November 14, 2008

 

Good Friday morning …

 

The simple life. Where has it gone?

 

Seemingly gone are the days when people lived more deliberate lives … when there was time to help a neighbor … when activities drew families more together than apart … when people sat and talked … and walked without hurry … and slept a full night just about all the time.

 

The simple life. The concept seems buried deep within my soul.

 

Yesterday seems to have had such charm. And, yes, I know we often overrate the positive and overlook the hardship of the past. And it’s true … the past was deprived in many respects … but its people had time. Maybe that’s what I miss. Time. It seems that progress has devoured our time! We no longer seem to have enough time.

 

When I visit developing countries … my thoughts about this are confirmed. Though conditions in Third World countries are sad in many ways and in some respects heart-rending … still I am struck by the impression that people have time. They do sit and talk and walk without hurry and sleep the night through. There are few televisions, phones, cars, and newspapers. The media cannot intrude your dinner time with “Breaking News.” With no electricity to extend the daylight … few suffer from sleep deprivation. The urgency of time seems to have not yet been invented. Instead, one follows the course of the sun through the day … and there is time for timelessness which allows you to forget the world of the clock in which we live. Your heartbeat becomes measured by your footsteps … and the world slows down to a point where it all makes sense again.

 

One discovers quickly that little happens in this kind of environment … but what does happen … happens slowly. It bustles on market days when the produce arrives … and there is a scurry of activity when a truck comes through with mail … but otherwise it’s quite the simple life … with time passing steadily … but still time for everything.

 

“Time is the coin of your life.  It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent.  Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you”.  [Carl Sandburg]

 

“There is a time for everything,
       and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,
       a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,
       a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,
       a time to mourn and a time to dance,

 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
       a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

a time to search and a time to give up,
       a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,
       a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,
       a time for war and a time for peace.”

                                     [Ecclesiastes 3:1-8]

 

Have a great weekend … taking time to enjoy the time God gives you!

 

PR