Posted 85 days ago
The Story-Formed Calendar
by Tara Malouf, Red Thread Photo
God’s people have always been asked to live in God’s time.
Noah waited for God’s timing for rain
Abraham lived in God’s time waiting for a son
Moses was told to watch for God’s time when the pillar of cloud/fire moved
David trusted God’s timing to make him king
The prophets spoke forth God’s words, knowing that the timing of what they said was in God’s hands. The Jewish nation set up a calendar that kept them within the story of what God had done in their history. Celebrations, observances, and festivals pointed to the fact that they lived in God’s time.
Even Jesus trusted God’s time. From the beginning of his public work to “the hour is near” and “it is finished,” he lived within the hours and minutes, days, and months of God.
I Don’t Have the Time
In our day, we say things like “time is money” and “don’t waste my time.” Perhaps we’ve lost sight of who time belongs to and its purpose in his story. Perhaps, like previous generations, we need to put time back into its proper place. We were not made to be a slave to time, but rather time is to be used to bring our lives back to be centered on our Living King.
We rush, we are hurried; we don’t rest well and when we do, we feel guilty. We do the things we shouldn’t do and leave undone those things that should be done. We are driven by our clocks and calendars until the days and months become a blur. Then say with melancholy, “oh, how time flies.”
Perhaps we need a different way of looking at time.
Can our calendars—those ever expanding giants that overshadow and dominate our lives—can they become a source of reorientation of who we really are and whose we really are? Instead of being a taskmaster, can they point us to living in rhythm with our True Master? Can our calendars in the 21st century teach us to live in God’s time and God’s story?
Story-Formed
The truth is, as people, we are story-formed. We are formed by the ones we love, the ones we believe, and the ones we hear, read and are told. Be it stories about our families, stories in our communities, or stories found in our culture-at-large, we are shaped by the narratives and stories all around us.
This calendar is a tool to help us live a different story. It is a calendar for those who call themselves followers of Jesus because it reorients our lives to the work and life of Jesus in history. It re-tells the narrative of the gospel and encourages us to live—to work, go to school, parent, shop, play—all within God’s story.
Each season encourages something in us and from us. Some seasons call us to a listening quietness, others to celebration and still others to working in intentional ways.
Advent is a season of expectation
Christmas is a season of celebration
Epiphany, a season of illumination
Lent, a season of listening
Holy Week, is a time to remember
Easter is a season of “halleluiahs” and the
Season after Pentecost becomes a season of intentional living in our churches, in our families, in love, in justice and mercy, and in praise and gratitude.
May this calendar be a source of blessing to you as you live within God’s time. May you faithfully hear the stories and tell the stories of God’s great love and redemption. And may the stories happen to you as well, forming you into the likeness of Christ. May the Spirit, this year, take you places you could never have imagined. May the Three—Father, Son, and Spirit—be your constant companion through each season of this year.
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