Time

In 1973 Jim Croce recorded the love song, "Time in a Bottle," which, when realeased after his death in a plance crash, soared to the top of the charts. In the song Jim says that if he could put time in a bottle he would gather all the minutes from now to eternity and spend them all with his loved one. He also laments that there never seems to be enough time to do all the things you really want to, once you find them.

Praise be to God the creator of all things. Thanks be to God the creator of time.

I Confess that, as I look back over my past, there are moments that I would choose to put in a bottle to use in the future for some better purpose. Time I have wasted. Time I have spent that resulted in discord. Time I have spent trying to patch the rifts that resulted from that discord. Time I have spent fulfilling my desires rather than Gods. Time I have spent trivially occupied. I confess that I have not always spent my time as God wishes.

I confess that I am unable to retrieve those moments. They are forever lost.

I thank God for the present. His ever-present present, and his presence in this present. This is the moment God gives to me. Perhaps his greatest gift. He revels in the joy of the moment I give back to him - the moment I choose to spend just being with and in him.

I ask for God's guidance in the future. I ask him to always be with me, helping me to notice those around me who need a loving touch, a kind word, or something more tangible - food, gas, a bill paid. God, show me how to spend the moments I have left in loving and serving you in all that I do.

Now to the eternal, ever-present God be all glory and honor and praise. World without end. World that knows no time. Amen. Amen.