A Note From Tom: March 8th, 2012

Hey, everyone!

Yikes! I usually like to send you some encouragement along with these weekly Triple C announcements. Unfortunately, today I feel I have to begin with a health alert and, yes, I’ll go ahead and call it a health  warning. Your health could be at a slightly elevated risk this week. I’m not sure you know, so I’m telling you: this is the week we turn our clocks AHEAD one hour for daylight saving time!

Wow! The beginning of DST seems like those Christmas decorations at Walmart you see in September! Isn’t it coming earlier and earlier every year?

Actually, it isn’t. Last year we jumped ahead on March 13 and the year before that it was on the 14th. But in 2009, daylight saving time (officially, it’s not “daylight savings time”) was on March 8! I was thinking it happened in April every year...Wrong! Guess I was just confused.

And changing the clock back and forth in spring and fall CAN be confusing! Take f’r instance...

Let’s saying there’s an expecting mom. And let’s say her labor starts on the day in November before they turn the clocks back one hour at the end of daylight saving time. But, this mom doesn’t really care if it’s “spring forward, fall back”...because her mind is focused on something more important! And let’s say she’s expecting twins. And let’s say it’s almost time. As her first baby arrives (congratulations!) the new mom and dad look at the clock and it’s 1.38 am. They name him Jack. “Welcome to our world, Jack!” Then, it’s time for his little sister to arrive! Jill is born at 2:07 am! “Welcome, Jill! Your big brother’s waiting for you!” Except...

The clocks turned back at 2:00! So, technically Jill was born at 1:07! She’s not the little sister! She’s the big sister! By 31 minutes! Even tho’ Jack was born first and “Jill came tumbling after”!

So why does this CCC weekly email come with a health alert? Well, a chronobiological researcher has discovered that the change in the clocks is a mild shock to the system (duh!). “The circadian clock does not respond well to the time change," said Till Roenneberg of Ludwig Maximilans University in Munich, Germany. In fact, researchers in Sweden found that there is an increase in heart attacks immediately after the time change. "More than 1.5 billion men and women are exposed to the transitions involved in daylight saving time," wrote Imre Janszky and Rickard Ljung. "These transitions can disrupt chronobiologic rhythms and influence the duration and quality of sleep, and the negative effects to health last for several days after the time change..."

Wow!

Turning the clock forward and losing that sleep this week is gonna tougher on us than we thought! Altho’ for some of us, if we could really turn the clock waaaaay ahead, it would probably help us sleep!

Sometimes, it’s tough to sleep because you have a problem weighing on you and you don’t know how it’s going to turn out. “Will we be OK? Why is this happening to us?” You go to bed thinking about it and voila’! You turn over and realize it’s 3:17 am and you’re wide awake! But Romans 8:28 says that God is working everything into a beautiful plan! And somehow, some way, that problem that’s got you up is a piece and a part of His plan for you! And He’s going to make good come from it! What if you could turn the clock so far ahead into the future that you could actually see how He is going to make it all come together for good?

Ahhh! Snooze-inducing peace at last!

Miraculously turning the clock that far forward wouldn’t make you lose sleep! It’d make you GO to sleep! It’d help you get more sleep!

Or maybe you can’t sleep because you’re so disappointed in yourself. You feel hopeless. Maybe even a little desperate. “I failed again in the same stupid way! Why did I say/do/think/drink that? Again! Will I ever be different?”

And it’s 2:43. And you’re awake.

What if you could turn the clock ahead now? But not one hour. What if you could turn it ahead so far that you could see yourself the way you’ll be one day after our Lord comes back for us? What if you could see yourself the way you’ll one day be for forever and ever? What if you could see the future You? What if you could get one teeny weeny tiny glimpse of the You you’ll be one day?...The new You! The renewed You! The coming-soon You!  The Daniel 12:3 “...shining like the brightness of the heavens...like the stars for ever and ever” You!

And maybe some of the problems that wake you up at night are a piece of what God is using in that Romans 8:28ing kinda way to get you closer to the You you’re sure to be!

Turn the clocks way ahead in your heart by faith and think about THAT when you hit the pillow!

ZZZZZZZZZZ...zzzzzzzzzz........zzzzzzzz......zzzzzzzz...