In September 2008, time changed for my soul, mind and body. I had my heart attack in late November 2007. After about nine months of recovery, something changed. For me, time began to slow down. The days of the week began to drag along, that I would say, to myself “ … it is only Wednesday .” .There have been weeks when my sense of time returned to normal, but this week has gone very slow.
I shared this with local ministers after it began to happen, and they told me to treat it as a gift from God. Most people experience that life goes by too quickly, so God might be telling you that you have a lot of time, since God saved your life ( my wife, the firemen and the surgeons had something to do with it as well ). That is a great suggestion, but I have not treated it in this way. It still bothers me.
I have asked God for an answer or a response; I have heard nothing. I might not be listening or I might be listening too closely, and missing the obvious answer. But, why can’t I treat it as a gift ? Time in my head and soul has slowed to a crawl, but my mind cannot wrap around it. What might God be teaching me to be about with time being so slow. If I am waiting for an appointment to happen on Friday, it almost never arrives. It is so weird. Does anyone else have this experience, post heart attack or other illness ? A friend has the same feeling for about six months, and then it left his heart, soul and mind.
In Sunday School I heard, over 50 years ago, that the sun and the moon stood still for a moment in time. I found the passage again in Joshua ( a book in the Old Testament ). It says in chapter 10:13, “ So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged its enemies “ The church where I grew up made a big deal, that God could make the moon and the sun stop. If God is God, then God can do anything and everything, so for me it is no big deal that God did it. The question I always ask, is why does God do things. Usually, answers do not come.
So, do I have to avenge my enemies here in Elmira, so that time for me will go faster. That seems like a bad thing to do. Jesus says that I should love my enemies, so I will continue to do that. Maybe I should love my enemies even more. Maybe this might be the thing for me to explore about my life. I might be holding in too much anger, strife and unbelief ? Ouch, I do not want to go there, but I might have too. Thanks for listening.
I will try to treat the slowness of time as gift. What would you do ? What do you do, if you cannot explain or change something that is part of your life ?
Fred Redekop
Ponder Anew 