up short by this thought, because so often time seems to be "the enemy." I think of time as a place of scarcity in my life, and so I'm afraid of talking or even thinking about how much there is of it and how I make use of it.

My friend quoted from something he read: "Surely God means for time to be a sign of God's hope in us, God's confidence that we can change. With each new year [or new day!], God extends to us a fresh opportunity to become the people God intends us to be . . . As one year [and even one day] gives way to another, we are invited to give way - to seek forgiveness, or to offer it, and to turn toward the mountain of God where weapons of war are reshaped as tools of human flourishing and violent ways are unlearned." ("Kept awake by love" in The Christian Century 12/01/09).

During this sacred time of repentance and preparation for God's miracle breaking again into our lives, may we take the time given to us as a gift to do the most important things. And may God give us the grace to let the other things go.

Faithfully with you in this time,
Janet+