The dreaded loss of one hour of sleep. That is our subject for today: the change to Daylight Savings Time. Technically, you are supposed to change your watches and clocks at precisely 2 a.m. this coming Sunday morning, moving them to 3 a.m. For obvious reasons, I don’t recommend that method. For years I have changed most of my watches and clocks midday on Saturday in order to make a smooth transition into the new time. It works extremely well. Be sure and do this with your bedside clock as well, and you will easily wake up in time to go to church at your usual hour.

Here is the good news in the midst of the bad news. Time change Sunday always heralds the arrival of spring. Following a cold, blustery, and gray late winter here in north Texas, we are looking at a streak of seasonal and sunny weather with the temperatures in the 60’s on most days. I know lots of readers are in colder parts of the country, but I encourage you to celebrate this Sunday as another sign of that which is inevitable. After a bitterly cold and often dangerous winter, we pause to remember that the birthing of new life cannot be stopped. It is built into the rhythm of the universe, the turning of the earth upon its axis, the inevitable tilting that leads to the spring equinox on March 20th. In the northern hemisphere, the earth is warming, new life is arriving, and nothing can stop it. That, alone, should be good news enough to spring forward with passion and joy!

Don Underwood