Springing Ahead; The Audacity of Living in the Future

Teresa Neumann/Op-ed : Mar 6, 2009
BCN

"These men who were hired last worked only one hour, they said, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day. but he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous? So the last will be first, and the first will be last." -Matthew 20:12-16

March is a month heralding new beginnings. It is also the month we "spring ahead," by setting our clocks forward one hour in an annual event called "Daylight Saving Time."

Though rather controversial still (the idea was conceived by Benjamin Franklin), the concept is, nonetheless, audacious.

Think about it a moment. By virtue of saying that it will be so, we move ourselves ahead in time one hour.

There are a myriad of reasons why setting our clocks ahead in the spring is supposed to be to our advantage. Be that as it may, the fact is, that come springtime we take a theoretical step into the future. Granted, it's only a one-hour step, but my-oh-my what a difference one hour can make.

My father-in-law passed away March 3. A lifelong critic of God and religion, he just "happened" to end up in an adult foster home run by a Christian couple who prayed for him during his stay there. On the day he died, he gave his heart to Jesus. One moment he was lost; the next he was saved. He was the worker in the vineyard, hired in the final hour who received a full day's wages.

As we "spring ahead" this week (I'm hearing the refrain of Kim Clement's seminal song, I'm Somewhere in the Future and I Look Much Better Than I Look Right Now), may we remember that at any given moment, any given hour, we can leap into God's destiny for us.

Isn't living by faith audacious?