Weekly-Reflection-3/14/2023
St. Mary's Reflection: The Rev. David Erickson
I Love Daylight Saving Time!!!!
I expect I am in the great minority, but I love Daylight Saving Time. I love the Sunday we “lose” and hour of sleep. It’s almost difficult for me to fall asleep on Saturday because I delight in the change that is coming (and perhaps a bit because I am trying to go to bed an hour earlier!!!)
What I love is the physical changes it brings. I love waking up in the dark and preparing for the day and just as I am ready to venture forth, the sun is arriving as well. I love the extra daylight hours after the active hours of the day. It allows me more time to be present before the sunset reminds me that it is time to begin the process of going to bed. I love the days getting longer and soon the season of summer will be here, and with it, my birthday. The “change” in time for me is an expectant shift into a reality I desire and enjoy.
Again, I know this is not most people’s experience. In fact, apparently there are more car accidents in the immediate days of the time change than is normal, potentially due to the jarring adjustment the time change brings. There can be a lot of complaining about the time shift, and many people need several days to feel normal again.
What’s interesting is that this one neutral event, the changing of the clocks by one hour, is experienced and responded to in multiple ways. It is not the event that is the issue, but our response to the event at hand. And even our response can be almost an automatic function, something that just happens to us. The real moment of magic, the opportunity for grace, is our response to the response of the circumstances in our lives!!
Change is happening to us always. It is a byproduct of being alive. How we understand and engage that change is our response of faith. Certainly there is a way of living that grounds our life on solid rock versus ever shifting sands (Matthew 7:24-27), and there are times when, no matter what preparation, our lives are thrown “off course” and we find ourselves in the wilderness. It is then, along side the authors of psalm 46, that we remember “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change and the mountains shake in the heart of the sea.”
To be alive is to wake up everyday and enter the world anew, knowing that not only is God creating that same world, but that God is present with us every step of the way.
Rev. David+
