What & why

Everyone marks time…whether we realize it or not. It might be the school calendar or the seasons of planting and harvesting. It might be birthdays, anniversaries, Valentine’s Day, the 4th of July, or the start of college football. We all mark time.

And yet, it’s quite easy to lose track of time. The hurried pace of our modern society doesn’t help us here. Stores are open 7 days a week; the internet is open 24 hours a day. Each day is filled with natural rhythms (school, work, practices, exercise, family meals), which are all informing and shaping the way we live. These rhythms aren’t bad, but perhaps we should pay closer attention to our rhythms. Perhaps, we should pay closer attention to the way we mark time.

The way we shape our days is, indeed, shaping us.

For centuries, the Church has allowed the record of the Story of God to orient their lives toward ultimate reality. This marking of time is based on the assumption that the way we shape our time is actually forming and shaping us.

The Christian calendar reflects the storyline of the gospel. Beginning in Advent, the flow of the Church Year tells the story of Jesus:

The seasons of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany take us through the experience of longing for Jesus, his arrival, and the revelation of his glory to us.

The seasons of Lent and Easter help us experience the reality of our own sin, our need for a suffering Savior who dies and rises from the dead to secure our salvation.

The Day of Pentecost and the season of Ordinary Time help us embrace our commission by the Risen Christ who has ascended to the Father and who has poured out his Holy Spirit on the Church, sending us with the gospel to our neighbors and to the nations as we await his return.

The Christian calendar invites us to mark time differently, intentionally. It brings all of creation, with its various cycles, seasons, and hours, into collaboration with the people of God to embody and celebrate the good news of Jesus Christ. There are differing views and approaches to observing the Christian calendar, and there is no biblical mandate to follow this calendar or engage in the practices.

So, our invitation to you is simply this…

Let’s engage God’s story together. Pay attention to the way you mark time and place yourself in spaces to receive the love God is pouring into your heart by the Holy Spirit. One of the most significant ways to inhabit God’s story is to mark time by following God’s story — immersing yourself in God’s story. Let’s do that together!