I do not Daylight Saving Time. I do not like it Sam-I-Am. I do not like Daylight Saving Time.
I know there are many good reasons for Daylight Saving Time, but here are the reasons it drives me crazy. First, it takes me a good week or two for my body’s rhythms to get into the new time. Second, it throws our children’s waking and sleeping patterns–and those of many others, I’m sure–into a whirlwind. Third, it just seems plain odd to me that we are only on “standard” time for now four months of the year.
But the main reason I do not like Daylight Saving Time is that it is a harsh reminder of how much our lives are driven by the clock, by arbitrary schedules and by anything other than the rhythms God has gifted us with. A few examples…
-God gives us the rhythm of six days of work and one day of rest… We demand and participate in a 24/7 economy.
-God gives us the rhythm of daylight for work and play and nighttime for sleep… We instead set alarms and arbitrary schedules and then rigidly adhere to them.
-God gives us internal “clocks”: rest when you are tired, sleep when you are sleepy, eat when you are hungry… We go to bed when we want, get up when the boss/company says so, and drink energy drinks to keep running the race.
What is the cure, then, for Daylight-Saving-Time-induced angst? For me, this year, it is Holy Week. It is a time to enter into God’s time, so to speak. As a pastor, since I have the privilege of presiding and preaching, my whole week is reconstructed around worship and the gathering of the church. Holy Week is never easy. But I think that is the point. Getting on God’s time takes much more work then pushing the hour button one hour back or ahead twice a year.
Come rest with the weary disciples in the Garden. Come sleep the Sabbath sleep with the Lord Jesus. Come rise on Easter.