Losing Hours

Daylight saving time snuck up on me this year. I knew it was coming, and then I forgot. Before I knew it, Saturday was upon us and I could tell before the Cellucci household even came close to going to bed that we would be attending the late Mass the next day.

As I walked out of church the next morning, still dragging from my lost hour of sleep, a fellow parishioner called out to me: “Remember you signed up for 40 Hours Devotion – see you in a little bit!” In a well-intentioned, yet characteristically unorganized move to honor my Lenten goal of spending more time in front of the Blessed Sacrament, I not only forgot about daylight saving time, I forgot about an appointment I made with the Lord a week prior. I raced the family home, realizing that my normal Sunday activities of food shopping, meal prepping, and getting my head on straight for another week of work now needed to be completed in an even more condensed timeline.

As I slung groceries onto the kitchen cabinets, I huffed and puffed. My wife asked me how I could be so exasperated before lunch on a Sunday, and I couldn’t believe the sentence that almost came out of my mouth. “I’ve already lost one hour, and now I’m about to lose…” Thankfully, my eyes know when Tricia’s eyes say, “Slow your roll, Cellucci – think before you keep talking.”

I arrived four minutes late for my scheduled time with Jesus, and gave a friendly head nod to my fellow parishioner, offering a quiet prayer of contrition for the burden this time had become within my mind and heart. As I tried to refocus on the Lord, I couldn’t help but wonder where else in life, leadership, and faith, I tell myself I am losing hours rather than gaining something else? How much of my day feels taken, rather than offered? Whether it’s the time I spend in the car with one of my children, a meeting at work I’d rather not have, or the favors I think I am doing for someone else, how can I ready myself to “gain an hour?” How can I fall back into a posture of gratitude that, regardless of what I think I am giving, the Lord is blessing me with an opportunity for grace beyond my understanding?

The hour of adoration went quicker than it ever had before. After some regret and sorrow with how it started, I had no idea how much I needed the restful quiet with the Lord. Albeit with one less hour, my Sunday felt like it had so much more possibility than when it started. As we continue to readjust to the time and recalibrate our souls during this season of Lent, let’s be sure to remind ourselves and each other that any hours we spend with Him are always hours gained.