Last night

(Thursday night) as we prepared for bed, Daniel made the

statement: "This has been a really long week."

I agreed, and it wasn't even over yet.

What do you suppose causes

us to feel that way? What makes some nights seem eternal

and others go by like a flash, whether waking or

sleeping?

Suddenly, I don't know if I

like the direction into which this column is heading.

I'll tell you why in a minute.

For those of you who do not

know, I will remind you that I almost never have any

predisposed notions about what I'm going to write about

when I sit down each week to type this column. I just get

comfortable in my chair, pillow to my back, barefoot, and

put my finger tips on the keyboard. Then it's like

talking, just kind of rattling off for a bit about what's

been happening during the week, or about what might be

lurking in the recesses of my mind (such thoughts will

occasionally jump at the chance to escape).

So, I am preparing you in

advance, that seems to be what's happening this morning.

The only thing I've really been thinking about since I

woke up is a dream I had about my sister Tamra, a

surgical nurse and about an automobile wreck and a young

man who was killed - all just a dream, but somewhat

haunting as it moves in and out of my mind. The man was

from Ft. Lauderdale or the wreck happened there...

Details are already fading.

Does that bug you, or do

you find it refreshing, the way details of our dreams

fade so fast once we are awake?

In a way, that's what's

happening with the thoughts I keep having about time.

About how fast it seems to pass, or slow. But there's

more to it than that.

I like to watch time-travel

movies; they fascinate me. And I have had far more than

my share of deja vu experiences. You know - when you

find yourself in the midst of an experience or set of

circumstances or a place and you are absolutely certain

you've been there before. Sometimes you (I) even know

what a certain person is going to say next. Then suddenly

the feeling is gone and you are back in the moment.

And that's what I'm getting

at. The moment. Is it relevant? Or, is it exact? Is it

frozen into some inescapable niche designed only for it

in the grand scheme of things, or does it jump around?

How many of you have ever

seen the movie "Somewhere in Time" with Jane

Seymour and Christopher Reeves? For most, that's just a

movie, a delightful though somewhat frustrating love

story. For me, it was yet another reminder that there is

somebody else out there who wonders like I do about the

relevance of time.

The truth is folks have

been thinking like this for a long time. Recall with me

the words of Simon Peter in the third chapter of his

second epistle: "...but do not let this one fact

escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day

is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one

day."

Now, tell me you haven't

ever wondered about the one day and the thousand years...

(By the way, that second letter, all three chapters is

well worth frequent re-reads.)

For whatever reason or

reasons that may be served on to our individual plates,

there are moments when we wonder about many things.

Aren't there?

Some of us enjoy the wonder

of it all while others have no time for such foolishness.

Many are too busy with the moment by moment busyness of

the day to confront such thoughts. Others of us sort of

have no choice but to face the strange thoughts that come

our way, no matter how busy we may think we need to be.

I didn't choose to be me.

Like you didn't choose to be you. But we are who we are,

and we all have those things we wonder about, don't we?

Actually, I think this is

going to be a very interesting day. If you dare, let your

mind wonder after you lay down this publication or turn

off the computer on which you are reading these words.

Just let it wonder. It's a fascinating world in which we

live, and a fascinating day and time...