The Tyranny of Time

Time is a tyrant.  We cannot escape it.  As children, our parents made sure we kids were where we were supposed to be.  We had no choice!  As teens, we had school time schedules, parental obligatory times, social times and hopefully, some personal time.  As adults, we have all of the above PLUS work schedules, family demands, and religious obligations.  As senior citizens, time still tyrannizes.  We have our immediate personal demands--medical, social, religious, PLUS more family demands than ever,because we may be taking care of a loved one, and attending ALL the grandchildren's sports and other recreational events.

And believe this; it's not important.  The only important time we should be paying attention to is the "hour of our death."

"Oh yeah."  "That."

All in the first paragraph is transitory.  None of it lasts.  The only constant is God.  And there will be a time when we will meet Him.  The author, Alice Camille, in her book, Listening to God's Word, explains that all the Gospel writers try to get across this immediacy of the time we will encounter God:

Mark--uses "immediately", 42 times in his Gospel

Luke--uses "today", Luke 4:21

Mathew--uses "now", Matt. 2:15

John--uses mostly "the hour", "eternal life," and "that day."

Since the concept of time that we live by in the first paragraph will pass, let's adopt the attitude of regarding time as a friend--a constant friend.  Life is a journey and time accompanies us until that very important last hour of our death.

Time

My "cloistered brothers" have a saying, "Don't let the time use you. You use the time."

It would be so easy to do nothing all day except eat and nap. Some do. But the smart ones "use the time." They finish their high school diploma, get a college degree, learn a musical instrument, learn a language, get religion. Lucky ones get a job. Most make a schedule and try to keep it. Such is the life of a "cloistered brother."

You would think that we on the outside would have no problem with time. Some don't have enough time to do all the things they need to do. It's the opposite problem of the "cloistered brother." They are "letting the time use them." AND THEY'RE ON THE OUTSIDE!

They have so much to do that time governs their lives. They have no time for themselves. Not even time to pray.

Tick, tock...tick, tock.

Exercise and Eat and Don't feel Guilty

I belong to T.O.P.S.--Take Off Pounds Sensibly. Today it's my turn to give a program. A program is just a "Talk." I'll be talking about an interesting Time article.

Losing Weight:Can Exercise Trump Genes? is a study that was conducted on 704 Amish people. Why Amish? I dunno...maybe because they're all in one place. But the researchers felt this group reflected the general public. They were looking for the FT0 gene, which is associated with obesity and high body mass index--BMI. The study saw that some had two copies of a fattening variant, and these people were 67% more likely to be obese. However, there were some with the same two variants and were not fat. The diff? Exercise. But it ain't easy.

Those that weren't over weight, worked A LOT harder. They were out there on the farm an average three hours, a day, more than their skinny counterparts.

So is exercise the answer. I'm not going to kill myself exercising. I'll walk that's about it. I'll watch that I don't over eat. I want to be healthy, not skinny. Been there. It wasn't healthy.

Your health is a gift. Thank God for it.