Have you ever heard a song that you have heard hundreds of times, you know it by heart, sing along each time it’s on, and yet all of a sudden it hits you in a different way? I bet we all can say yes to that question. Tonight there was a song on a show that I loved from my teen years, the great 80’s music genre, “Time After Time”. Now I know it is about a love that is changing and life taking a turn. In past that song represented some girlfriends and relationships that were ending. Yet tonight it hit me different. I saw a relationship with Jesus in that song. Maybe it is because where my life is heading and that other aspect of life really has gone by. I went back and listened to the song a few times and looked up the lyrics and i really do see a relationship with Jesus in it.
Hear me out before you think I am nuts. I know I have asked this before in other blogs as well. From how I am hearing it tonight it is a person speaking to Jesus and His reply is in the Chorus of the song. The best way I think to do this is to brake the song apart and explain. The first part of the conversation starts:
Lying in my bed I hear the clock tick,
And think of you
Caught up in circles confusion -
Is nothing new
Flashback - warm nights -
Almost left behind
Suitcases of memories,
Time after -
I know I have had nights laying in bed and kept staring at the clock because I was confused about something. Unsure about where my life is going and having flashbacks of where my life was and memories of both good and bad. Thought how I feel that somehow I missed an opportunity and now feel left behind from a life I was to have. As these thoughts and memories go through my head, I think about God, Jesus and how this all is to be.
The conversation continues:
Sometimes you picture me -
I'm walking too far ahead
You're calling to me, I can't hear
What you've said -
Then you say - go slow -
I fall behind -
The second hand unwinds
For me this is still part of my conversation with Jesus. I am saying I know you see me trying to get somewhere before I am to be there because either I am not ready yet and I have things I should do first or things are not in place yet. Jesus speaks to us but we do not always hear what He is saying. It can be that I just do not want to listen or things around me are blocking His voice. How many times do we get the idea that we have to slow down and not be caught up with the trappings of the world and be on that fast track for money, love etc... Then we finally slow down but yet we still do not get the full message and then we ask for the perfect sign to move on again and we wait and wait and miss it because it was not what we expected or wanted. Then we are not where we need to be and fall behind. Time passes and we are back in that bed staring at the clock filled with confusion.
Next is the chorus and Jesus or Gods response back:
If you're lost you can look - and you will find me
Time after time
If you fall I will catch you - I'll be waiting
Time after time
Jesus is saying that no matter where you are or how lost you feel, just look and you will find Me time and time again. There will not be a time where you look that you will not find Him. He will catch you each time you fall and He will be waiting for you each time. He is not going anywhere. It is hard to think that no matter what He is there because it is so beyond our understanding. His love and forgiveness is eternal and unyielding.
Next is our side of the conversation:
After my picture fades and darkness has
Turned to gray
Watching through windows - you're wondering
If I'm OK
Secrets stolen from deep inside
The drum beats out of time -
When we are lost and in that darkness, we tend to focus more inward and not look outside of our own self to ask for help or call out or pray to Jesus. Not saying we don’t but it may take a bit to do that. It is when some light comes in and its not dark but some light and it is more of a gray or fog around us. Looking through our souls or windows Jesus knows how we are doing but wants us to feel better. I wonder sometimes does He ever wonder if we are really ok. If we are far from Him and sin or secrets are blocking Him from us. Yes, I know He knows but when it is that human side He had when He was on earth that makes me wonder. Jesus knows what we have done even if no one else in the world does. There are no secrets we can keep from Him. Have you ever watched someone from a window, where they do not know you are watching them? They think they are all alone and acts as so. They may be sad, happy, angry etc but you can tell because they think they are alone. The idea of watching from a window puts us at a distance. Not part of the action but removed from it. When we do not ask, speak to or pray to Jesus, that is what we are doing. We are putting Him at that distance and removing Him from our life. We are saying you may watch me but there is a separation between us. So when He is calling out we can not hear Him because of that “glass” between us.
The chorus again is His reply to us. It is same as above. There is nothing He will not do or will not be there for us time and time again.
We say again :
You said go slow -
I fall behind
The second hand unwinds -
How often have I said to Jesus “ But You said..... or I felt You said if I.... or This is what I was....”.. too many to count I bet. How about you? I fall into a cycle where what I thought or what I wanted to hear I listened to and found it to be wrong and I fall behind again. Time passes and I feel lost and confused or stuck in darkness and blame Him for it because “He said”... We have to really listen and act and not wait for those grand huge signs of what we are to do. I have found that often it is a whisper that Jesus speaks to me in. Mainly I think because He knows I need to silent my world to get it and it is a way for me to work on and through it.
The response again is the chorus but at the end of the song this repeats:
Time after time
Time after time
Time after time
Time after time
Time after Time Jesus will be there for us. No question about it. We just have to look to find Him. Now below I put the link to the video and after that the readings. I ask that you listen to it with your eyes closed now and see what you get from the song. You also can
click here to see it.
Until tomorrow, God Bless, and know Time after Time Jesus is there.
Memorial of Saints Cyril, Monk, and Methodius, Bishop
Lectionary: 334
Reading 1
GN 3:9-24
The LORD God called to Adam and asked him, “Where are you?”
He answered, “I heard you in the garden;
but I was afraid, because I was naked,
so I hid myself.”
Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked?
You have eaten, then,
from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!”
The man replied, “The woman whom you put here with me—
she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it.”
The LORD God then asked the woman,
“Why did you do such a thing?”
The woman answered, “The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it.”
Then the LORD God said to the serpent:
“Because you have done this, you shall be banned
from all the animals
and from all the wild creatures;
On your belly shall you crawl,
and dirt shall you eat
all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
He will strike at your head,
while you strike at his heel.”
To the woman he said:
“I will intensify the pangs of your childbearing;
in pain shall you bring forth children.
Yet your urge shall be for your husband,
and he shall be your master.”
To the man he said: “Because you listened to your wife
and ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat,
“Cursed be the ground because of you!
In toil shall you eat its yield
all the days of your life.
Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you,
as you eat of the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face
shall you get bread to eat,
Until you return to the ground,
from which you were taken;
For you are dirt,
and to dirt you shall return.”
The man called his wife Eve,
because she became the mother of all the living.
For the man and his wife the LORD God made leather garments,
with which he clothed them.
Then the LORD God said: “See! The man has become like one of us,
knowing what is good and what is evil!
Therefore, he must not be allowed to put out his hand
to take fruit from the tree of life also,
and thus eat of it and live forever.”
The LORD God therefore banished him from the garden of Eden,
to till the ground from which he had been taken.
When he expelled the man,
he settled him east of the garden of Eden;
and he stationed the cherubim and the fiery revolving sword,
to guard the way to the tree of life.
Responsorial Psalm
PS 90:2, 3-4ABC, 5-6, 12-13
R. (1) In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
Before the mountains were begotten
and the earth and the world were brought forth,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
You turn man back to dust,
saying, “Return, O children of men.”
For a thousand years in your sight
are as yesterday, now that it is past,
or as a watch of the night.
R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
You make an end of them in their sleep;
the next morning they are like the changing grass,
Which at dawn springs up anew,
but by evening wilts and fades.
R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Return, O LORD! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
Alleluia
MT 4:4B
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
One does not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
MK 8:1-10
In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat,
Jesus summoned the disciples and said,
“My heart is moved with pity for the crowd,
because they have been with me now for three days
and have nothing to eat.
If I send them away hungry to their homes,
they will collapse on the way,
and some of them have come a great distance.”
His disciples answered him, “Where can anyone get enough bread
to satisfy them here in this deserted place?”
Still he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?”
They replied, “Seven.”
He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground.
Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them,
and gave them to his disciples to distribute,
and they distributed them to the crowd.
They also had a few fish.
He said the blessing over them
and ordered them distributed also.
They ate and were satisfied.
They picked up the fragments left over–seven baskets.
There were about four thousand people.
He dismissed the crowd and got into the boat with his disciples
and came to the region of Dalmanutha.
