Tempus Fugit

They say that time flies when you're having fun -- our version of the Latin tempus fugit. I'll certainly agree it flies when you're having fun, but I'm increasingly convinced it flies regardless. Tomorrow is March 1st; didn't we just have New Year's parties? Wasn't the Super Bowl last week? I'm pretty sure we still have Christmas ornaments hanging around somewhere from the Hanging of the Greens. How on earth are we already two months into 2018?

As life gets more and more frantic -- and Americans show no sign of slowing down -- time will fly even more. But the idea of time passing all-too-quickly is found throughout the pages of Scripture. Moses, in Psalm 90:12, prays, "Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Solomon's Ecclesiastes is full of references to the passage of time. And no meditation on time would be complete without Matthew 6:34: "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Time marches on -- it flies -- and we're left to deal with what it brings us each and every day. Christ tells us to take it one day at a time, a thought we also find in our family prayer: "Give us this day our daily bread." We can and should prepare for the future, but Jesus also invites us to slow down, to pause, to force time to move more slowly around us -- or at least for us to move more slowly through time. If your calendar looks like mine, that may seem impossible; we're all guilty of overextending ourselves.

But today, take a breather. Slow down. Let the world keep spinning without you for a while. Just because time flies doesn't mean we have to.