I am not asking that you take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. —John 17:15

Well my circadian rhythms have been assaulted again by another seasonal change in time. As someone said to me upon mentioning this change, “I much prefer falling back than springing forward. I get more sleep.” It is amazing how our bodies and mental dispositions are affected by a one hour change.

I’ve been talking to various people as I prepare for my Sabattical trip, how to deal with the eight hour flight from New York to Budapest. The best advice I have heard is to get with the new pace. Don’t hole up in your room with the window shades down and try to sleep it off. Research agrees. The data indicates that we do far better at adjusting if we go out and join people going about their daily routine.

I think how easy it is for many people to look at the issues of the world, pull down the shades, and try to slumber through it. It would be easy for us to march to the cadence of our own drum beat. To do this would be to completely ignore everything Jesus said and stood for. When he talked about the criterion for final judgment he did not list among them the numbers of Bible study groups to which we belong, our regular attendance at worship, the money we gave to the church, or how good a person we are. Rather, Jesus talked about how these study groups, worship attendance, and money were translated into our action in the world—did we give a stranger drink and food; did we visit the sick and imprisoned; did we clothe the naked (Matthew 25:31ff).

I know the news is usually not very good. I know I am tempted to ignore it. Yet it will often tell me the ways in which I need to validate my faith through action. It is a new day. I know you may be in a bit of a fog because of the time change. However, don’t walk around in a fog when it comes to the needs of those around you. If Lent is about anything it is, as the liturgy states when we place ashes on our foreheads—receive these ashes that dying to self you may live for Christ—not only in the pew, but in the world.

Prayer
Gracious God, you have brought me hope through the gift of your Son. You know the world around me needs that hope. Forgive me when I have pulled down my shades and tried to sleep away the challenges of the world. Grant me courage and conviction of faith to serve wherever you send me today and always in the name of Christ. Amen.

C. Mac Hamon, Senior Pastor
Castleton United Methodist Church
Indianapolis, Indiana