Time is a funny old thing.
You see, I got on the plane in Havana at 9pm, and knew when I got off the time zone would be five hours ahead. ‘Ah ha!’ I thought, I was so tired from the trip around Cuba, that it was easy to convince myself before we took off that it was, actually, 2am.
Or so I thought.
I reasoned if I changed my watch as soon as I got on the plane, my body would have several hours to adapt to the new time zone. However, jet lag it seems, is not overcome by positive thinking, and I have spent the last few days battling its effects!
Time and tide wait for no man.
Time. We try to save it with gadgets and systems; we have microwaves and jets and superfast broadband – all designed to save us time. In Cuba, their relationship with time is somewhat different from ours. Los Cubanos spend much of their days waiting, not worried about time at all. Here in the UK, we get stressed if the lights turn red at an inopportune moment or we miss our slot in the revolving door. There they have just as many hours, minutes and seconds as we do, but they seem to enjoy spending them more than we do. Here, it might be that we are so concerned about saving time, we end up trying to cheat it rather than enjoy it.
Teach us Lord, how short our time is.
This verse from Psalm 90 keeps coming back to me.
Maybe it’s trying to teach me something about the brevity of my life.
Maybe it’s reminding me that I can only spend time. I cannot cheat it, buy it or save it.
And maybe the jetlag teaches me that too.