Recently I was delightfully surprised to be feted at a most resplendent setting in Drayson Center. Of course I was not alone, but it seemed so when my name was called and I was given a gold watch to mark 40 years of most privileged service at our blessed university! Just prior to this golden gala, I was given a book by Dr. Richard Swenson with the meaningful title A Minute of Margin. In a wee essay that takes only a “moment” to read, “Time and the Inventor of Time,” Dr. Swenson stirs up our time-bound minds thusly:
"Do you think Jesus would have carried a pocket calendar? Would He have consulted it before making commitments? Would He have bypassed the leper because His calendar said He was late for the Nazareth banquet?
Do you think Jesus would have worn a wristwatch? What would have been His reaction if the temple service extended past noon? .... Would He have driven out the clock watchers along with the money changers?
Do you think Jesus would have carried a beeper? .... Can you imagine Him being paged out of the Last Supper?
The clock and Christ are not close friends. Imagine what Christ thinks of us now that we are so locked into schedules that we have locked ourselves out of the Sermon on the Mount: It is hardly possible to walk the second mile without offending one’s pocket calendar. We jump at the alarm of a Seiko (the brand of my new gold watch!) but sleep through the call of the Almighty.
The example of Christ, of course, has a cultural context to consider. Yet beyond this context is a much deeper message: Jesus was not about to permit Himself to be tyrannized by time. What about us?"
Paul tells us: Be very careful how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every moment, every opportunity. “There is always time enough in a day to do God’s will.”
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Dr. Alexander is the founding director, LLU Center for Spiritual Life & Wholeness, and professor of family medicine at LLU School of Medicine. His column, “Innerweave: The Wholeness Story,” has appeared for many years in Today, the campus newspaper of Loma Linda University Health.