The Fullness of Time…

Time…we have entered 2019. We are all too familiar with “Time flies…” or “I don’t know where the time went!” But here we are, and the New Year is upon us.

As people of the Word, what is so amazing to us is that the Eternal One, who has no time constraints, has entered into the very time constraints that you and I struggle with every day. “Not enough time…time on my hands”…whatever your experience, you know what I mean. It can indeed be a struggle. With the incarnation, the Holy One now knows those same constraints. Perhaps this is what the “swaddling bands” tells us. Can’t move…all bound up…dependent…so limited. You can add to the  list.

Now why ever would the Eternal Word want to do this? Not only take on this, but freely enter the pace of development in the womb, month by month, day by day…pregnancy can’t be hurried. It takes its time. What this step into hidden time says to me is “I’ve been there…I know how tedious it is just to be human sometimes.”

So these days of winter are the time after Christmas when we ponder the “hidden life.” Amazing. Thirty years of hiding out. Doing what we might call “nothing.” But isn’t that how we view our own lives? “I’m not doing much of anything new,” we say. Yet if the Word thought it so important to spend thirty years of doing things so ordinary that they were not worth writing down, maybe we need to take another look at time.

First, love it. Embrace it each morning as you put your feet on the floor. Wrap it around you, as the air wraps you round about. It is the atmosphere where you will do your loving. You will need to be patient as it flows, and above all don’t scream at it, beat it, or abuse it. Be careful not to rush. Merton says this is the first form of self-abusive violence we impose on ourselves. Try not to hurry – ever. Move gently from one task to another. You will be amazed at how this practice can keep you in the presence of God…so we in turn can be present to others. Each of us has exactly as much time as everyone else. Now there’s true equity.

Holy One,

I just don’t have time.

To sit there and just be with you, that is.

What good is it?

But there you are, inside my little time capsule…

waiting for me.

Don’t you ever get tired waiting for me?

Maybe I just have to settle this…

and admit I just keep busy to avoid feeling so vulnerable in your presence.

Maybe I do have the time.

Maybe I just avoid you because I don’t know what to do sitting in your love.

So this year, maybe I just need to learn to waste time with you.

Maybe I just need to let you know…

 you are worth “wasting” time with.