A long time ago, God invented Time. Since He invented it, according to the Histories in the Scriptures, He could change it up whenever He wanted to, such as making the sundial move backwards, or not allowing the sun to go down until the army of Israel had won the battle. Otherwise, Time, for those of us who dwell on the earth, keeps marching on, more regularly than the army of Israel – or the ants that invade in the spring.
New Year’s Day, 2021, including raspberry-pomegranate tea spiked with tonic water,
to be taken along with zinc and vitamins C and D3, to boost your immune system
and prevent Covid-19.
Meanwhile, we still don’t quite understand why bad things are still happening and God hasn’t judged the wicked world yet. We want this part to be over so we can move on to Act 2.
Just In Time:
“A stitch in time,” they say, “saves nine.” When I was a kid, I heard that, and I thought someone was talking about sewing up Time. I honestly wondered how or why someone would take a stitch in such an abstract thing. I finally grew to realize that it really meant that if you made a little sewing repair to a garment that was beginning to tear, that small repair would prevent the garment from tearing a lot, later on. This was about catching something “in the nick of time.” I still don’t know what the “nick” is.
But if you can fix something just in time, then you can save yourself some grief later on. Like, if you get your bald tires replaced on your car, they won’t suddenly blow up while you’re speeding down the interstate. This is akin to “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” and it would have been good for the owners of that collapsed condo in Florida to have heeded the advice. They not only didn’t fix the problems with the structural damage in time, maintenance didn’t even seem to be on their calendar.
When Leonard Haley, Eric’s father, lay on his deathbed in the hospital, Eric’s brother-in-law, Kerry Skinner, came to visit him. Although he hadn’t really been interested in a relationship with Jesus in the past, now that he was faced with a pretty good chance of dying, Leonard was finally open to the Gospel and Kerry was able to successfully lead him to the Lord. Just in time! – just before Leonard left Time behind.
Not everybody gets that chance. The opposite of “In Time,” is “Too Late.”
How to Be On Time:
When I was in my senior year of high school, I was warned that I might be suspended. That was a jaw-dropping moment. The warning came from my first period teacher, the one for Geography of the Middle East.
I rode my bike to school and had figured out exactly how many minutes it took me to ride there, how long it took me to take my shower and get dressed, and how long it took me to eat my breakfast. Then I added that up and set my alarm for a time that would give me exactly that long to accomplish those things.
Somehow, I was tardy pretty often. The bell would find me still over by the bike rack, hitching up my bike, gathering up my books, and getting to class. And although I argued for leniency since I was actually on the campus on time – just not in my seat – it didn’t work. He was an old fuddy-duddy about it and insisted that “on time” meant “in my seat.” And then came the warning. I was appalled!
I told him there was no way I could ever be in my seat on time because there was the time I lost walking from the bike rack – or maybe I could just pedal faster. As it was, I used my time wisely by brushing out my long hair after my shower and letting it blow dry in the wind as I rode.
But the teacher proposed something I thought would be harmful to my health. He recommended getting up a half-hour earlier. (I know, shocking, right?)
Well, it worked. I did survive it.
Then there was trying to get to church on time with a large family. Hey, that’s hard! Have you ever tried it?
From Cheaper by the Half Dozen by Elizabeth Haley
With all the things you have to do to prepare for your journey, including finding matching socks and shoes for the whole family, showers, eating and brushing teeth, nursing the baby and packing the diaper bag, it seemed pretty impossible, until I finally found this hint in a homeschool magazine (I believe).
Multiply the number of children you have to get ready by ½ hour (and I think you also had to add another half hour for yourself). Then subtract ½ hour for each older child you have who can be assigned to help a younger sibling get ready. This works as long as the pairing is working. For instance, if the older sibling is trying to brush the younger sibling’s teeth and the younger one is squirming, that results in cavities. Re-evaluation might sometimes be in order.
Other things you can do to be on time for church include:
Packing the diaper bag the night before and setting out clothes for each child – maybe also for yourself!
Assigning shower times so that the flow of cleanliness is geared towards successful completion on time.
Keeping breakfast simple. If you really want to serve everybody pancakes on Sunday morning, usually the result is that it will be very difficult to clean up afterwards as well, and by the time you get home from church, you won’t want to deal with the dirty dishes and messy high chair.
And if it takes 42 minutes to get to church, leaving an hour before it starts – not 42 minutes before it starts. If you arrive 18 minutes early, that will give you time to park, bring the children to their classes, and maybe even top off the baby. Your husband is also available, so he can probably bring the children to class while you head to the nursery.
Oh! Here’s one more efficiency practice we used:
Roll call. Assign each child a number, either with the assigned seat in the van (progressing logically from the front of the van to the back, or vice versa) or in order of age. Then, practice having everyone say their number in order at the cue: “Sound off!” If you are listening carefully for six numbers, but somehow the kids are stuck at four, you can turn around and find out what happened to #5. Otherwise, you are free to leave the premises without wondering if everyone’s present.
Managing / Budgeting Time (How to avoid overcommitting)
The tools of my trade, besides the typewriter – which eventually became a keyboard – are a pen and a calendar, and blank sheets of paper for lists.
Lists have kept me on-task and have helped me get things done in time. That’s the way I could promise someone I would have a play ready to go by a date in June, or have several church specials scheduled and rehearsed, while still teaching several kids at home.
Here is a bad example for you. (It wasn’t me!) When Eric and I and our two older kids were in the Lafayette Civic Theatre production of The Sound of Music, the cast was introduced to the Costume Manager. She took each cast member to the storage rooms, where several items were picked out and tried on, and then assigned. That was all well and good. But then she disappeared for several weeks. I guess we all must have assumed she was hard at work turning out or rounding up costumes, but we never saw her. Actually, she never came back at all, but left us high and dry.
I know that the Sound of Music wasn’t an easy task for a costume manager. The VonTrapp kids all had to have several matching costumes – the sailor suits, the play clothes made from the curtains, ball gowns, wedding clothes, traveling clothes. Those alone accounted for 35 costumes, not to mention the nuns’ chorus, the adult party guests, outfits for the principles and more. But it looked like what happened was a sense of being overwhelmed with the task – until she freaked out and fled.
To do a large job, it is important to break down the job into its necessary steps and put it on a timeline. Then there has to be a plan for how to accomplish each of the steps within the allotted time. The costume manager needed to recruit helpers, maybe have a sewing workshop together. In the end, it was the cast who saved the day – several of the nuns, stage moms, and a fräulein or two got together and volunteered to make sailor suits or play clothes. Even the night before we opened, some of the hems were still being sewn on the sailor suits, and there were a few not-quite finished costumes at dress rehearsal. But the task was done in the nick of time.
Marta (Emily Glavash) and Gretl (Emily Haley),
with tummies still showing at dress rehearsal.
The costumes were complete by opening night.
I find I can be easily distracted if I don’t have a plan, a menu, or a list. It is important that at any given moment I can easily answer the question: What should I be doing now? And then, What should I be doing after this? If I had four large tasks to accomplish all at the same time, I would divide my paper into fourths. Then, I would populate each quadrant with a bulleted list with checkboxes. The heading of a quadrant might be “Church,” and another “Home School,” with “The Play” and “Housekeeping” in the other two. Yes, if “dishes” was not on the list with a check box, I might just ignore them.
Lining through items is more satisfying than checking the boxes, but keep the items readable so you can remember what it was you did all day.
If you do something else that’s not on the list, adding it to the list and then scratching it off is more satisfying than not counting it. Like, you can always add “Feed the baby.” She won’t let you forget that, of course, but adding it to the list is helpful.
But here’s a bit of a dilemma. If you do a top-notch job of completing all your tasks on time because you have events and commitments on the calendar (and you regularly consult that), and you are scratching items off your lists that run all the way down the page, you will hear some praise from your fellow man. And then, someone will apply the saying, “If you want something done, ask a busy person.”
Can you take on more?
If you consult your calendar and find the day is wide open, and you know it’s a good cause or one you will enjoy tremendously, you may be the type that, out of a desire to please the one who asked you, smiles graciously and promises to get it done.
But there was a principle I learned from James Dobson in a Focus on the Family broadcast. It was called “Margins.” It was easy to understand this. How attractive would a book be if you didn’t leave any top, bottom, left, or right margin space? It would be overwhelming and confusing. There’s even something to be said for slightly social distancing each line on the page. If the lines are all scrunched up next to each other, it would be well nigh impossible to read the text.
There were some weeks that were already very full and difficult, like tech week before a play, where you met almost every single day and worked out ALL the remaining bugs. But this is just not a good time to sing a solo at church and host a field trip to the Children’s Museum. Is it the same week as graduation? Something has to change! The point is, your life needs margins. There must be time to cool down so that you can wake up in the morning refreshed and have time to think about everything. Learn to Just Say No. Besides, your declining a job may be the impetus someone else needs to spur them to take on a bigger task then they had ever thought possible, and consequently, experience the euphoria of success.
It’s About Time!
In Revelation 6, the souls of those who were killed for their faith in God cried out from under the altar in Heaven:
"How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" ~Rev. 6:10
It was clear they thought God was being slow about it, that it seemed like He wasn't ever going to get around to it. And we are so likewise tempted to get impatient with God, because, ironically, He is so patient.
But I read this in Luke today, and of course I’ve seen it before, but it answers my impatient thoughts.
Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying:
"There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, 'Get justice for me from my adversary.'
“And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, 'Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.' "
Then the Lord said, "Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily.
“Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?"
~Luke 18:1-8
Does “speedily” seem out of place there? It doesn’t seem too speedy to us at times, while we’re waiting. It’s just that when we get to that part, the speed of the vengeance will make our heads spin!
But what is this really saying to us in the here and now? Luke introduces this particular parable with the interpretation right at the beginning so we won’t miss it. Then Jesus tells the parable, followed by His interpretation. Finally, He challenges us, that when He returns, He would catch us in the act of having perfect faith.
This could not be clearer! We have two things to do:
Always pray.
Don’t lose heart.
We are not appealing to a corrupt and selfish atheist judge – we are appealing to the God of the Universe who is also our Heavenly Father. Of course He hears us, of course He can avenge us, and of course, He will answer our prayers. It’s only a matter of time.
When Time Shall Be No More
I grew up with a long-playing vinyl Tennessee Ernie Ford record of my mother’s that I loved, and I can still hear his bass voice booming out this song:
When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall be no more
When the morning breaks eternal, bright and fair
When the saved of earth shall gather over on the other shore
When the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there.
When the roll is called up yonder,
When the roll is called up yonder,
When the roll is called up yonder,
When the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there.
On that bright and cloudless morning when the dead in Christ shall rise
And the glory of His resurrection share
When His chosen ones are gathered to their home beyond the skies
And the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there.
Let us labor for the Master from the dawn till setting sun
Let us talk of all His wondrous love and care.
Then when all of life is over and our work on earth is done
And the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there.
Ya’ know, there’s not much more to say. There will be a satisfactory end, just in the nick of time, and right on time. We’ll say, “It’s about time!” (maybe). And then – time will be abolished, and eternity begins.
Now is the day of salvation – we have no time to lose! It is time now to pray and ask the Lord Jesus to come into our hearts.
When we give Him our minutes, He gives us His eternity…
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