The times they are a-changing

That's right, it is time to change our clocks. This weekend we "Spring Ahead" to Daylight Savings Time. I know that many of you who have lived in Indiana for your whole life are still getting adjusted to this new idea of changing clocks instead of time zones, and I know some of you don't really like it, but regardless of whether we like it or not, it is still "time to change."

My only question is, why does the time change happen at 2:00 a.m. on Saturday night? Why Saturday? Why not Friday or Monday? And what is special about 2? Why not Midnight or 1? I think most of us probably change our clocks before we go to bed anyway. At least I hope we do, or else we might find ourselves being late for church on Sunday morning. And that gets us to one of the reasons for writing this blog. I wanted to remind us all that this is happening, so that we don't forget and find ourselves showing up for church an hour late. So please remember, before you go to bed on Saturday night, that it is "time to change."

So since we are springing ahead one hour, that means that we will have an extra hour of daylight in the evenings. Hence the name, "Daylight Savings Time." I know that it means that it will be a little bit darker when we get up in the morning, but think of all the wonderful daylight that will be available to us in the evening. And with that in mind, that brings me to my second reason for writing this blog. I have a great suggestion for us to make use of that extra hour of daylight in the evenings. Let's make it a point to get outside and connect with our neighbors. That extra hour of daylight in the evening means that when we get home from work there is still time to take a walk, or play with the kids in the front yard, or do some yardwork, or even just sit outside and read a book. And one of the things that I have found is that if we spend that time outside, many times we will find some of our neighbors doing the same thing. And it is a wonderful opportunity to connect with them.

As we talked about last week, we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. And in order to love them like that, we first need to have a relationship with them. So let's make it a point to use that extra hour of daylight to put ourselves in position to connect with our neighbors so that God can use us to love them.