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In most parts of the United States and some other nations we are in the process of trying to adjust to the new rhythm of our days as a result of moving from Standard Time to Daylight Savings Time. We lost an hour of sleep about 2 AM Sunday morning and now have the time it gets dark and light different in ways that leave us out of sync for a bit. It’s a reminder that more of our life than we consciously think are attuned to a rhythm of one kind or another. The “time change” amplifies that in ways we feel immediately.

Some think the change relates to the farmers and how it influences more harvest time later in the day but research says they would prefer we not make the switch that so much affects the rhythm of farm life from feeding livestock of all sorts to milking cows and more. Growing up on a farm I saw that personally.

The real reason is about savings in energy consumption so daylight aligns during the times most people are awake. The idea dates back to 1895 in New Zealand but the real experiment with using it began in 1916 during WW I to conserve energy for the war effort. It was repealed in 1919 and re-instituted in 1942 during WW II but there was no uniform policy in the United States until 1966 when the Uniform Time Act was passed by Congress. Whatever your feeling about it, it remains a controversial policy with those who differ with it in the dozens of countries where it is practiced. And recently some in the United States Congress would like to keep Daylight Savings Time all year and not “fall back” later in the year. Who knows what the final decision will be.

One of the challenges of the changing of time is how it can affect our circadian rhythm. Light and dark are the biggest influencer of circadian rhythm though not the only ones. It especially impacts sleep and times during the day where we may tend toward less energy or want to take a nap.

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There are many other external rhythms within the universe outside of us that also routinely impact us including the positions of the earth, moon and sun in how they control temperature and other aspects of weather, as well as things like the total eclipse coming up April 8.

Within us there are the rhythms of our heart beats, brain waves, digestive processes, and nearly every organ and system that keeps us moving through our days and nights. When our rhythms shift in any of these, we feel out of sync and can have a health issue that develops. 

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If you are tracking with this theme, it should not be surprising that life can be complex as we are required to navigate multiple different rhythms all at once that tend to be out of our control. Add in what we have or develop as a rhythm based on the schedule we need or choose to follow for work, school, or a long list of other things in our life, it is little wonder that our spiritual lives get out of whack pretty easily. 

The tragic result is that our loss in that area of meditation, silence, solitude and more are the very things we most need to function optimally in the melee of all these other rhythms. It’s also an area the enemies of our spiritual life love as opportunities to upend us in all the other areas that simply work better when our spiritual rhythm is regular and consistent. As mankind has developed more things to make life simpler (machines and technology of all kinds) that has made it harder for us all. Some of us are seemingly highly disciplined but most of us are somewhere else on that continuum.

Disruptions to our usual rhythms are not all bad things. Weddings, job promotions, births, and more affect us. We look to retirement ahead as a time when things will be simpler only to discover for all the pluses that not having a regular work routine is disorienting for a season.

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God knew all along that we needed pauses and rest times in our lives. A reading of the Creation story in Genesis makes that clear when He rests on the seventh day. Too often we don’t even do that now. Over and over again we miss the deep rest within us by not following the original design and our transformation into being more Christlike misses the mark without fighting for better stewardship of time. None of us know how much of it we have allotted to us nor will we ever appreciate the life we’ve been given unless we make a choice to set spiritual rhythms and disciplines be the center of our life. (And that doesn’t mean spending every day immersed in religious activities since that also can be a threat to deep intimacy and rest with the One we worship and say we love.)

Absent a choice to pursue what is most needed – a spiritual transformation – that nourishes and sustains us, we will never pause to reflect on who we are, who God is, and how to experience life to the fullest.

“Jesus seeks to guide his disciples – then and now – into rhythms of solitude, community, and ministry. In such a rhythm, solitude helps us stay attentive to the dynamics of spiritual exhaustion and to attend to the deeper sources before they pull us under. One of the most important lessons I have learned over the last few years is how important it is to have time and space for being with what’s real in my life – to celebrate the joys, grieve the losses, shed my tears, sit with the questions, feel my anger, attend to my loneliness. This ‘being with what is’ is not the same thing as problem solving or fixing, because not everything can be fixed or solved. Rather, it means allowing God to be with me in that place and waiting for him to do what’s needed.” 

Ruth Haley Barton

What will you choose?

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