Something strange happened to me last night.

I walked into the kitchen and looked at the microwave clock.  It said 11:04pm.

But then I noticed the oven clock.  It said 11:00pm.

Curious, I looked at my watch.  It said the time was 10:59pm.

Intrigued, I pulled out my cellphone.  It said it was 11:02.

4 different time pieces.  4 different times.

What in the world was going on?  Had I been sucked into a time vortex?

You know, in the movies, when spies are about to pull off some covert mission?  They stand in a circle and hold out their wrists and synchronize their watches down to the exact second.  I always kind of liked that notion, that time could be so dependable and exact.

But I have all kinds of time-telling devices in my life, and I doubt any of them are perfectly synced with each other.  Is that okay?

I went to the Bible, curious to see what the scriptures say about keeping time.   There are lots and lots of passages referring to the words “time”, “day”, and “hour”, but do you know how many passages mention “minutes” or “seconds”?

None!  None that I could find anyway.

And I suppose that makes sense.   People back then weren’t wearing wristwatches, nor did they have microwave clocks (or microwaves).

The idea of living with such precision–down to the second–would have been quite foreign to them.   And still, they managed to keep important dates, make plans, etc.

Today we have clocks with radio signals so they stay perfectly in time with the “official time”.  And cellphones keep their time through their cell towers.  There are programs and websites you can access offering 100% accuracy when it comes to time.

I suppose that’s kind of cool, but truthfully?

I’ve decided that living in my own little time vortex is kind of nice.   It reminds me that I don’t have to be “on the clock” all the time.  I don’t have to plan my life down to the last second.

There’s give and take in life.  Room to breathe.  A couple minutes of wiggle room here and there keep me from feeling like a prisoner to time.

Time may relentlessly continue to march forward, but I choose to march…

to the beep of my own microwave.

Have a great week,

Mitch