It was definitely odd. A seeming relay of an encoded message, a trail of placed symbols to follow at the end suggesting an answer to a question not posed; clues strategically leading to a pause and this series on time.
Time Trapped
A release button on my watch band was missing; clearly the cover had come loose and fallen somewhere. I relied on my wristwatch, a faithful, ever-present and habitual marker of my day’s progress. It had been an anniversary gift, the inscription on the back citing two-and-a-half decades of work service. Just as I had served the company it, too, had served me long and well even with my work tenure these many years gone. But now I couldn’t depress the button to spring the catch open essentially trapping time on my wrist.
For an instrument so heavily relied upon, it was surprising how bothered I felt at not being able to remove it. At the end of a day I could not step outside its circle, seek refuge from its relentless counting or forget about incessant ticking. Also a nuisance was wrapping it daily in Saran Wrap before stepping in the shower.
By the time I visited the watch repair weeks later the seemingly innocuous request of “Do you think you can get this watch off my wrist?” belayed a veiled desperation that seeped out the cracks of a too-tight smile clamped over clenched teeth. My final “Please!” delivered in a high-pitched squeak gave the clerk pause. With a raised eyebrow he looked up, the locked watch on my wrist a clear predicament.
Time Pause
The clues were adding up.
“There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens…” Ecclesiastes 3:1
As the repair clerk struggled with the catch, my immediate attention was on the thin but pointed chisel–if he slipped the end of my time concerns would be assured. As the broken latch parted without ever breaking skin, we both exhaled in relief, the watch slide from my wrist. I was no longer time trapped.
Besides a new band the watch keeper told me the battery needed replacing. He said the better watches you recognize by the second-hand’s performance. When a good watch falters it shows a slight hesitancy in the tick-cycle, it means a low battery–time slows.
That was it wasn’t it? The truth of my situation dawned like the trigger firing on a cuckoo clock abrupt and loud, chiming a trail of clues placed over busy weeks. God had churned within me an acute discomfort, a slight hesitancy in my tick-cycle rebelling against the constraints of time and the rigid conformity of working within her bounds; never allowing space to step outside her circle. The trail led to a place of revelation where time gets re-calibrated and with help its grip eases and even breaks–delivering pause to replenish a depleted battery.
To be continued…
What causes you to pause?