Pastor A

I love watches. I have a couple watches. I tend to think of my watches more as jewelry than as timepieces. One reason is that when I turned 45, I could not see those little numbers as I once was able to see. My favorite watch is a $6 watch that I purchased in China from one of those vendors in a little booth who begged me to stop and look at his wares. John Buntin and I laugh about my purchase. I purchased two watches that were identical Tag Heuer “knock-off” watches. Impressive! $12 total for two watches. Well, the first one worked less than one day and the face fell off. John used it until one of the arms fell off. To our surprise, the other one is still working even as I write this post. We are ten months later and the watch still works and it looks like I actually own a Tag Heuer watch.

The most important reason I do not pay that much attention to my watch any longer is something that I read once, “We do not wear a watch to know what time it is; we wear a watch to know what time it isn’t.” That is an interesting statement. Do you really ever care what time it is? Now hold on; do not answer too quickly. Do not start yelling, “Well, of course I do! I have appointments, planes to catch, things to do, people to see.” Big deal – we all do. How busy you are does not impress me or anyone else. So hang on and let me explain.

Do you look at your watch to see if it is time to leave for your appointment or to see if it not yet time to leave for your appointment? I would imagine that it is the latter. We really do not care what time it is, we only care what time it is not. It is not time to go to lunch. It is not time to go to the airport. It is not time for bed. It is not time to go to work.

And if it is not time to do those things, there must still be time to do something else! That is what you really want, right? Time to do something else. Time to get another cup of coffee. Time enough to relax a little longer. Time do do what you want to do instead of what you have to do.

So what time is it? Time to do the most important thing that needs to be done. If the most important thing gets done, regardless of what it is, nothing else really matters much.

Don’t try today; DO today!