"Be devoted to one another in love. Honour one another above yourselves." Romans 12:10 (NIV)
I was ‘that girl’ in a restaurant recently. There I sat, alone, trying desperately not to look alone, at a table for 15. For half an hour. As people kept asking if they could borrow seats.
In a moment of insanity I had forgotten that my friends are always, always late – and I should have added a good 30 minutes onto our scheduled arrival time. True to form, the other 14 arrived en masse half an hour later, and we began our lovely evening.
Don’t think that I am a saint – more often than not I’m on the other side of the time-keeping spectrum. I’m the one who wanders into work 30 seconds past my start time (on a good day), who texts ahead to say that my journey has been ‘disrupted’ by an unnameable disaster, and who can never, ever be on time for church – no matter when it starts.
In those rare moments when I am on time and others are not, I’m reminded how little we value punctuality in our culture, and how much technology is a crutch for our lack of care.
I know I should be on time. I want to be on time. But why is it so important that we are, as Christians?
1. Jesus said we should prefer others to ourselves. Leaving someone hanging around and waiting for you so that you can check Facebook just one last time reveals that you care more about yourself than the other person. Being on time is a simple way to put others first.
2. It reveals your integrity. If we agree to arrive somewhere at midday and turn up half an hour later, we have not been true to our word. Integrity means doing what we say we will do, and excuses don’t help!
Phoebe Thompson
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Where are we on the time-keeping spectrum? Maybe it’s high time we were on time.
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