Last year, I finally looked it up. I mean, if your heart is seeking to take a name in vain every six months, you sort of want to know whose name to use, amiright? The answer is William Willett, the man who I expect has been given his own circle of hell because people like Hitler and Attila the Hun denied that they were as evil as that jerk and refused to share. That’s right — William Willett is responsible for Daylight Savings.
https://time.com/4549397/daylight-saving-time-history-politics/
Did you know that there is a statistically observable spike in deaths every time we change the clock? Literal heart attacks brought on by our messing with God’s good design in the rising of the sun and when He sends it back down, and the changing of seasons (in fact, a dear friend texted this morning that she threw her back out quite painfully doing what? That’s right — changing her clocks. Do you need more proof than this??). The Beloved has an endearing habit (at least that is how I am choosing to classify it) of blaming Daylight Savings every time things go a bit cockeyed: tired kids? Well, sure. They haven’t adjusted to Daylight Savings yet. Burnt the rice and lentils? Dang that Daylight Savings! Poor tomato crop in your garden this year? I can tell you why, you know… the excuse seems to work for about 5 months, and then lo and behold if we don’t have to change the clocks again and the vicious cycle hits the refresh button.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is to have a scapegoat.
Don’t get me wrong — this Willett chap is well-deserving of a few well-spoken epithets, ideally in Wodehouseian parlance (may your roses suffer from green leaf roller infestations and all your hens have the staggers, and the like), the more creative and vehement the better, I say. If we come up short, I am sure we can recruit assistance from mothers with small children. But I am struck in my survey of this particular evil in our human history of how often we are prone to thinking that God was taking a nap when He designed our circumstances, and thus, we can hardly be blamed for stepping in and “fixing” it. And just like with the moving of clocks, so our meddling in what God has clearly laid out for us leads to death.
All sin leads to death, to be sure. Apart from Christ, that is where we are — dead in our trespasses and sins. But I am speaking now to believers, to those who have been brought from death to life, because our meddlesome unbelief and failure to trust God while we try and rewrite His script for us still brings death. Death in your marriage, death in your friendships, death of trust and joy. Suppose you and your husband have hit a bump (you will, you know. Bumps come in all shapes and sizes. Some are caused by sin, like when you give way to irritability and outbursts of anger. Some are caused from the outside, like sickness or job loss. All bumps need Jesus. No bump is made better by you getting creative), and because your heart is smarting, you begin searching the internet to find a psychologist’s approach to whatever is wrong with that man.
Note here what didn’t happen. When you seek the world’s recommendations for marital bliss, you will get a worldly marriage. So what didn’t happen was thankfulness, prayer, a constant (even if heartbroken and blubbering) appeal to the throne of grace for Him to help you love His Word, and to love obeying it, even when it is absolutely not what you feel like doing!
You feel like being sarcastic.
The Word tells you to be tenderhearted.
You want to elucidate all the ways he has failed you.
The Word says to abandon bitterness.
You want to set new rules for your marriage, to build in protections so that you never have to feel hurt again.
The Word says to die to yourself and live to God, and that in Christ, pain is not wasted, but is part of a greater work of refining the junk out of your soul.
The lesson of Daylight Savings is not one that denies the difficulty of the original design. Sure enough, it used more fuel before we jabberwockied the clocks, and you had to submit yourself to God’s rhythms of work based on available light. But then again, His way didn’t kill you. So there’s that. Joy in the Lord, delight in His ways is not a Pollyanna obliviousness about how hard the thing He is asking you to do is. Joy in the Lord steps out in faith that you can be content in every circumstance, because even when every earthly comfort has failed you, has fallen from view, He has not failed you, and He will never leave you. You may not have the light of day that you long for, but you will have the light you need.
You will have the Light of the world.
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