New Year, Same Time
This is a shorter version of a musing I wrote on Feb. 2 for my weekly blog. You can read the whole post at www.darianduckworth.com
February 2 may be the nation’s official “Groundhog Day,” but for my car that date was January 2. When I cranked my car, the screen said that the date was Sunday, January 1, 2002, and the time was 3:00. Ever since then, when I crank the car, this is the date and time that appear on the screen. As Bill Murray’s character in the film, Groundhog Day, wakes up everyday on February 2 at 6:00 to “I’ve Got You Babe,” so my car wakes up multiple times a day on Sunday, January 1, 2002 at 3:00.
I don’t know what caused my car’s clock to embark on its own version of Groundhog Day, but I do know that coming face to face everyday with a new year stuck in the same time for the past month has been an opportunity for reflection. I’d like to share what the “wrong time and date” has taught me over the past month.
Without the time to tell me how late or early I am running, I’m able to ENJOY THE RIDE more instead of focusing on the destination. Every time I get in the car there’s a tiny bit of HOPE that it’ll be “normal,” again, and hope is a powerful thing to carry into each day. If something has to be broken in my car, I’m GRATEFUL that it’s simply the clock and not something more pressing. Sometimes things are simply BROKEN, and it’s okay to acknowledge that. And finally, ACKNOWLEDGE that we’re all broken clocks who don’t know what day or year it is sometimes, and Jesus is the one who realigns us with this day that he has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it.
What might God be teaching you through something as ordinary as a clock?
all good things to each of you,
Dr. Darian
Lectionary Texts for Sunday, February 20, 2022 (7th Sunday After Epiphany)
Genesis 45:3-11, 15
Psalm 37:1-11, 39-40
1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50
Luke 6:27-38