The Nervous Clock

Have you seen the TV commercial for the Greater Off-Shore Bank and Trust? It’s a scam, a totally fake set-up to see how much personal information people are willing to give a complete stranger. The bait is the promise of $500 given to every person who opens a new account. Then the “bank executive” begins helping the new customer fill out the account application with questions that should cause the applicant to suspect something is not right. Yet they continue to answer questions giving up names, phone numbers and addresses of friends and family, other bank account numbers, credit card numbers including PIN numbers, place of employment and descriptions of personal belongings. One woman was asked for a strand of hair for DNA identification and she willingly gave it. For a pot of stew, people are willing to give up their whole life. The commercial was sponsored by Internet Explorer which claims to keep you safe on the internet by filtering out such scam artists, keeping your personal information safe. Well all I can say is, be sure you know who you give information to these days. Any one who offers you something for nothing is out to take everything you have; word.
Time is of the essence and it seems today everyone has filled their 24 hours with 30 hours worth of stuff to do. And if you don’t think people are in a hurry, or even worse, simply running on cruise control while preoccupied with another task, get a lawn chair and sit at the nearest street corner that has a stop sign and witness how many drivers fail to even attempt to stop at the intersection. I recently nearly broad-sided a vehicle that simply didn’t stop at an intersection. The driver looked but never stopped. I sensed the pending doom and avoided ruining my day. I’m losing more and more trust in my fellow man and my faith suffers because of it. We’re becoming a hard, cold people.
[Matthew 28: 18-20] In his sermon titled, “How to Worry”, Donald Lee tells about the clock that had a nervous breakdown. This new clock was ticking away on the shelf, two ticks to the second like any good, self-respecting clock should tick when it began to think about how times it was going to have to tick. “Two ticks to the second means 120 ticks per minute”, it mused. “That’s 7,200 ticks per hour, 172,800 ticks per day. 1,209,600 ticks per week for 52 weeks for a total of 62,889,200 ticks per year.” Horrors!! Straightway the clock had a nervous breakdown. The clock was taken to a psychiatrist who inquired, “Clock, what’s your trouble?” “Oh doctor”, wailed the clock. “I have to tick so much. I have to tick two ticks to the second and 120 ticks per minute and 7,200 ticks per hour and….” “Hold it”, interrupted the psychiatrist. “How many ticks do you have to tick at one time?” “Oh, I just have to tick one tick at a time”, the clock replied. “Then let me make a suggestion”, said the doctor. “Go home and try ticking one tick at a time. Don’t even think about the next tick until it’s time. Just one tick at a time. That I’m confident you can do.” We become worriers by practicing worry. We can become free of worry by practicing the opposite and stronger habit of faith. Faith is ticking one tick at a time knowing that God will give us strength for the next tick. Every day of your life see yourself as living in partnership and companionship with Jesus Christ. Should you be worried or afraid? We demand too much control of our life, thus we overload our skills and worry about the outcome. God is in control and His guidance should be a comfort to us, in all that we do, every day.