Daylight Saving Time is set to end again at 2:00am this Sunday morning, November 7. Some of us cheer. Some of us groan. Some of us just go with the flow. Now, that I’ve reached the age where I find myself craving sunlight during the long winter months, I wanted to know why on earth we monkey around with the clock like this.
For years, I thought it was to help farmers by giving them more sunlight during the summer months.
However, Daylight Saving Time was not intended to give the farmer more daylight, but originally was all about saving energy. Benjamin Franklin estimated that the city of Paris could save a million pounds of candlewax annually by moving the clock forward an hour during the summer months. During WWI, President Woodrow Wilson instituted year-round Daylight Saving to conserve fuel for the war effort. At the end of the war, it was completely discontinued, only to be reinstituted for the duration of WWII.
In the years since, it has become less about energy and more about commerce. Energy savings are negligible during the summer months due to Daylight Saving, but commercial lobbyists hold that businesses benefit from that extra hour of sunlight. People are more likely to be out and about spending money while the sun is shining. For this reason, over the years Congress has increased the length of Daylight Saving Time to 34 weeks of the year.
Whether we love DST or hate it, we should be prompted to consider what we are doing with the hours we’ve been given. These biannual clock changes serve as a reminder that whether we move the hour hand forward or backward, the minute hand continues to move forward.
This makes me think of three passages. The first is Psalm 139:16: Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. That God knows the number of days each of us has indicates there is a set number. This is significant because it means that we have a finite amount of time and it is running out. We have fewer days left than we did yesterday.
The second passage is Ephesians 5:15-16: Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Paul means pay careful attention to your life. Live wisely, not unwisely. A great indication of how wisely we are living is how we use our time. God expects us to use our time wisely.
The third is the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30, where a man goes on a journey, entrusting his servants with varying amounts of money. He later returns expecting his servants to have wisely invested his money. The parable comes in the context of other parables all intended to cause the reader to anticipate the coming of the Lord and to be ready. This indicates that we are accountable for what we do with our time.
How are we using the hours? Not just the hour we “gain” in November or “lose” in March, but every hour of every day. We may have a blurry idea, but in light of the weighty passages above I suggest actually keeping track for a week, making note of what you do with every waking hour of each day of the week. Tally those hours up. How much time working? How much time alone with the Lord? How much time on social media or entertainment? How much time on hobbies? How much time pursuing Kingdom priorities?
Multiply those numbers by 52 and see how your current habits will consume your time over the coming year. Compare the categories. Will you be eager to give an account for those hours?
It could be helpful, after a sobering look at how we’ve been using our time, to set a vision for what we would like the future to look like.
In what ways would you like to make an impact in the lives of other believers? Through one-to-one bible reading, discipleship, intercessory prayer? What hours can you devote to those activities and what do you need to do to institute those habits?
In what ways would you like to make an impact in the lives of the lost around you? Building relationships and sharing the gospel? What dates can you mark off on the calendar to invite people into your home or to ask someone to lunch for the purpose of building a bridge for the good news? At what regular intervals could you do this?
In what ways would you like to grow in your walk with Jesus? Personal devotional time? Meaningful service in the church? Killing specific sins and cultivating specific fruit? What hours can you devote to those things and what do you need to do to create those habits?
What non-essential things currently chewing up your calendar need to be decreased in frequency or removed altogether in order to “make the most of the time”? If we would maximize the value of the time we have left and joyfully account for the hours, we must minimize the squandering of that time on non-essential things.
As we prepare to “fall back,” let us surge forward as good stewards of the time He has given us, looking forward to a healthy return on His investment.
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