all the time

I remember it so vividly.  I was standing in the Gap store in Old Town Pasadena, when my heart started racing and I began to hyperventilate.  What was happening?  I was much too young for a heart attack…it was clearly some sort of anxiety.  Agoraphobia?  There weren’t that many people in the store on that particular day, and I had been in several stores before on this shopping trip.  Claustrophobia?  I’d never suffered with that previously.  I’ve even formed strategies for enduring an MRI without any medication. (Close my eyes, don’t fall asleep, sing softly to myself.)

It turns out that what I was experiencing was a mild, but still disconcerting form of Time Anxiety.  Some of the symptoms of this disorder are fretting about lateness, frequently checking clocks or feeling a need to rush.  At this point, my husband would say, “Check. Check. Check.”  For me the potent trigger on that particular day in Gap was that I had teenagers coming home from school and I felt compelled not to leave them alone too long.  I had been away from home for an acceptable duration, and my body was saying, “Time to GO!”

This was not my first anxiety attack, but it was amazing how helpful it was to finally burrow down to the cause.  Once I knew that I was letting time become a tyrant in my life, I could own it, accept it, and work to gradually change it.

My daughter Meredith is clearly aware of the tyranny and the limitations of time.   She has written a book examining the subject…  “All the Time:  Daily Devotions Finding Faith in the Everyday Moments”.  In its pages you will find thoughtful essays and illustrations on how to make the most of your time.  Meredith investigates the role of time in the Bible, shares her own stories and interactions with time and asks you, the reader, to scrutinize how you spend time, probing what God desires for your time.  The book will be available to purchase in March, but you can preorder on Amazon right now.  

I appreciate Meredith’s deep dive into the issue of time, because psychologically Time Anxiety is rooted in the fear of living life without meaning.  However, time is a gift, BECAUSE its very constraints teach us something about God’s meaning and purpose for our lives. 

Love, Liz

To preorder Meredith’s book, click on this link:  https://rstyle.me/cz-n/euat6icivex