An Ode to Daylight Savings Time

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven…”

Ecclesiastes 3:1

There’s been renewed debate in recent years about ending daylight savings time. At least 29 states have considered legislation that would literally change time if you cross into their border. Like reenacting the movie “Back to the Future” you'd be able to get in your car and travel backward and forward in time. I know it would only be an hour’s difference, but it’s a cool thought. Growing up, my Amish babysitter didn’t recognize daylight savings because it goes against their religion and culture. So, we would humorously translate the time difference from November to March each year. Even so, this recent debate has made me think about daylight savings times more recently in the past few years.

I’ve had a cell phone since I turned sixteen, so I never worried much about changing clocks to make sure I made it to church on time. Because of this generational difference, I chuckle when my older siblings in Christ remind me to make sure that a daylight saving reminder gets into all of the church communications. “Do people really need that reminder?” I say to myself. Won’t their phones just automatically change?”

However, the more I think about it, it’s meaningful that people look to the church as the keeper of time. You've heard me say that I love the seasons and thinking about our life with God as a cycle instead of a timeline. Yes, we were born and we will die someday, but so much of faithfulness is being able to cut through the anxiety of time to see the eternal presence of God with us always. Maybe that’s why the church is big on the different holidays and seasons that come around year after year. From Advent to Christmas, Lent to Easter, and even “Ordinary Time”: we gather to remember God’s timeless cycle of birth, death, and renewal.

When I meet new people in Dimondale and introduce myself as the pastor of our sister church, they say, “Oh the church with the bells! I love hearing them ring every hour." Similarly, like clockwork, Delta Presbyterian has been marking time in the lives of our church family. Through fifty years of Advents and Lents and every season in between, we have been a place for people to gather and remember that they are part of something so much bigger than them. As our bells toll at the beginning of each worship service, may we remember that God is at work. Like the gears of a clock, God is clicking together all the pieces of the world that need healing and renewal. May we be on time. May we keep watch.

Or maybe I'm thinking too deeply about daylight saving time. Don't forget to change your clocks!

Peace,

Ben

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