In modern music, whether it be jazz, rock or any genre with a rhythm section, keeping time is of crucial importance. Ideally the drummer sets the tempo. If they speed or drag, it is hard for the guitar, bass and piano to feel what is known as “the pocket.” Musicians may say “man, that groove just fit in my hip pocket like a glove”.

In our daily lives, we often have “pockets of time.” You finish a task, for instance, leaving you with just too much time to move on to the next item or destination in your daily schedule. Awkward, isn’t it? Do you try to fill that gap by squeezing in something else, thereby risking being rushed or late for the next appointment or event? Or do you get there too early and kill time? I confess that for me waiting has become easier with the world of information and social media in the palm of my hand. Our “little computers” give us the news feed, weather, Daily Double Bingo, our e-mails, Facebook, and most importantly our calendars! Being rushed increases our anxiety level and we are more apt to forget something.

In a short “pocket of time”, Martin Luther changed not only Christianity but the world. He grasped a technological innovation – the printing press – and started a revolution that reformed and re-formed the church. Half a millennia later the digital revolution has made information asynchronous: anytime, anywhere. Those pockets of in-between time, with I-phone in hand. We exist on this earth in mere pockets of time. Jesus’ earthly, human life was itself a speck, a blip in the epoch of time. It is what we do with those pockets of time that matters. Garth Brooks wrote a song titled “The Dash”, referring to a tombstone; the dash between the date of birth and date of death that represents all the days of time in-between. The God who was, is and is yet to come is the God who restores us and prepares us for the return of Christ our Lord. Whether you are running behind or have too much on your hands, use those pockets of time to pray. God does not require length or lofty vocabulary; just to be connected. Don’t plug in to your portable device, but plug into the unconditional love that transcends time. And while you’re at it, remember before you turn in on Saturday evening this week, set your time-keeping devices back one hour.

See? An unexpected gift of extra time (for sleep)!

Pastor Art