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A Tale of Two Songs

But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in your hand —Psalm 31. 14-15a

You ever get a song stuck in your head?

Back when I was in college I had one of my worst experiences of this phenomena. For a solid two weeks, I kid you not, I had the same musical phrase repeating in my head. It was "No Time Left For You" by The Guess Who. (If you don't know the song, I invite you to look it up online, but at your own peril!)

I walked across campus for two weeks, during the busiest time of the semester, singing "There's No Time Left For You." How's that for a healthy mantra? I spent every waking hour in a state of mild panic... like I'd run out of time.

Far more recently, I got another song stuck in my head. The group Fountains of Wayne has a great song about a single football play. It starts with the quarterback taking a snap and backing up, avoiding tackles, and ultimately connecting with a receiver down the field to win the big game. The whole thing kind of plays out in this epic slow motion. It gives you a sense of how time slows down during those intense moments, and in fact, the title of this song is "All Kinds Of Time."

Two songs. One that repeatedly tells me I'm running out of time, and the other that continually reminds me I have all the time in the world. Guess which song I preferred having stuck in my head?

That's right. I prefer having all kinds of time. Don't you? Now if only we could control which songs get stuck in our heads! We may not be able to always control that, but what we can do is control the conscious messages we feed ourselves... the scripts we allow to play over and over again. Which message do you send yourself as you go through a busy day? Something frantic about time running out, or something calm, cool, and collected?

Over the years I've had my share of frantic people (lots of them college students) freaking out about all that lies before them... too much to do and not enough time to do it in. Here's what I share with them: God made time. God made time for a reason—so that everything doesn't happen all at once! God gave us time to separate one event from the next, one moment from the moment to follow. If we look at everything coming our way with no perspective, it can look like a massive tangle of football players coming towards us—uh oh. Time's up! But if we step back and gain some perspective we can see room to maneuver, to take one step at a time, to make good choices and good connections. Victory!

In other words, God gave us all kinds of time, so let's use it well. Take a deep breath and repeat it to yourself: "All kinds of time... All kinds of time." You might even download the song if you're interested. Take a step back and survey the field.

Hey—who's that coach on the sidelines, cheering you on?

Guess Who,

Have A Great Week!

Mitch
rmitchelltodd@yahoo.com