Watching The Clock

Today's reading... 

When you’re waiting it seems everything ticks.

The clock, your heart, the tapping of your leg.

No stopping it, no magic bag of tricks.

Relentless ticking, what to do but beg?

Time just crawls, what does it mean that it’s due?

Time never seems to be due on my time.

Always left waiting, time rarely comes through.

I try to be humble, but waiting’s a crime.

So I cast all my cares to Him they belong.

Waiting seems easy when I know that He cares.

That frees me to be sober to know I belong.

And free too, to throw the clock down the stairs.

Waiting.  Is there anything harder than being patient?  Joyce Meyer said once that “Patience is not simply the ability to wait - it's how we behave while we're waiting.” 

This meditation from the fifth chapter of first Peter will help you stop minding the time and cast your cares on Him who created time.  

Resting in imaginative contemplation for a moment, remain with your eyes closed...imagine holding a baby.  Perhaps just a few months old.  Very aware of being lifted.  Very unfamiliar with time.  A baby loves being lifted, tossed in the air, and cradled in caring arms.  They laugh.  They giggle.  When you place them back on the floor they look at you with longing eyes.  They want to experience that again but don’t know how to ask.  They don’t know when.  But out of care and joy in your heart, you pick up the child again.  You can do this all day can’t you.  The joy you feel of caring for them.  If only they knew.  Stay there lifting and twirling this baby in your arms.  Give them your time. 

Today you have the opportunity to be lifted up by God as he is mindful of time.  He knows your needs, far better than you. He is aware of time, much more than you. He created you.  He created time.  And he created time to be with you.

Let me pray too that you remember too to humble yourselves, then, under God's mighty hand, he will lift you up in his own good time. Leave all your worries with him, because he cares for you.  Now to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and forever will be. Amen. 

So when you are ready, step into your day be mindful of being lifted.  Turn away from the clock today and focus instead on an encounter with God as he lifts you at the perfect time.