Good Thinking: Saving daylight

Daylight Saving Time! Spring forward, then fall backward. DST – bane or blessing? DST – curse or convenience? How much daylight are we actually saving? Are we really saving time? If so, what in the world are we saving time for? Daylight Saving Time – just whose idea was it anyway?

Some say that Benjamin Franklin deserves the credit, or the blame, for proposing Daylight Saving Time. Not so! He did write an article for the “Journal of Paris” proposing that people should get up earlier and go to bed later, thus extending their hours of daylight.

Daylight Saving Time was first seriously proposed by William Willett in 1907. The British government did not adopt his proposal. It was the German government who actually put Daylight Saving Time into practice during World War I; DST was observed for seven months in 1918-1919. After the War, the German people rebelled at the idea, and DST was soon repealed!

Daylight Saving Time re-surfaced in America in February of 1942. The law was designed to conserve time and energy during World War II. DST was in effect until September 30, 1945. The federal government had no law governing DST; although individual States had the freedom to observe Daylight Saving Time in their jurisdiction. This resulted in total confusion!

In 1966, the Uniform Time Act mandated that DST be observed nation-wide, beginning on the last Sunday in April and ending on the last Sunday in October. The Act was amended in 1986, so that DST begin on the first Sunday in April and end on the first Sunday in October. So it is until today!

Time spent! We talk about spending time, as if it were money in the bank, as if we had earned an amount of time and we could deposit it or store it up for our future use. Not true! God alone is the Creator and Dispenser of time. Time is a gift from God. He deposits 24 hours in our Life-Account every day. We cannot deposit even one second of time into our Life-Savings.

We are to spend that time within a 24-hour period; at the end of that period, the time is gone forever. And we must wait until the next 24-hour period to begin again. We can use the time; we can misuse it. We can spend the time wisely; we can spend it foolishly. We can treasure the time; or we can waste it. And whether we’re on Regular Time or Daylight Saving Time, we still have only 24 hours to spend each day.

We manipulate time! Always for our own advantage! We set our clock forward each Spring; we turn the clock back in the Fall. We have even moved entire months around: the calendar year once had 10 months, and began with March. January and February were added later, and the months were re-arranged for political purposes. Manipulating time gives us the sense that we are in control; we love that feeling. Yes, we can move the clock forward and backward; no, we cannot put that hour back into life, or re-live time that is past. We can control time; we cannot create time!

We are not in charge of life; God is! We would do well to remember that!

Saving Time! What are we saving the time for? Will the time we “save” add anything good to life, or make us a better person? Will the time “saved” be used in ways that glorify the Lord God? Something to think about!